Awesome video mate, and such an important subject... I recently "upgraded" my girlfriends desktop PC to an 11 year old CPU... A core i5 3570K. I bought a newly manufactured Chinese motherboard with modern features (like full PCIe 3.0 4x NVMe storage). These motherboards re-use old chipsets that would otherwise be thrown away as e-waste, but the wear and tear parts like capacitors, connectors etc. are new. The motherboard was bundled with the processor. Other than that I used her old 16GB of DDR3 memory, her old 2TB HDD, her old mITX case and power supply and a new 1TB NVMe SSD. I Installed Manjaro Gnome. And honestly, in everyday tasks the computer is perceptually as quick as my modern Ryzen computer. Personally, I think my partner will be happy with this setup for 10+ years to come... Imagine that she might be using a 20+ year old hardware eventually, an upgrade that cost me 67EUR from her previously 10 year old computer... Which is now our network connected file server for backups.
Thank you for your kind words! What a great upgrade you did - indeed this Manjaro machine would probably easily serve for the next 10 years. My home server is an old PC in Node 304 case that I built entirely from used parts (some free), running Ubuntu Server and it is going very steadily and strongly for 6 years already.
@@PricklyPineapplesProductions Umm, its solid state material, so not likely to wear out. Chips do become unsodered from motherboards but usually the chip itself is fine.
Firstly, I love how you talked about tech waste. Its completely true that a lot of consumers are too obsessed with getting the latest&greatest every single year which is super wasteful (and expensive). I remember when *that specific 2011 macbook* was seen as "the latest and greatest" and was used by an artist i looked up to at the time....just crazy how "2011" is seen as essentially vintage now. Love to see other youtubers repurposing older tech with linux! its the wave of the future imo
Thank you! As someone said on the internet, "Software industry managed to entirely negate several orders of magnitude of performance improvements provided by the hardware industry", which is super sad :)
This is a comprehensive video. 3 Linux Distros into one. Very helpful as I am currently looking for a 2011-2013 Mabook Air to install lInux in it and use it as my daily driver for basic computing. Thank you sir!!!
@@The_Penguin_City Indeed. My 2011 macbook pro i5 / 8GM RAM runs nicely with either Mint or Debian. Though I would suggest the Xfce desktop as a lightweight option, but I have no experience of the one you suggested.
My company takes old hardware from our clients thru a buy back program and give them a discount to buy new hardware. We then take that old hardware and factory reset, clean them and donate them to nonprofits.. we just acquired a bunch of these MacBooks pros 2011. Just happened on this video and now I'm interested in maybe taking one of them and throwing Linux on it 😊 to see how it runs.
That's a great initiative! I'd definitely recommend trying out Linux Mint with MATE desktop environment (there is also an XFCE Linux Mint but it has less features)! Good luck with your company's initiative!
My 2011 macbook pro i5 runs Mint Xfce 22 nicely. Apart from the Broadcom wifi driver, and I have not bothered to fix it as I use only cable connections, it all worked fine straight away.
Great distro comparison! I had a bunch of MPB from 2011-12 and they all got a second live with xUbuntu. I had to tweak a few things though around bluetooth mouse and system sleep when closing the lid but overall I was pleasantly surprised how much hardware support you get out of the box.
Just wanted to say thanks so much for this video: I happen to have almost the exact same laptop: mid-2011 11" MBA and it was both running like garbage and becoming dysfunctional due to the inability to update critical applications as a result of being stuck on OS X 10.13. Tried some different web browsers to try and make things like RUclips playback and Google Maps usable on it, but nothing was working. Decided to research linux distros that I could use, and this video was literally exactly what I needed. After watching, I gave Mint Mate a try and it's an absolute game-changer: not only are the performance issues solved, but shockingly everything works out of the box and at times Linux seems to support devices better than Mac OS did-- even Apple ones. When I plug in my iPhone it mounts like a disk in Linux and I can easily browse the files stored in various iOS applications-- trying to do similar stuff on Mac OS through iTunes was always a nightmare. I should probably see if I can get another battery pack, but otherwise this laptop has received a second life :) Thanks for the work!
Thank you for your comment, Im glad you liked the video and you can use your mba again. Battery packs are fortunately still easy to install on this model - if you check the ifixit guide, it is very straightforward.
I've had a similar experience with a mid-2011 MBP; the only problem I've had is Bluetooth not working (in Mint). It can see some devices, but not make a working connection. It might be the Bluetooth card--I'd be interested how you go.
Thanks a lot for this video! It is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I have a 11" MB Air 2011 here that I'm afraid of going online with due to the fact that there are no security updates anymore. I think I will give Linux Mate a try to have this cute little machine getting used again. 😊 Thanks again!
UPDATE: 1) The latest version of Etcher (1.19.21 ATM) does *not* work on macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra). I found out that Etcher 1.18.12 will do the job (can be found at Etcher's Github page). 2) Don't worry if - after writing the ISO image to a USB stick - macOS complains that the "medium cannot be mounted". This just means that macOS is unable to access the Linux filesystem on the stick.
@@TechFi-te3ik Yes, creating the USB stick was supereasy (once I found the right version of Etcher) and took only around 8 minutes. Testing Linux Mint Mate on my MB Air worked well too.
Thank you for making this. I have a gaming PC but wanted something for writing when I'm out and about. I just ordered a 2015 macbook air 11 to put Mint on. I can't wait to get some good use out of it without breaking the bank or creating any extra waste
My 2013 11 inch Air is all the computer power I will ever need. Shame to Apple for phasing them out on purpose. I will try this soon because it won’t update certain things needed to run latest software. Thank you
I am running Linux Mint 22 on a 2008 iMAC w/Core2 Duo and 4 GB DDR2 RAM and it runs well, considering the age of the machine. Everything works, including Firefox (I had no problem with RUclips), wifi and bluetooth. You are given the option to install the Broadcom drivers, which you must do.
