Discussion
(Almost) ready to turn my beloved MacBook Air 2013 - which is gathering dust on a shelf - into a #Linux laptop.
Only problem: multiple people might have swayed me to pick Arch Linux as the distro. #ArchLinux!!! I know NOTHING but from all the Linux memes I've seen over the years, I've always been intimidated by it.
Debating whether to go with it or #Mint or #Ubuntu. Thoughts?
(The job will have to wait till Monday but getting all my ducks in a row)
@_elena I can only say, as a non-nerd: I changed to Linux Mint before Xmas, and so far I cope, more than that: I´m happy! But please, it shouldn´t be even an inch more complicated to keep me happy.
@_elena Linux Mint just works on my 2013 MacBook Pro. I had to load a driver to get the WiFi to work but it was right there on the USB installer distribution. Veronica Explains has a video on how to install it.
@rationaldoge whaaaaaaat ?!?! @veronica has a video about it? Amazing!!! I will check it out ASAP (HUGE fan of her work)
@_elena I've been running Zorin OS on my Asus laptop for a while now, and am a big fan (not that any Linux distro is flawless, there were a couple of driver hurdles) - the Zorin forums are also well trafficked and full of answers if you get stuck.
@LucPestille thank you Luc! I watched a video tutorial about installing Zorin OS on a Macbook Air 2013 and it seemed really easy
You started a distribution war 😱.
My advice is to first try distributions with a "live USB" memory stick :
- it is a good test for hardware compatibility ;
- you can evaluate if the interface and its management are ok for you.
The best distribution is the one you master.
@_elena Mint is very usable - one of the younger folks at our maker meetup installed that on a laptop as his first distro. Arch may be more than what you need (and is very bleeding edge). Decisions decisions! 🤓
@andypiper I'm now debating whether to do Mint or Fedora 😅
@_elena I guess it depends on what you want to do. To *learn* Linux, Arch might be a good way, but just to *use* Linux, I recommend a more out-of-the-box distribution. I'm using Ubuntu for years on my main laptop and I (usually) don't have to tinker around.
@kleisli thanks! I have Ubuntu on my Raspberry Pi 4 and really like it. But I've always heard so many great things about Mint, so I was tempted by it... plus I may one day give that laptop to my child...
@_elena I hear people are often happy with @elementary on their Macs
@_elena
At the moment I got installation problems because of the missing broadcom WiFi driver in Debian.
Ubuntu seems to have this driver in it's sources.
@_elena I have great experience with Fedora and Gnome on old MacBooks. It's user friendly, stable and still up to date. You can even take a look at Fedora Silverblue for an atomic distro is you want to get into a modern way of running an OS.
@_elena Instead of Ubuntu, I would personally go for Debian....
@_elena I'm not sure it supports macs, but CachyOs is basically Arch in easy mode. Especially if you pick Cosmic, KDE or Gnome as your desktop during the (easy, guided) setup.
@_elena Ubuntu is flirting with "AI capabilities", enabling LLM-driven voice-to-text search in the latest version, so I am considering a permanent move away from the land of *buntu.. The current LTS (26.04) does not ride the AI hypewave, so that's at least an option for now.
@_elena My vote? Linux Mint. And don't let the Arch Linux enthusiasts bully you. 😄
Seriously, an old MacBook Air from 2013 is an excellent candidate for a second life with Linux. But I'd choose the distribution based on what you want to get out of the machine.
@_elena Before I swapped to Linux I spent months looking at distros to make a decision what was right for me. I needed something that I could work with, could get started easily, had a large online community to seek help if needed and was heavily customisable. The answer was Mint.
I've had a fair few fights and needed to relearn some stuff but that's no different than with Mac or Windows, just need to find new spaces for support (hence that was important to me in making my decision).
But I'm a proud and happy user of Mint.
@_elena #NetBSD, the #noAI solution