this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2024
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I read this on my 2013 MacBook Air 2013 running EndeavourOS. It runs amazingly well including video meetings.

[–] Chouxfleur 17 points 1 month ago (4 children)

My mid 2013 MacBook air sees more use than any of my other devices.

I bought it for £100 a few years back and haven't looked back.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago (2 children)

MacBook Air club represent!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Can I join this club even though I don't have an Air?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

noice! I guess you had to setup the wifi drivers while connected on ethernet, right?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago

i've only owned one macbook in my life and it too came from the e-waste bin and it worked well for about 5 years.

that's also where i got a lot of hardware that i still use to this day.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not sure if it's e-waste. The CPU should be decent enough for movies and office tasks.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (12 children)

if you wanted to run macOS on this then yes, it would definitely be ewaste

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (3 children)

You have a lot of incredible Macs waiting to be grabbed for cheap after Apple discontinued support.

Before converting my girlfriend’s MacBook Pro to Linux, I never thought it would be possible. I don’t know why but I thought they were some special inaccessible computers.

It’s just a shame the latest ones aren’t upgradeable. Apparently the last easily upgradeable one was the 2012 MacBook and the 2019 MacPro..not sure though..

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I don’t know why but I thought they were some special inaccessible computers.

It's their marketing. Marketing, marketing, bullshit and marketing. Macs get viruses, Macs have vulnerabilities, Macs crash. Doesn't matter how much their indoctrinated fans might claim otherwise, Macs are just weird PCs. In that context, their refusal to allow their owners to control them is all the more jarring and makes owning the older models like you mentioned all the more sensible.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

even if they cannot be upgraded they are incredibly well built (excluding those with butterfly keyboards, steer away from those) and will likely outlive any PC you might have from the same year

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yeah but since they aren’t upgradeable anymore, you’re often kind of limited by the 8gb of RAM they often come with.

It’s also difficult to know how much life an SSD still has in it even if one day I could be tempted by a second hand M Mac and Fedora Asahi..

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (7 children)

i am not expecting any SSD to be worn out unless the previous owner was into heavy workloads, which isn't the case for a lot of mac users. You can technically write over the whole SSD hundreds of thousands of time before losing some capacity. Assuming the OS runs on BTRS you'll be fine as the file system will auto flag bad sectors.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

You can put an NVME ssd into a 2013-2017 MacBook Air or ‘13-‘15 Pro with a $15 adapter

RAM can’t be upgraded on any Mac laptop post 2012

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Picked up some 'busted' laptops from a mate's work clearout (they were decommissioning a building. I also got nine pine64's and two r202s, mate got a full rack cabinet lol)

One new nvme and one disk repair later and i have a pair of vaios

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago
[–] sfxrlz 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Im running my 2015 mbp on the newest macOS and it’s still quite okay.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

It still runs decently, I often forget it's a 10 year old machine. I boot Ubuntu on it for work though, and boot Windows on it for the occasional game. It's a useful machine.

[–] spicytuna62 7 points 1 month ago (3 children)

My wife's 2019 16" MPB is running pretty great. Probably got another 5 years of life left in it. She uses it to watch YouTube and play Sims 4.

My 2016 Acer Aspire V3-372T is hanging in there running Debian. 60 FPS YouTube videos are getting to be too much for it anymore. I may have to put the old girl to rest one of these days.

But hey, it does play Minetest pretty flawlessly.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

We have a 2010 laptop that was useless with Windows. Runs NixOS now. Wife uses it for youtube, zoom calls, email etc. It is super responsive.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

with apple devices, they do have long update periode. But when its over, the device is basically trash.

[–] sfxrlz 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It’s not in the regular update cycle anymore but there is an Open Source tool to patch it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Running even Ventura on a ~~2021~~ 2012 mac air is… MEGA slow

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I've been running Mint and Debian on old hardware too. A Macbook Air 2011 and one from 2015, and a Mac Mini 2014. Mint works great on them AS LONG AS you have at least 4 GB of RAM, especially since it can install the broadcomm wifi driver. Lots of screenshots and images from them here: https://mastodon.social/@eugenialoli/media

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

old hardware [...] at least 4 GB of RAM,

Not that old then...

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Is there anything that doesn't run linux lol?

How many hoops (if any) did you have to jump through to install?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (5 children)

none my dude, it installs just like it would install on a windows machine. the CPU is just a basic intel i7. It would be a different story if this was one of the newest M1x macs...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Asahi Linux

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Someone got Linux to run on an Intel 4004. It does take over a week to boot though. As long as you can connect a sufficient amount of memory to a CPU, it can boot Linux. If the CPU doesn't support Linux, it can emulate a CPU that does.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I recently flashed Mint on a MacBook Air 2012, but WiFi is really unstable and slow. Probably a driver issue. I had worse luck with Debian and Fedora.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

did not test with classic Mint but LMDE has been rock solid with WiFi

[–] willougr 6 points 1 month ago

If you are using an external screen see if wifi improves with it disconnected. This took me far too long to figure out...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Had the same issue on MacBook pro 2012. Solution for me was to use broadcom-wl-dkms in case that might help you as well

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Update 2 months later: this was it. I just didn't know how to install it on Mint. Turns out there's a Driver Manager that you can use. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I just replaced the battery in my wife's 2013 mbp. macos runs like absolute shit on it, so i'm excited to flash linux. I like fedora but thinking i'll start with LDME

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fedora might run well but LMDE will 100%

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Debian will run on anything

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

The best feeling ever!

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