That's a great review of these Linux flavors on a 2011 laptop, taking into account the real-world considerations of the average user. One of which I am. For anyone considering this with a 2011 macbook pro or similar, I can offer the following: I have the 2011 macbook pro i5 / 8 GB RAM / 120 GB SSD. Mint (versions 19-22) with the Xfce Desktop offer about the same performance now as Mac OS X 10.6 did in 2011. Perhaps a little better. The Xfce desktop is apparently a little lighter than the one in this video. I have used only Xfce and cannot say. Also, on the same 2011 macbook pro, Debian 12.7 with LXDE desktop is comparable, though less immediately user friendly (an important point made in this video) than Mint. There is also LMDE which is Linux Mint Debian Edition. Mint is based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian, so I am not sure of the precise advantages / disadvantages of choosing on over another - I am just a user, not a tech' user.
Congratulations for the clear and professional explanation. I have a MBP mid 2010, stopped at high sierra for Apple limit and used with a win10 virtual machine, but the combination is very heavy... 512 GB SSD + 8GB ram made it more performant, but anyway obsolete. Tested on live distro Mint Cinnamon, it seems good enough to install on disk. All the peripherals are working properly, included the keyboard backlight. The only issue is the fan speed, I use in MacOS macs fan control to help in cooling, I'm looking for something like that for linux mint.
Thank you! I did not experience any problems with fans speed - they would go down and up automatically. But there is lot of utilities for linux that allow you to control the fan speed - have you checked those?
Did install Linux Mint on my MacBook air from 2014. I love the idea to not waste mony and don't create completely unnecessary waste and I also have more security and last but not list have more power with minimal RAM.
Security is a great addition. I might also add - with Linux you’re free from any corporations add-ons like “windows bing” or “advertisements” everywhere
It is true that we use devices for the same tasks, I study programming and I really like to play video games, which is why I have a gamer PC with Ryzen 5 5600g 16GB RAM RX 570, dual monitor, and with SSD and HDD (taken from an old PC from 2011 if it's still useful, why not use it rather than throw it away) and I've been testing a 2012 MacBook Air with i5 and 4GB RAM that works well but a little slow, but it's not mine but I love its hardware quality, I want a portable PC to program occasionally on other sites and I'm thinking about a 2012 MacBook Pro for its quality hardware and update it as necessary and if Mac os is slow, change it for Linux, and get a quality laptop at low prices
That’s good thinking. For the tasks of programming could also aim to get a good used laptop PC like a think pad, get a new battery and install Linux on it
Thank you very much for your calm and thoughtful video ("calm", "thoughtful" on RUclips!) I'd be interested to know what the fix for Firefox in Mint was: I've just installed Mint on a 2011 MacBook Pro (with an SSD) and am so happy with it that I've now bought a 2013 Air -- the courier should bring it tomorrow -- and I'd like to know in case I need to do the same. I was very interested in the Geekbench scores: people talk a lot about "lightweight" and "heavy" distros, and it seems to my non-technical mind that the only area where that ought to make a difference is in the Desktop Environment. I can't see why applications should run at different speeds, unless some distros run an abnormal number of background tasks. Your results make me think I'm not badly wrong. Those Apple computers of that era are beautifully made: the Pros are easy to upgrade, and it is possible to upgrade the storage on the Airs with the help of a cheap adapter. I think I might even prefer them to Thinkpads. Oh dear, I think I may be becoming a collector.
Hi Michael, thank you for such a nice comment! Regarding the Firefox fix - it's caused by the fact that newer versions of Firefox depend on the GPU rendering for the webpages and videos and in case of an older machines, that is not very fast. So, the actual fix is shown at the 10:09 - you need to go to the settings ("about:config" in the address bar) and switch gfx.webrender.all from false to true. If that doesn't work - there are other solutions on the web, for example in firefox subreddit or in linux mint one. On the topic of Geekbench - you're completely correct. The same versions of geekbench should measure the same performance regardless of the operating system (since they are supposed to measure the performance of the hardware) and would only depend on how slow the machine is due to the Dekstop environment and the amount of background tasks. Good luck with your new machine!
Good video. you could try Tuxedo OS thats what I run on my Early 2015 Macbook Air (4GB ram). However, this laptop has a new gaming NVME drive and adapter so harddrive transfer rates are double what the original hard drive had.
Nice Video! Good to know I can fall back to Linux just in case. I have an 11“ Air from 2013 which I maxed out back then. That machine went through alot of stuff with me, still love it. I‘m on the current MacOS with Open Core Patcher and dualboot to Windows for some Windows only stuff I need from time to time. Just one comment on the Intro: with a bit work old iPhone 4 or 4s can still be great devices. The battery can be changed very easy and with Jailbreak you can modify lots of stuff which makes them usable as Music- or Audiobook player for Kids, even some old games are possible.
