I Regret Nothing - Linux on a MacBook

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[NickTarterOKC]

I did this on my old iMac and it is substantially faster than it was running MacOS. It is back to being my daily driver for my office. It is amazing how well Linux does on these older machines.

[DualWieldingDad]

Update: A software update bricked Ubuntu today 😢 Back to the drawing board and maybe a sequel video!

[apistosig]

old unsupported Imacs - max out the ram, insert SSD and install Linux Mint - mint runs flawlessly on the old machines

[Pantherman]

Just a few weeks ago, I bought a used Macbook Air (A1466) For $100 and loaded Debian on it, same story; had to tether the phone to make it work with the internet so I get the drivers to get WiFi to work.

I've only got 256Gig SSD (upgraded from the 128Gig that it came with). If you plan on upgrading the SSD, you can do it with an NVME and a $7 adapter from Amazon. 4Gigs RAM soldered to the board and I forget what the CPU is. I take it with me when i need a computer on the go away from home. I installed lightweight desktop environments on it like XFCE, LXLE and LXQT. It works pretty good with those. Running Htop; the OS itself; XFCE only takes about 815 Megs and that leaves me 3 gigs and some change before it needs to touch a swapfile.

Overall, I am pleased with it.

[stevejohnson]

2017 is astoundingly "new" to me, as my main system runs an i7 2600.

[kyle]

Linux mint and Kubuntu with plasma desktop are one of my favorites

[ijhuana]

Remember to disable startup sound before deleting Apple partition!

[DualWieldingDad]

Cool to see folks still stopping by 👋 maybe I’ll do a follow-up here at some point. Still using this macbook as part of my YouTube workflow. 💻

[hunterthecoyote]

1:05 apple really be cheaping out with ddr3 ram in 2017

[pstrizle]

Please click the install 3rd party video and wifi drivers drivers button during setup at the 2 min 56 seconds mark of this video to avoid giving yourself the unnecessary headaches that happened in this vid involving wifi cutting out. he did not checkbox this button. This checkbox is easy to miss at 2m56s. As long as u click that yur good to go

...good to go other than uninstalling every single preinstalled snap and then reinstall the non snap lagged good version... or find yurself installing a different distro that is non snapped to its core cause u precalculated that this would have been faster than installing ubuntu, uninstall every snap, & finally reinstalling non snap versions of what you wanted to keep

[stormglass]

Glad you're promoting alternatives for older devices. Less e-waste. Older macs can run Windows, Linux, BSD.. You only have to swap out the hdd for a ssd.

[RocketEightEight]

You forgot to mention the camera drivers struggle. Also, my MacAir from 2014 runs good with Zorin, almost too good to the point it always runs hot with the fans at a 100%.

[geoman]

Running Ventura here on my MacBookPro (late 2008)... Dual Boot with latest Linux Mint XFCE....

[mauricioflores]

So you can use iPhone hotspot by using a cable? 😮
I didn’t know that 👌🏻

[sethbessinger]

Awesome video! I have an older MacBook for school, but am certainly thinking of switching my PC to Linux when I can afford new parts!

[poru]

Thanks much for that idea of connecting the iPhone via USB to tether the internet to. Have a 2015 MBA I want to eventually put a Linux distro on but was stumped on how to get on the internet when some distros didn't have the proper wifi drivers out of the gate and I don't have an ethernet to usb connector. Any specific steps you need to do for the iPhone wifi to show up on internet connections when in the Linux distro?
Just subbed.

[laurencejohnson]

Yes, Linux gives older computers a new lease of life, I have tried Ubuntu, but I prefer Linux Mint and Zorin, they are both based on Ubuntu and Ubuntu is based on Debian. Linux Mint also offers LMDE 6 which is based directly on Debian, LMDE 6 is available in both 64 bit and 32 bit.

[codeHacker]

How did you manage to use mouse and keyboard? While installing Linux on Macbook air I coudn't use usb'bluetooth mouse and keyboard. What's the hint?

[ravisarkaria]

Did you get the webcam to work? I did an Ubuntu install on the same model. Works great, but the os won't acknowledge the webcam hardware :/

[Jim-Jam]

This is great.i have an even older macbook pro I've been testing and installed debian on it. It was fiddly getting a distro that ran ok with the built in NVIDIA card and also figuring out the Broadcom wireless drivers, but settled on debian stable using x11. Is real basic and I'm just using a window manager (bspwm) but it makes this old thing useful for a bit longer. +1 for upcycling old gear! Thanks for the vid.