Old MacBook Pro - Good For Linux Experimentation?

[Bearded_Ed]

Hi guys,

 

After the Linux challenge I've been curious to dive into Linux and see what it can do. Mainly for a project.

 

At home I have my gaming desktop (Ryzen 1600 + RTX3060 Ti) and then I have a media/storage "server"  HPZ400 running Windows. 

 

I also have a pretty old MacBook Pro that I have installed Windows on before going back to OSX.  I don't really have a use for it right now so I might as well try using it for Linux.

 

Any thoughts on why it wouldn't work? I don't have it in front of me right now, but the latest OS it runs is High Sierra so that should give you an idea of how old it is. 

 

Looking at some variation on Mint

 

Cheers,

 

Ed

 

 

[Kilrah]

Just make a Mint USB drive, boot from it and look at what works/doesn't in the live environment, takes 5 minutes and doesn't affect anything existing. Most likely Wi-Fi won't work.  

[jaslion]

I mean just tell us what macbook it is with it's specs and year of release. That is a lot handier than just high sierra :p.

 

As for linux distro's most run well on intel macbooks but again it HIGHLY depends on which one you have.

[Bearded_Ed]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

I mean just tell us what macbook it is with it's specs and year of release. That is a lot handier than just high sierra :p.

 

Yeah I know sorry!! I don't have it in front of me and honestly can't remember - I wanna say 2010 ish. I will look at it later when I get home from work

 

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Just make a Mint USB drive, boot from it and look at what works/doesn't in the live environment, takes 5 minutes and doesn't affect anything existing. Most likely Wi-Fi won't work.  

Ah great OK, I will try that - no wifi is not really an issue for me - be nice if it worked tho. 

[Lightwreather]

1 minute ago, Bearded_Ed said:

no wifi is not really an issue for me - be nice if it worked tho. 

If you can tether from a mobile device, you could get network to install the drivers

[Kilrah]

Just now, J-from-Nucleon said:

If you can tether from a mobile device, you could get network to install the drivers

Given the age he likely has an Ethernet port anyway. But the issue is that Apple usually likes to use WiFi chipsets that have poor/no support in linux.

[mahyar]

6 minutes ago, Bearded_Ed said:

Ah great OK, I will try that - no wifi is not really an issue for me - be nice if it worked tho. 

if its as old as you say there's a pretty good chance that you won't have any problems

[Bearded_Ed]

12 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Given the age he likely has an Ethernet port anyway. But the issue is that Apple usually likes to use WiFi chipsets that have poor/no support in linux.

Yes, I do indeed have an ethernet port

So that should be no problem.

Don't get me wrong, it'd be nice if the WiFi did work, but it doesn't need to straight away.