Hey, thank you for the compliment! Keep your air running! 👍🏻 And thank you for the iPhone 4 point - my main gripe with them is lack of security update and the fact that modern apps like a browser and youtube won’t work - not sure if Jailbreak would help there 🤔
@@TechFi-te3ik yes, a lack of security updates and no browser/youtube is one thing which needs to be considered. Perhaps my usecase is a bit special, which is a Media Player for Kids where I can put some stuff on the device. So for this use I don't need Internet (Browser, RUclips, etc). This means I don't worry so much about security and I know what content is on the device which means I don't worry about them picking up unsuited content. The devices are also in constant flight mode which is great for battery life. I only occasionally turn on bluetooth when the wired headphones are too inconvenient. music and audio books are freely accessible. Some movies and TV shows are in an old VLC Version which is protected by a PIN. A couple of games are hidden from the homescreen (thanks to jailbreak) but can be accessed by a spotlight search. Also I just hide everything which can't be used anymore or is not really useful to kids like the stock app etc. So perhaps this is really more repurposing instead of refurbishing :)
@@ChateauScholt Still a very nice use-case - keeping a usable device useful is admirable! I remember I got so excited about Linux phones and Ubuntu touch and all the prospect of having a device and OS that you could fully control and then it all died out and now we only have mainly two mobile OSes which are pretty closed sourced :/
You're living the past with Etcher, today we all use Ventoy which allows you to put many distro on one USB drive. My Ventoy drive has 65 distros on it and I distro hop every weekend. I have 5 m.2 drives in my Linux Box using Pcie adapters. Come into the 21st century with Ventoy! I have tried over 50 distros and always go back to my Linux Mint install. Ease of use and an awesome panel that has dozens of applets that make Mint my daily driver! BTW I have used Linux for over 30 years and have not gone back to Windows since Win10 came out.
I love Ventoy, but I have found that it doesn't work all the time. On a few old machines I have played with, sometimes Ventoy won't install the OS, and I've had to make a single distro USB stick with Etcher (or dd from the file manager). I have no clue why, but I think Etcher is the safe advice for someone doing their first Linux install. Let them discover Ventoy when they get to distro hopping. There's enough new stuff to get used to, so KISS rules.
Thank you for the video! At 9:00 you say that wifi was working during the installation but not in the installed system right? You show a dialog proposing to install the additional driver. Has the dialog automatically popped up or did you have to search for it?
Hey there. Thank you! Actually WiFi was working fine after installation as well, but there was still a suggestion to install the correct driver instead of using the generic one. It “pops up” as part of the “update suggestions”. You can also find it if you go to system updates or similar section in your Linux distro
Thank you! I did not test, but i believe battery performance would be lower due to the fact that any linux distribution is a general OS, while MacOs knows about every hardware it runs on.
Great comparison between all 3. Being new to Linux, was a bit confused as to which versions I should use. Was leaning more towards Mint as it seemed more compatible since I also have a 2011 MacBook Air. Do you think Cinnamon would be too much to run on a 2011 MCB Air?
I'm running Mint with Cinnamon on a mid 2011 MacBook Pro and it's fine, but I do have 6GB RAM (it came to me with 4GB in two sticks, and I had an old 4GB stick lying around). I think the big question with your MBA would be how much RAM it has. IIRC the maximum was 8GB: I like Cinnamon as a desktop, and I'm sure it would run fine with that, but a lot of MBAs came with 2GB and you'd really want a lean desktop, since you can't upgrade the RAM on an Air. But equally, I like Cinnamon because I have spent most of my time on Windows before I moved to Linux, and it's designed to be easy for that transition. Installing a Linux distro on a machine with no important data on it is not difficult, once you know what's going to happen, and the Mint installer is the most straightforward I've ever seen, so you might try all three flavours of Mint for a day each, and see which works best. Your backup routine will have to be perfect, of course, because you wipe the disk clean of everything whenever you do an install; but you backup every day when you're creating files that matter, anyway.
That's so sad seeing so much talented engineering being put in today's apple silicon Macintosh computers and then dealing with irreplaceable SSDs and such..
Indeed! 13- year old CPUs are slow but they are still capable for casual use and that’s what majority of people need their laptops for! What Framework laptops and Fairphone are doing is commendable with regards to repairability and support for their devices and I wish more companies would focus on making reliable and long lasting products. Understandably this goes against their primary business models where selling a whole new device is much more profitable then replacement and upgrade parts :(
@@TechFi-te3ik my main issue with old CPU and x86 for general consumption is power efficiency, too bad we still don't have lightweight arm based laptops widely used as apple silicon models and chromebooks
An enjoyable video!👍👍 Linux Mint Mate is my preference and I use the Opera and Vivaldi browsers, Opera comes with a free VPN., and a free advert and tracker blocker, Vivaldi comes with a free advert and tracker blocker. Zorin OS., Core is another distro which in my opinion is worth trying, it's default desktop resembles Windows 7 but there a several pre installed desktops to choose from, Zorin 17 is the latest version and I did install it on a Samsung laptop, but I could not get the WIFI., to activate until I pressed the reset button on the router, I had Zorin 16.3 installed on my travelling laptop and I used the upgrade to Zorin 17 tab and the upgrade worked without any problems. I have two old Dell 32 bit laptops and I have LMDE 6 installed on those and so far they work well enough, they were my first and second laptops so I like to keep them in working order.
Im the exact same bro. Ive bought 20 Unibody Macs not working and brought them all back. to life for pennies and knowledge to resell or donate to poor kids in my bldg. All my 2010-2011 Macs run sonoma flawlessly via Open Core. All run basremetal Linux perfectly and are veryy usable
@@TechFi-te3ik All these Macs most people think are bricked have TONS of life left. Reset them starting with High Sierra which i think resets the firmware then use Open Core to get them to Ventura or sonoma. New fast SSD and put more RAM and fastest RAM i can. Flawless machines still for a basic user. With Open Core they are fully integrated with your iphone and all the latest apps the hardware can handle which is a lot.. Most would be thrown away as e waste or scrapped for part then thrown away. I havent lost a dime yet and taught myself how to repair them. Most of these with Homebrew installed. I have them al ost more anonymous as any windows machine. Got TOR running in the background helping to keep you safer. All on a 2011 or 2012 unibody 15 inch. Some of these Macs ive got for 15$ on ebay. Not running or even working the sellers "THINK"
@@TechFi-te3ik I ran Lubuntu 22.04 recently on an old Dell E1505 (that's 2006!) and was happy with it. Core 2 Duo T7600 with 4GB of RAM. I haven't tried it on the MacBook yet, perhaps soon. I've got a late 2010 MacBook Air which is chugging High Sierra.
