Linux Mint vs macOS

[TheGermanEngie]

Just got this free 2008 Macbook and I have my SSD with Mint on it. Runs well, but is it as optimized for battery/performance as El Capitan? Wondering if the operating systems are equivalently using system resources efficiently.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Nothing will be more efficient on an Apple computer than Apple's OS. But is it enough to worry about? Probably not.

[Tusk2435]

15 minutes ago, TheGermanEngie said:

Just got this free 2008 Macbook and I have my SSD with Mint on it. Runs well, but is it as optimized for battery/performance as El Capitan? Wondering if the operating systems are equivalently using system resources efficiently.

Having had awful past experiences with Linux Mint (compared to ehm every other Linux distro), I'd be surprised if any of the components of the Macbook worked properly driver and compatibility-wise.

9 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Nothing will be more efficient on an Apple computer than Apple's OS. But is it enough to worry about? Probably not.

Agree. Eventhough, probably the Macbook's OG version of OS X would probably be the best experience

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

2 minutes ago, LionSpeck said:

Agree. Eventhough, probably the Macbook's OG version of OS X would probably be the best experience

Though good luck getting anything recent to run on Snow Leopard. 

[Tusk2435]

Just now, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Though good luck getting anything recent to run on Snow Leopard. 

Yeah, I know  but performance-wise, newer OS versions would be too much taxing on the hardware (or at least would slow down in a perceivable way the responsiveness of the machine and its performance). The next version of OS X (which if I recall correctly does indeed support 64bit apps) would probably be the better choice, imo

[TheGermanEngie]

14 minutes ago, LionSpeck said:

Having had awful past experiences with Linux Mint (compared to ehm every other Linux distro), I'd be surprised if any of the components of the Macbook worked properly driver and compatibility-wise.

Agree. Eventhough, probably the Macbook's OG version of OS X would probably be the best experience

There were drivers available for the wireless and 9400 GPU. Had to download via ethernet otherwise everything works great

[Tusk2435]

1 minute ago, TheGermanEngie said:

There were drivers available for the wireless and 9400 GPU. Had to download via ethernet otherwise everything works great

Oh, ok; personally I would suggest any other Linux distro, even Ubuntu, because I've had an enormous amount of issues regarding updates, security, developer negligence, incompatibility, terrible performance (with Peppermint especially, which is just a Gnome 3 port, ugh), but if you don't care about some of this stuff, or if you haven't encountered any issues or incompatibility, that was a nice "buy" after all 

[nanaki]

16 hours ago, LionSpeck said:

Having had awful past experiences with Linux Mint (compared to ehm every other Linux distro), I'd be surprised if any of the components of the Macbook worked properly driver and compatibility-wise.

Agree. Eventhough, probably the Macbook's OG version of OS X would probably be the best experience

huh i have had mostly great experiences with mint over other distros. As for macs in general cpu gpu and i think chip set are all basically pc components. Things like thunderbolt and maybe usb controllers may have some issues. I would not be suprised to see some keyboard related wierdness as well do to macs using a keyboard with power button as part of it. Now i mean with alternate oses in general not just mint. 

 

As for power and resources linux is gen fairly good with both and better over all with cpu gpu ram use than other oses. Power use can see a hit though so beware of that and work with settings and services to get it up to snuff. 

[Tusk2435]

Just now, nanaki said:

huh i have had mostly great experiences with mint over other distros. As for macs in general cpu gpu and i think chip set are all basically pc components. Things like thunderbolt and maybe usb controllers may have some issues. I would not be suprised to see some keyboard related wierdness as well do to macs using a keyboard with power button as part of it. Now i mean with alternate oses in general not just mint. 

 

As for power and resources linux is gen fairly good with both and better over all with cpu gpu ram use than other oses. Power use can see a hit though so beware of that and work with settings and services to get it up to snuff. 

I was thinking about the SMC and other Mac specific components which do not have drivers for other OSes, because they're not supposed to be used with anything different that OS X. But yeah, generally speaking, you should still be able to make most of the components work with both Windows and Linux

[nanaki]

2 minutes ago, LionSpeck said:

I was thinking about the SMC and other Mac specific components which do not have drivers for other OSes, because they're not supposed to be used with anything different that OS X. But yeah, generally speaking, you should still be able to make most of the components work with both Windows and Linux

True the smc is nothing more than a smu pmu so the functions are well known and how it works is also likely well known so drivers are probably pretty widely avail if needed. I know i played with getting mac os working on a more modern hp laptop and osx thought its usbs were thunderbolt ports

Not sure how that one worked but needless to say it did not work so well. Now every thing but usb worked. But that would be my hmm i wonder if ill have issues deal with this. The smc being something pretty damn important im sure devs paid more attention to it than to things like thunderbolt. Windows on mac mac on windows is something that has been done in geek circles for a while now as well as linux so i suspect all the important things are well covered. 

