Resurrecting my ancient MacBook Air with Ubuntu Linux

I have an old 2010 Macbook Air. Apple dropped support for macOS on it years ago. Can Linux bring it back to life?

After installing Ubuntu 20.04, the experience was mixed, but overall a lot better than I expected! What do you think of the FPV style for this video? Should I try to do some more like it?

I recorded this video a few weeks ago, and am just getting around to uploading it today! I mentioned a couple other videos I was working on, which are out on my main channel:

Contents:

00:00 - The patient
05:00 - Attempt 1 - Ubuntu 24.04
06:09 - Attempt 2 - Safe Graphics
09:33 - Attempt 3 - Ubuntu 20.04
11:44 - First boot
13:15 - Modern Ubuntu on a Core 2 Duo
15:51 - How do you right click?
17:03 - Setting a solid color background
18:06 - Slow but useful

[keest]

I like this First Person POV video. I don't think it would work for every video, but for videos like this, this would be a great idea!!

[ulincsys]

Gnome is a very *hefty* desktop for such an old device. As others have suggested, a lighter distro like Lubuntu, Xubuntu or Mint is really what you want if you're trying to squeeze more life out of an older device.

[jankkhvej]

Two finger click for secondary click is perfect.

[UnscuffedIonian]

SSDs make all the difference.. I had a 2012 Pro lying around too. I added an SSD, slapped proxmox on it and voila, "Mom, we have cloud at home". Besides really loud fans when I hit the dual core cpu with heavy loads.

[gerretchristiansen]

two finger right-click, with tab to click is actually perfect

[Mobile_Dom]

Jeff hating 2 fingers for right click was not on my "cancelling YouTubers" list this year, but here we are :P

[ClockDev]

The FPV on what you were doing were one of the best way to expose it to the public IMHO, and it also looks very well. I think more non-scripted, without complex editing, tinkering around videos on this channel would be pretty good, specially if you have something cool to show but not enough to be in the main channel

[kimlehtinen]

Enjoyed this style of video! Not just FPV, but overall I enjoy this relaxed almost vlog style. Reminds me of good old youtube days.

[biigbyt]

I have a early 2015 Mac Air running macOS Monterey version 12.7.6 and tried both Ubuntu 24.04 and Linux Mint 22 without issue. Both OS's worked right out of the box without any noticeable concerns that an update probably wouldn't take care of. Keep up the great videos and reminding me that I have an old laptop! Seems like yesterday I was buying this thing. She may be old, but she's build right!

[ericmintz]

My recent install of Ubuntu 24.04 on a 2010 MacBook Pro went smooth as goose grease. I installed a new SSD to provide my wife a full back of the original system and never looked back. Once I replace the battery and touchpad (the machine is 14 years old, after all), it will become my knockabout travel machine.

[PCUSE]

Not a Mac dude but since that is a dual core, a lighter distro such as an XFCE like Q4OS might be in order to eek out a bit more performance. Full blown Ubuntu is almost as needy as Windows memory wise.

[CharlieMartorelli]

+1 First Person POV video! I have a 2012 Mac mini running the latest Linux Mint, A 2013 MBP running Kali Linux (latest) and another 2013 MBP running Win 11. These are my older machines and they refuse to die.

[adlp]

These laptops are fantastic. I did similar - upgraded the SSD, replaced the battery and installed Ubuntu. It is mainly used to play Minecraft on (quite serviceably) when the kids have their friends over. It was really simple. Much easier than buying and managing extra Minecraft licenses… 🙃

[taskelam]

Enable tap to click and two finger tapping is a breeze.

[HuyLe-qcjc]

I am prone to motion sickness so can't watch FPV videos. I just close my eyes, listen to the audio, and periodically open my eyes for a sec to check for something significant.

The FPV suites the style of the video. The extensive narration still allows me to follow the content. Thanks.

[Fitz_]

You talk about the regression in laptop design. I think it's because we're less invested in laptops that we were in the early 10's because they sometime were our sole internet devices. Now, we have phones, tablets and for plenty of people, laptops are afterthoughts and manufacturers understand this.

[NicholasMoore]

Great video! Keep doing these kinds of videos. Would also be nice to have an update later to see how it panned out long term. What I like about these videos is seeing you stumble and it helps to see that y'all are human and encounter issues too.

Fan noise might be mitigated by repasting the CPU, another video idea for level2jeff. Maybe pickup some inexpensive upgrades at the same time if you decide to keep your mbair in service. Good job keeping ewaste out of the landfills!

[voltages]

I managed to do a full arch setup on a MacBook Pro 2012 and oh boy it felt solid. Tried then to opencore/legacy patcher a newer version of MacOS and it worked like its native. It's amazing what the community can do

[ewasteredux]

As you were performing actions I felt my fingers gravitating towards the W, A, S, D keys like I was going to be able to control your direction. Fabulous!

[echobucket]

The two finger thing is wild, because I think that's how I actually do it on macOS, I've never used he bottom corner to right click.