Even Mint Cinnamon would likely have worked well on that machine. One question: on the 2015 MacBook Air (11") I have issues with the Camera in Mint. Did you try the camera on that 2011?
Glad you liked it! You surely can use eGPU through thunderbolt 2, but the data bandwidth will be limited compared to the PCIe slots on the PC. So unless you already have an eGPU lying around, I wouldn't do it :)
@@TechFi-te3ik yeah, I have a 5700 xt and I know those ports are only capable of 20Gb/s of speed, but I think it will still be much better than the current graphics cards on that machine right now. By the way, I can still use egpus(via TB2) if I install Linux on it, right? And thank you for replying my comment!
@@user-lollll I suggest you find a successful online presence of an actual linux distro that runs eGPU on a mac hardware first :) I believe everything is possible, tho
Hello there! I haven't tried to reproduce all the macOS possible gestures there. I know that Mint has quite an extensive customization options and by default a lot of them work - tap instead of click, double tap, three tap to move window.... But I don't know the extent to which you can go :)
@@TechFi-te3ik Of course you know. Like you, I was able to squeeze out all juices off my macbook pro late 2008 (2 SSDs; RAM to max, Linux dualboot, OCLP) but lets be honest - at the moment no distro (out of the box) can beat Apple's gestures capability. But overall I 100% agree - on the same machine Mint performs way better than El Capitan. On this machine via OCLP I was able to install the latest Monterey. Yes, it works, but apparently Mint works better.
@@TechFi-te3ik Specifically, I believe it was Snaps. But I think by now there is a certain caution about any distro that is run by a commercial firm, as its policies are likely to serve the commercial interests of the maintaining company, rather than the interests of the users: Red Hat once it got taken over by Microsoft has got everybody cautious. The Debian edition of Mint is something they describe as a development they have just in case Ubuntu becomes unfriendly in some way. They describe it as something they're working on, but one of the things we love about Mint is that they are a little slow and cautious. I've tried it, and didn't notice any differences in fairly casual use (which is a good thing), except that the installer was not quite as user friendly as the normal one, IIRC, though still fine. Also the kernel was much newer than the one in Mint 21.3, but there is less difference now.
I put a salvaged SSD in a mid-2010 Macbook and installed Linux. Runs like a top, I use it every day. I have given several old PCs similar treatment, with excellent results. SSD will noticeably speed up an old machine. Install 16GB of memory as well. SSDs and parts for old PCs are remarkably cheap. Getting rid of Windows/MacOS is the key. If you need a new machine right away and don't know anything about computers, a Chromebook is the best bet. It just works, and will last for years and years. Windows is the worst option for anything; Macs today are overpriced and badly-made.
Never tried Elementary so I can't rate that one Ubuntu is becoming Microsoft so that is out Linux Mint Cinnamon and LMDE are my faves I installed Mint Cinnamon on a friends Macbook Air from 2015 and she absolutely loves it
I tried LMDE on a macbook air 2011. if you can put up with the turbojet engine sound of the fans that kick in after 2-3 minutes and run full throttle... apart from that, it is reasonable and cheap.
sorry for commenting on older video but wanted to ask how the touchpad is compared to MacOS was, I've heard and read that it diminishes it quite a bit but wanted to hear your opinion on it
Hey there - thank you for your comment! Touchpad worked fine! I did not see any difference compared to my normal day-to-day actions on MacOS. Of course, built-in MacOS gestures don't work under Linux out-of-the-box, but there are plenty of options how you might want to configure your touchpad.
What about battery life? Macbook's battery life wold be horrendous under linux a few years ago. Has it improved? Honestly battery life is the most important criterea for me onec the machine is usable.
This macbook air only survives about 40 minutes on battery when under macos. Under Mint it was kind of similar. You’re correct in saying that battery drains faster under Linux - it lacks optimizations from Apple itself.
Did you encounter any scrolling problems with your distros? Two finger scrolling seems too sensitive. Otherwise it's been great (Ubuntu 24.04 on A1369).
Hey there. No, no problems with scrolling. To be honest, I only used a trackpad for this video - normally i use a bluetooth mouse. But I did not experience any problems with scrolling!
I was given an old imac 2006 that would only go to Lion. I tried & tried to get 64 bit versions of mint suse & other versions of linux to install. The Imac had a 64 bit intel chip, did not want to install. I finally found solution though. I installed 32 bit version of q40s linux it was easy peasy everything works.
@@TechFi-te3ik Imagine using ram as a way to power your PC instead of a HDD or SSD, while I wouldnt do this with an SSD machine, If you have a HDD this is where these kind of OS's shine.
Hello! It's not there by default - only for specific apps, if you install them with a terminal. I think you can enable it if you go to System Settings - Tweaks - Window Control and then click on "Replace maximize with minimize"
I am currently trying to install linux mint mate on my mid 2011 mbair. Whenever i am past the point of selecting the keyboard it tells me that i need more than 8gb storage to install linux. My installation medium is 8gb. Harddisk is 120gb. But its not able to find the built in SSD. Also cannot change any settings in GNU grub at startup. Any suggestions how to make progress from here? Normally this is a 5 min job but apparently not with this mb air. In some forums i have seen that turning off secure boot and EHCI helps. But as said. Cant change anything
On mint? There are different settings for sleep and hibernate (long sleep). In the latter, the computer actually powers down and has to power on again when you open it. Maybe thats what is happening?