 

A smc with out drivers or bad drivers could be very bad just googled and found this "he SMC has roles in controlling thermal and power management, battery charging, video mode switc..." so uh thermal and voltage control with no drivers = bad if drivers are needed im thinking that probably no and is handled by the bios. With a interface app to control some function from with in os.

 

I would fidle around with one if i had one but eh i don't deal with enough macs and am not known to do so so no one gives me them or ffers me one on the cheap. Funny thing is because i know of all the various flaws they have in motherboard build quality i know how to work around those flaws and have nothing against their hardware build quality. So id not not use a mac book pro with linux on it lol

 

Heres a fun one google image this hp elite book 840 gen 1  they look very much like a mac book

[Tusk2435]

1 minute ago, nanaki said:

True the smc is nothing more than a smu pmu so the functions are well known and how it works is also likely well known so drivers are probably pretty widely avail if needed. I know i played with getting mac os working on a more modern hp laptop and osx thought its usbs were thunderbolt ports

Not sure how that one worked but needless to say it did not work so well. Now every thing but usb worked. But that would be my hmm i wonder if ill have issues deal with this. The smc being something pretty damn important im sure devs paid more attention to it than to things like thunderbolt. Windows on mac mac on windows is something that has been done in geek circles for a while now as well as linux so i suspect all the important things are well covered. 

 

A smc with out drivers or bad drivers could be very bad just googled and found this "he SMC has roles in controlling thermal and power management, battery charging, video mode switc..." so uh thermal and voltage control with no drivers = bad if drivers are needed im thinking that probably no and is handled by the bios. With a interface app to control some function from with in os.

 

I would fidle around with one if i had one but eh i don't deal with enough macs and am not known to do so so no one gives me them or ffers me one on the cheap. Funny thing is because i know of all the various flaws they have in motherboard build quality i know how to work around those flaws and have nothing against their hardware build quality. So id not not use a mac book pro with linux on it lol

Actually, the SMC is meant to be an OS-independent chip that can manage important HW configurations (like fan speeds, voltages, etc) even when the OS is not running; though, it's really important for it to be able to exchange information to the OS to be able to tune performance, quietness (this word doesn't sound that great lol) and to have ACPI sleep mode and such working fine. Though yeah, with such an old machine I expect to find many pf the drivers around, also because at that time Apple wasn't applying so many useless and anti-consumer protection measures to prevent these type of things

6 minutes ago, nanaki said:

Heres a fun one google image this hp elite book 840 gen 1  they look very much like a mac book

Yeah, there's a LOT of laptops that look like Macbooks, *coff coff* Xiaomi Mi book *coff coff*

[nanaki]

6 minutes ago, LionSpeck said:

Actually, the SMC is meant to be an OS-independent chip that can manage important HW configurations (like fan speeds, voltages, etc) even when the OS is not running; though, it's really important for it to be able to exchange information to the OS to be able to tune performance, quietness (this word doesn't sound that great lol) and to have ACPI sleep mode and such working fine. Though yeah, with such an old machine I expect to find many pf the drivers around, also because at that time Apple wasn't applying so many useless and anti-consumer protection measures to prevent these type of things

Yeah, there's a LOT of laptops that look like Macbooks, *coff coff* Xiaomi Mi book *coff coff*

yeh in hps case like mac books it uses a magnesium casing lid etc the casing is part of the cooling. If i was to take and use photo shop or gimp etc to hide the track ad buttons it would look very much like a mac book. But when you actually start to look at the details similarities in look are only surface ones first glance stuff. Things most all notebooks share in common that have flat keyboard/ palm rests. Look at higher end dell xps sonys samsungs chrome books etc. The basic form is identical across the board. But in general mac books are gorgeous looking machines. They can be the oldest mac book pros out and they look sleek even if a inch thick lol.

 

And yeh manus copy each other all the time Sometimes entirely by accident. What people like things that as aesthetically pleasing are similar from 1 person to another. So if you put 2 3 50 designers in 2 3 or 50 different rooms and have them all design a laptop they will tend to have similar looking machines. When it comes to laptops and times i must use track pads i like physical buttons many use a big flat surface with integrated buttons.