My buddy’s old laptop was useless running Windows 7. I wiped it, put on Linux Mint (MATE), and it’s humming along just fine.
My buddy’s old laptop was useless running Windows 7. I wiped it, put on Linux Mint (MATE), and it’s humming along just fine.
Question for you guys.
How do you know which version to install relative to the hardware? Is it just trial and error?
I have some 13 year old Macs but I’m not sure which distro and version to go with and I’m not keen on spending days figuring it out.
I recall reading another post from some guy who went through like six installs with various problems. Didn’t seem encouraging.
Tell me the specific model of the Mac, and I will give you a specific recommendation for the hardware
Thanks, that’s very kind of you to offer.
I’ve got quite a few older machines. I’m pretty keen to figure out the top four, at least.
Any advice on the following and/or on the method of identifying viable distros and versions in general is very appreciated.
Ok, so, for the 2008-2010 machines, depending on the memory available, you can try Linux Mint, EndeavorOS, or, maaaaaybe (on the ones with dGPUs and more memory), Pop!_OS.
For everything post-2010, Pop!_OS. Maybe Endeavor OS of you happen to like it, but I think Pop!_OS has really done a lot of work to become the new, de facto “where to start with Linux” distro after Ubuntu got enshittified (Linux Mint for older machines)— especially because popOS has a custom-spun NVidia version that is one of the few out-of-the-box distros that “just works” with NVidia cards.
Edit: after some tinkering, you may pick LM over Endeavor for the older ones, or just Endeavor for all. I’ve never used it, so I don’t know how well it will do on older hardware, but LM is great for that.
popOS, on the other hand, is great for hardware that can run it (and a lot can), so check that out. It’s my favorite, and a daily driver in my server and another machine I have, both older Macs.
This is great! Thank you so much for giving me some direction here.
I’m going to give this a whirl on one of the units and see how it goes.