Hello i just installed Unbuntu 22.04 on my Macbook Pro 2011 15 inch. I have the problem that the Macbbok now crashes randomly. Should i get Linux Mint Mate or has some one a solution for my problem ?
Hey there. I did not have the same problem with my macbook air. But you could check the logs and see what are the errors macbook is registering before it crashes. And you could always install Mint and see if it fixes the issue!
If I install Ubuntu on a 2011 MacBook Pro, will it be an easy installation? Besides the wifi drivers, is there anything else I need to consider for a full transition?
I think so, as in it should go without any problems. Depending on what you’re using on your macOS in terms of programs, I’d suggest you check what are the alternatives that are present on Ubuntu
@@TechFi-te3ik I essentially want to repurpose this MacBook as a home server/nas/media server. It’s too old to be using as anything daily driver, I’ve put macOS Ventura and Sonoma on it, but it starts up a kernel task that eats up the cpu at about 200% -300% cpu usage while idle. This particular model is one with a defective discreet gpu so eventually it’s going to die on me, especially if I continue to use an external monitor. Which is why I removed the display (it had a crack on it too, still worked perfectly fine though), but I want to use it headless with minimal need for a display. Since apple devices worked well with each other and have screen sharing on the same network I thought it would be ideal to keep with macOS but natively it can only go to high sierra so that’s a security risk and through patches it can go up to date but high cpu. Originally I wanted to try putting openmediavault on it, I’ve seen videos of the OS being installed on Mac minis, but I don’t know if that’s doable on a MacBook Pro in the same way. I’ve also thought about VM’s while using high sierra but most apps won’t support high sierra anymore. So I’m thinking Linux is my best option to still get some use out of this old machine for the purposes I’m wanting
@@TechFi-te3ik well currently actually. I wanted to try running it as a server with macOS so I updated the OS with opencore legacy patcher to get it up to Sonoma. And have docker desktop running containers. I thought it would be easier since apple devices play nice with each other. And for the most part they do. But I keep running into different specific problems with docker desktop, mostly because I’m not accustomed to using docker on Mac. I think Ubuntu would have a better feel to me when using since I got used to it using it quite a bit with a raspberry pi. I’d continue using it on the pi but that carries its own issues, especially with the limited capacity for hdd’s Also, what about instead of Ubuntu, would a Debian distribution be the same process? Cause I would be able to install open media vault if it was that way. I know it’s possible on a Mac mini but not sure if it’s the same with a MacBook
So interesting. I have MacBook air with 2 gb RAM and dual core processor (less then i3). This method can help for it? And if I install to the main hard dusk it will remove macos? I want to make experiment, but afraid about success. Coz I still use this laptop for work 😅
Hi! Yes i think so. It will remove macOS. You can try to disk boot, but be careful with it. Alternatively, you can use an app called Carbon Copy Cloner and make a full copy of the bot disk to an external drive, then validate you can boot from that drive (press alt during laptop startup). In that case of anything will go wrong you can boot again from external drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your drive back to MacBook internal drive.
@@TechFi-te3ik tried on a mba 2015, also a virtual machine with similar hardware as a 2011 mba , i dont know if you can upgrade to 8gb ram in an mba 2011, for sure you can throw in a nice ssd
@@theawesomerb2807 My understanding is that on all MacBook Airs, the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, so memory upgrades are impossible (except for the sort of virtuoso desoldering and resoldering you sometimes see flexed on RUclips). The earlier MBAs can take a PCIE card with an adapter (so it's not quite throwing it in, as you have to look up which adapter works reliably and order it, which takes a little time); but at some date, they changed the fitting of the disk, again, and it's less easy. I can't think of any excuse for not using the industry standard for the SSD, but you can see why soldering the RAM made sense to get the bulk of the computer reduced.
@@theawesomerb2807 If, and only if, you're going for slim as possible (which is good for some use cases, but not all), then you save volume: those SO-DIMM sockets are fairly bulky, and to a standard size, whereas memory modules are getting smaller. It also saves cost, because you only have the soldering process for the RAM, instead of soldering the socket, and then inserting the RAM module (which, heaven forbid, might have to be done by a human). I can imagine, too, that it increases reliability--one less point of failure. Those all have benefits for the user, at a cost (loss of upgradeability); but most users don't upgrade their RAM, so you can see it's a rational choice for many. What is not good is the way that Apple uses RAM and storage as a device for market segmentation. The increment for storage upgrades is way beyond the increase in cost (I first noticed this on iPhones), so for the people who are prepared to spend more on a device, this is what you give them to justify their expenditure (I think that's how market segmentation works--could be wrong).
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Awesome video mate, and such an important subject... I recently "upgraded" my girlfriends desktop PC to an 11 year old CPU... A core i5 3570K. I bought a newly manufactured Chinese motherboard with modern features (like full PCIe 3.0 4x NVMe storage). These motherboards re-use old chipsets that would otherwise be thrown away as e-waste, but the wear and tear parts like capacitors, connectors etc. are new. The motherboard was bundled with the processor. Other than that I used her old 16GB of DDR3 memory, her old 2TB HDD, her old mITX case and power supply and a new 1TB NVMe SSD. I Installed Manjaro Gnome. And honestly, in everyday tasks the computer is perceptually as quick as my modern Ryzen computer. Personally, I think my partner will be happy with this setup for 10+ years to come... Imagine that she might be using a 20+ year old hardware eventually, an upgrade that cost me 67EUR from her previously 10 year old computer... Which is now our network connected file server for backups.
