Got this in my recommended videos, this is great use of a machine like this. These are very cheap to pick up now and turn into a great machine for basic use.
I've upgraded two 2008 MacBook Pros to Linux. Swapped out for an SSD and added RAM. Runs like a new machine but with none of the built-in spyware like all new machines.
macOS is only supported for around 3 years before it goes EOL. Running an EOL OS runs risks of not having known security patches available, and developers dropping support for older OSes. For example, Firefox ceased updates based on the macOS version you're using. You can always force an unsupported install using OpenCore Legacy Patcher, but some things aren't as smooth as they were before. For example, my MacBook Pro 13" (Late 2011) with a Sandy Bridge does not function well with Sequoia (no HW acceleration for HD3000 graphics) so it's a really sluggish, and slow experience. On the flipside, my MacBook Pro 13" (mid-2012 unibody) and MacBook Pro 15" (late-2013 retina) work pretty well on it--although the dGPU (nvidia MX150) lost support for it, so it's all going to be running based on the Intel onboard iGPU. Firefox stopped supporting Intel HD3000 graphics which was the iGPU in Sandy Bridge. However, a lightweight distro like MX Linux flies on the same machine flies with GPU acceleration. For a model like the 2013, I'm pretty sure it's a Haswell chip inside. Those fare better on Sequoia, but then again, some things won't work like Continuity that requires BLE introduced in the 2013 Retinas. In short, it's kind of like installing an unsupported Windows 11 install on a ThinkPad X230. The ThinkPad X230 came with Windows 7 support out the gate, and it was pretty quick on it. On Windows 11, it just isn't optimized for an older machine. Sure it'll run, but it's going to be slow. Going the Linux route squeezes as much life out of your hardware in the way that you want it. Plus, you can dual boot OCLP installs with Linux or Windows, so you've got choices.
Got this in my recommended videos, this is great use of a machine like this. These are very cheap to pick up now and turn into a great machine for basic use.
That’s awesome!
I've upgraded two 2008 MacBook Pros to Linux. Swapped out for an SSD and added RAM. Runs like a new machine but with none of the built-in spyware like all new machines.
why mac user not use macos
macOS is only supported for around 3 years before it goes EOL. Running an EOL OS runs risks of not having known security patches available, and developers dropping support for older OSes. For example, Firefox ceased updates based on the macOS version you're using.
You can always force an unsupported install using OpenCore Legacy Patcher, but some things aren't as smooth as they were before. For example, my MacBook Pro 13" (Late 2011) with a Sandy Bridge does not function well with Sequoia (no HW acceleration for HD3000 graphics) so it's a really sluggish, and slow experience. On the flipside, my MacBook Pro 13" (mid-2012 unibody) and MacBook Pro 15" (late-2013 retina) work pretty well on it--although the dGPU (nvidia MX150) lost support for it, so it's all going to be running based on the Intel onboard iGPU.
Firefox stopped supporting Intel HD3000 graphics which was the iGPU in Sandy Bridge. However, a lightweight distro like MX Linux flies on the same machine flies with GPU acceleration. For a model like the 2013, I'm pretty sure it's a Haswell chip inside. Those fare better on Sequoia, but then again, some things won't work like Continuity that requires BLE introduced in the 2013 Retinas. In short, it's kind of like installing an unsupported Windows 11 install on a ThinkPad X230. The ThinkPad X230 came with Windows 7 support out the gate, and it was pretty quick on it. On Windows 11, it just isn't optimized for an older machine. Sure it'll run, but it's going to be slow.
Going the Linux route squeezes as much life out of your hardware in the way that you want it. Plus, you can dual boot OCLP installs with Linux or Windows, so you've got choices.