Getting An Old MacBook Air & Installing Linux (Ubuntu? Mint?). Any Advice?

[2112st]

I've been curious about trying this for quite some time, and since the MacBook Airs from early/mid 2010s are so ridiculously cheap, I'd like to give this a try. While I would be using this mostly for writing fiction, I'm curious as to what else can be done with it Mr. ActionRetro had some cool videos on it, and I came across this one just now.

So-is there anything I should keep in mind? Thanks.

 

[PentaxEnthusiast]

I've got a 2011 MacBook Pro with a 2012 MBP logic board in it as my original GPU was dying. I've not run MacOS on it in quite some time; in fact, right now I'm running EndeavourOS (I like Arch, but going through installing Arch on this like I have in the past is a pain with getting all the drivers needed for the hardware and EOS just works) and use it daily. Battery life leaves a lot to be desired, but it's to be expected for a laptop of its age with a power hungry i7 CPU.

I feel as though Ubuntu has lost its way, though plenty of people still love it. I'm a huge advocate for Mint, whether it's the Ubuntu-based version or LMDE; both are solid options! Mint is actually what I was running on the 2011 MBP just before I moved back to an Arch-based OS.

I've also got a 2015 MacBook Air that's running pure Arch with a basic window manager and that's it. Steam is on it and works good enough for older games! Go for it!

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Absolutely give it a shot undoubtedly with so many distros out there that you’ll get ten ppl respond with ten different distros LOL.

I am a fan of MX Linux+XFCE desktop on early Intel Macs. Give a few a try and see which works best for you. I mean they’re all free so why not ? I think MX is pretty great though especially for someone getting into the pool for the first time.

Good luck.

 

[2112st]

What do folks think of running Linux Mint? I'm currently eyeing that one. Again, aside from writing fiction, I'm not sure what else I could do on the Air, but it would be interesting to explore-though I'm not really a game person.

 

[2112st]

BTW, I own a 2012 MacBook Air, and I think it's FANTASTIC. For writers, it's awesome. But I have MacOS on it and want to keep it on there.

 

[PentaxEnthusiast]

I love Mint! I think it's a great beginner distro, as well, for people who want to make a switch from Windows.

 

[YMK]

I've always preferred Mint over Ubuntu.

Ubuntu's default window manager seems to be built around a touch interface. It's nearly unusable with keyboard and mouse.

No drawbacks to Mint. You get the same packages.

 

[Trash80toG4]

Why Mint over Ubuntu, how has it "lost its way?"


edit: AHA! you beat me to the post. I guess I may need to give Mint a try on one the HP ProBooks in the herd. A dock for a third one should be here this week and two docks are set up on my KVM setup right now. Win10 and Ubuntu so far. One came with Win11 installed, pulled that disk right out!