Thank you for your kind words!
What a great upgrade you did - indeed this Manjaro machine would probably easily serve for the next 10 years.
My home server is an old PC in Node 304 case that I built entirely from used parts (some free), running Ubuntu Server and it is going very steadily and strongly for 6 years already.
couldn't a chipset wear out? Why wouldn't they manufacture new chipsets?
@@PricklyPineapplesProductions Umm, its solid state material, so not likely to wear out. Chips do become unsodered from motherboards but usually the chip itself is fine.
Firstly, I love how you talked about tech waste. Its completely true that a lot of consumers are too obsessed with getting the latest&greatest every single year which is super wasteful (and expensive). I remember when *that specific 2011 macbook* was seen as "the latest and greatest" and was used by an artist i looked up to at the time....just crazy how "2011" is seen as essentially vintage now. Love to see other youtubers repurposing older tech with linux! its the wave of the future imo
Thank you! As someone said on the internet, "Software industry managed to entirely negate several orders of magnitude of performance improvements provided by the hardware industry", which is super sad :)
I love how clear and professional your video’s are! 😍
Thank you for your kind words, this is very nice to hear :)
I did this with my 2011 macbook pro. It breath new life to my old laptop
Perfect 👏🏻 keep it running
upgrade it with an SSD if you can , and install sonoma with OCLP ...
How long did it take to boot up during installation
This is a comprehensive video. 3 Linux Distros into one. Very helpful as I am currently looking for a 2011-2013 Mabook Air to install lInux in it and use it as my daily driver for basic computing. Thank you sir!!!
Thank you! Glad it was helpful!
Try mint with cinnamon and desklets, or Kubuntu, those distros are awesome!😊
@@The_Penguin_City thanks a lot.
@@The_Penguin_City Indeed. My 2011 macbook pro i5 / 8GM RAM runs nicely with either Mint or Debian. Though I would suggest the Xfce desktop as a lightweight option, but I have no experience of the one you suggested.
My company takes old hardware from our clients thru a buy back program and give them a discount to buy new hardware. We then take that old hardware and factory reset, clean them and donate them to nonprofits.. we just acquired a bunch of these MacBooks pros 2011. Just happened on this video and now I'm interested in maybe taking one of them and throwing Linux on it 😊 to see how it runs.
That's a great initiative!
I'd definitely recommend trying out Linux Mint with MATE desktop environment (there is also an XFCE Linux Mint but it has less features)!
Good luck with your company's initiative!
it runs great !
My 2011 macbook pro i5 runs Mint Xfce 22 nicely. Apart from the Broadcom wifi driver, and I have not bothered to fix it as I use only cable connections, it all worked fine straight away.
Great distro comparison! I had a bunch of MPB from 2011-12 and they all got a second live with xUbuntu. I had to tweak a few things though around bluetooth mouse and system sleep when closing the lid but overall I was pleasantly surprised how much hardware support you get out of the box.
Thank you!
Just wanted to say thanks so much for this video: I happen to have almost the exact same laptop: mid-2011 11" MBA and it was both running like garbage and becoming dysfunctional due to the inability to update critical applications as a result of being stuck on OS X 10.13. Tried some different web browsers to try and make things like RUclips playback and Google Maps usable on it, but nothing was working. Decided to research linux distros that I could use, and this video was literally exactly what I needed.
After watching, I gave Mint Mate a try and it's an absolute game-changer: not only are the performance issues solved, but shockingly everything works out of the box and at times Linux seems to support devices better than Mac OS did-- even Apple ones. When I plug in my iPhone it mounts like a disk in Linux and I can easily browse the files stored in various iOS applications-- trying to do similar stuff on Mac OS through iTunes was always a nightmare.
I should probably see if I can get another battery pack, but otherwise this laptop has received a second life :) Thanks for the work!
Thank you for your comment, Im glad you liked the video and you can use your mba again.
Battery packs are fortunately still easy to install on this model - if you check the ifixit guide, it is very straightforward.
I've had a similar experience with a mid-2011 MBP; the only problem I've had is Bluetooth not working (in Mint). It can see some devices, but not make a working connection. It might be the Bluetooth card--I'd be interested how you go.
Thanks a lot for this video! It is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I have a 11" MB Air 2011 here that I'm afraid of going online with due to the fact that there are no security updates anymore. I think I will give Linux Mate a try to have this cute little machine getting used again. 😊 Thanks again!
UPDATE:
1) The latest version of Etcher (1.19.21 ATM) does *not* work on macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra). I found out that Etcher 1.18.12 will do the job (can be found at Etcher's Github page).
2) Don't worry if - after writing the ISO image to a USB stick - macOS complains that the "medium cannot be mounted". This just means that macOS is unable to access the Linux filesystem on the stick.
Thank you for this extra info! I hope it worked out well for you.
@@TechFi-te3ik Yes, creating the USB stick was supereasy (once I found the right version of Etcher) and took only around 8 minutes. Testing Linux Mint Mate on my MB Air worked well too.
Thank you for making this. I have a gaming PC but wanted something for writing when I'm out and about. I just ordered a 2015 macbook air 11 to put Mint on. I can't wait to get some good use out of it without breaking the bank or creating any extra waste
Cheers, I hope you will gave success with it!
How did it go for you. I do have a 2015MBA that I want to change to UBUNTU...??
My 2011 MacBook Air with i5 has been running Elementary OS, my 2010 Dell Latitude E6510 is hanging on with Zorin…they both still run smoothly today.
How do you like elementary? I didn’t find it very user friendly tbh, unless the user knows how to install packages on Linux via terminal
Great video! Glad to see Linux giving this computer a new life
Thank you!
My 2013 11 inch Air is all the computer power I will ever need. Shame to Apple for phasing them out on purpose. I will try this soon because it won’t update certain things needed to run latest software. Thank you
Thank you for your comment! Good luck!
I am running Linux Mint 22 on a 2008 iMAC w/Core2 Duo and 4 GB DDR2 RAM and it runs well, considering the age of the machine. Everything works, including Firefox (I had no problem with RUclips), wifi and bluetooth. You are given the option to install the Broadcom drivers, which you must do.
The only useful video I found while trying to revive an old macbook!!
Wow! Thank you for such a nice comment :)
Terrific video. I do have a 2014 MacBook that definitely could be better once I get Mint into it. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for a nice comment! Good luck with your MacBook - keep it running.
Thank you for this comparison. I'm considering experimenting with a Linux partition on a 2008 MacBook, so this was very helpful.
Glad it was helpful! Good luck with your oldie macbook ;)
That's a great review of these Linux flavors on a 2011 laptop, taking into account the real-world considerations of the average user.
One of which I am.
For anyone considering this with a 2011 macbook pro or similar, I can offer the following:
I have the 2011 macbook pro i5 / 8 GB RAM / 120 GB SSD.
Mint (versions 19-22) with the Xfce Desktop offer about the same performance now as Mac OS X 10.6 did in 2011. Perhaps a little better. The Xfce desktop is apparently a little lighter than the one in this video. I have used only Xfce and cannot say.
Also, on the same 2011 macbook pro, Debian 12.7 with LXDE desktop is comparable, though less immediately user friendly (an important point made in this video) than Mint.
There is also LMDE which is Linux Mint Debian Edition. Mint is based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian, so I am not sure of the precise advantages / disadvantages of choosing on over another - I am just a user, not a tech' user.
Congratulations for the clear and professional explanation. I have a MBP mid 2010, stopped at high sierra for Apple limit and used with a win10 virtual machine, but the combination is very heavy... 512 GB SSD + 8GB ram made it more performant, but anyway obsolete. Tested on live distro Mint Cinnamon, it seems good enough to install on disk. All the peripherals are working properly, included the keyboard backlight. The only issue is the fan speed, I use in MacOS macs fan control to help in cooling, I'm looking for something like that for linux mint.
Thank you! I did not experience any problems with fans speed - they would go down and up automatically.
But there is lot of utilities for linux that allow you to control the fan speed - have you checked those?
@@TechFi-te3ik found macfanctld. Works perfecly in Mint. Fans speed is now progressive, following the sensors.Thanks for your support!
@@anacletoasmr2206 I will check it out as well, thanks!
Linux Mint Mate is great for this. If the MacBook Air had 8GB of RAM I would have gone with ultramarine or ZorinOS
Did install Linux Mint on my MacBook air from 2014. I love the idea to not waste mony and don't create completely unnecessary waste and I also have more security and last but not list have more power with minimal RAM.
Security is a great addition. I might also add - with Linux you’re free from any corporations add-ons like “windows bing” or “advertisements” everywhere
Excellent reflection and true. Now I only buy phones / laptops that I can repair
It is true that we use devices for the same tasks, I study programming and I really like to play video games, which is why I have a gamer PC with Ryzen 5 5600g 16GB RAM RX 570, dual monitor, and with SSD and HDD (taken from an old PC from 2011 if it's still useful, why not use it rather than throw it away) and I've been testing a 2012 MacBook Air with i5 and 4GB RAM that works well but a little slow, but it's not mine but I love its hardware quality, I want a portable PC to program occasionally on other sites and I'm thinking about a 2012 MacBook Pro for its quality hardware and update it as necessary and if Mac os is slow, change it for Linux, and get a quality laptop at low prices
That’s good thinking.
For the tasks of programming could also aim to get a good used laptop PC like a think pad, get a new battery and install Linux on it
Thank you very much for your calm and thoughtful video ("calm", "thoughtful" on RUclips!) I'd be interested to know what the fix for Firefox in Mint was: I've just installed Mint on a 2011 MacBook Pro (with an SSD) and am so happy with it that I've now bought a 2013 Air -- the courier should bring it tomorrow -- and I'd like to know in case I need to do the same.
I was very interested in the Geekbench scores: people talk a lot about "lightweight" and "heavy" distros, and it seems to my non-technical mind that the only area where that ought to make a difference is in the Desktop Environment. I can't see why applications should run at different speeds, unless some distros run an abnormal number of background tasks. Your results make me think I'm not badly wrong.
Those Apple computers of that era are beautifully made: the Pros are easy to upgrade, and it is possible to upgrade the storage on the Airs with the help of a cheap adapter. I think I might even prefer them to Thinkpads. Oh dear, I think I may be becoming a collector.
Hi Michael, thank you for such a nice comment!
Regarding the Firefox fix - it's caused by the fact that newer versions of Firefox depend on the GPU rendering for the webpages and videos and in case of an older machines, that is not very fast.
So, the actual fix is shown at the 10:09 - you need to go to the settings ("about:config" in the address bar) and switch gfx.webrender.all from false to true.
If that doesn't work - there are other solutions on the web, for example in firefox subreddit or in linux mint one.
On the topic of Geekbench - you're completely correct. The same versions of geekbench should measure the same performance regardless of the operating system (since they are supposed to measure the performance of the hardware) and would only depend on how slow the machine is due to the Dekstop environment and the amount of background tasks.
Good luck with your new machine!
Excellent review! Thank you.
My pleasure! I am glad you enjoyed it and thank you for commenting!
Good video.
you could try Tuxedo OS
thats what I run on my Early 2015 Macbook Air (4GB ram).
However, this laptop has a new gaming NVME drive and adapter so harddrive transfer rates are double what the original hard drive had.
Nice Video! Good to know I can fall back to Linux just in case. I have an 11“ Air from 2013 which I maxed out back then. That machine went through alot of stuff with me, still love it. I‘m on the current MacOS with Open Core Patcher and dualboot to Windows for some Windows only stuff I need from time to time. Just one comment on the Intro: with a bit work old iPhone 4 or 4s can still be great devices. The battery can be changed very easy and with Jailbreak you can modify lots of stuff which makes them usable as Music- or Audiobook player for Kids, even some old games are possible.
Hey, thank you for the compliment!
Keep your air running! 👍🏻
And thank you for the iPhone 4 point - my main gripe with them is lack of security update and the fact that modern apps like a browser and youtube won’t work - not sure if Jailbreak would help there 🤔
@@TechFi-te3ik yes, a lack of security updates and no browser/youtube is one thing which needs to be considered. Perhaps my usecase is a bit special, which is a Media Player for Kids where I can put some stuff on the device. So for this use I don't need Internet (Browser, RUclips, etc). This means I don't worry so much about security and I know what content is on the device which means I don't worry about them picking up unsuited content. The devices are also in constant flight mode which is great for battery life. I only occasionally turn on bluetooth when the wired headphones are too inconvenient. music and audio books are freely accessible. Some movies and TV shows are in an old VLC Version which is protected by a PIN. A couple of games are hidden from the homescreen (thanks to jailbreak) but can be accessed by a spotlight search. Also I just hide everything which can't be used anymore or is not really useful to kids like the stock app etc. So perhaps this is really more repurposing instead of refurbishing :)
@@ChateauScholt Still a very nice use-case - keeping a usable device useful is admirable! I remember I got so excited about Linux phones and Ubuntu touch and all the prospect of having a device and OS that you could fully control and then it all died out and now we only have mainly two mobile OSes which are pretty closed sourced :/
@@ChateauScholt Yes--in effect turning an old iPhone into a fancy iPod. They're also great for reading e-books. Keep them out of the e-waste.
Magician!
Thank you!
You're living the past with Etcher, today we all use Ventoy which allows you to put many distro on one USB drive. My Ventoy drive has 65 distros on it and I distro hop every weekend. I have 5 m.2 drives in my Linux Box using Pcie adapters. Come into the 21st century with Ventoy! I have tried over 50 distros and always go back to my Linux Mint install. Ease of use and an awesome panel that has dozens of applets that make Mint my daily driver! BTW I have used Linux for over 30 years and have not gone back to Windows since Win10 came out.
I love Ventoy, but I have found that it doesn't work all the time. On a few old machines I have played with, sometimes Ventoy won't install the OS, and I've had to make a single distro USB stick with Etcher (or dd from the file manager). I have no clue why, but I think Etcher is the safe advice for someone doing their first Linux install. Let them discover Ventoy when they get to distro hopping. There's enough new stuff to get used to, so KISS rules.
Absolutely brilliant video.
Thank you for such a compliment!
Thank you for the video! At 9:00 you say that wifi was working during the installation but not in the installed system right? You show a dialog proposing to install the additional driver. Has the dialog automatically popped up or did you have to search for it?
Hey there. Thank you!
Actually WiFi was working fine after installation as well, but there was still a suggestion to install the correct driver instead of using the generic one. It “pops up” as part of the “update suggestions”.
You can also find it if you go to system updates or similar section in your Linux distro
Great video. Thanks. Wondering if you have tested Lubuntu distro. Thanks. Supposed to be leaner and faster than Mint. Thanks
Hey there, thank you!
I haven’t tried Lubuntu but if i might do after your comment!
One big question is left unanswered: battery performance - especially when compared to macOS. Still an interesting video.
Thank you! I did not test, but i believe battery performance would be lower due to the fact that any linux distribution is a general OS, while MacOs knows about every hardware it runs on.
Always You can install tlp
Installed Linux Mint to my Mac Mini late 2012, works great compared to last supported OS Catalina.
You probably could have gotten even better performance with the linux mint xfce since its even more light weight
Yes, i have considered it, but xfce is somewhat limited in terms of software packages and cinnamon offers a very well rounded setup ;)
Great comparison between all 3. Being new to Linux, was a bit confused as to which versions I should use. Was leaning more towards Mint as it seemed more compatible since I also have a 2011 MacBook Air. Do you think Cinnamon would be too much to run on a 2011 MCB Air?
Glad it was helpful! I think Cinnamon would run, but it’s going to be slower, purely because of the graphics requirements :)
I'm running Mint with Cinnamon on a mid 2011 MacBook Pro and it's fine, but I do have 6GB RAM (it came to me with 4GB in two sticks, and I had an old 4GB stick lying around). I think the big question with your MBA would be how much RAM it has. IIRC the maximum was 8GB: I like Cinnamon as a desktop, and I'm sure it would run fine with that, but a lot of MBAs came with 2GB and you'd really want a lean desktop, since you can't upgrade the RAM on an Air. But equally, I like Cinnamon because I have spent most of my time on Windows before I moved to Linux, and it's designed to be easy for that transition. Installing a Linux distro on a machine with no important data on it is not difficult, once you know what's going to happen, and the Mint installer is the most straightforward I've ever seen, so you might try all three flavours of Mint for a day each, and see which works best. Your backup routine will have to be perfect, of course, because you wipe the disk clean of everything whenever you do an install; but you backup every day when you're creating files that matter, anyway.
Thanks for a great vid.
I am glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your comment!
That's so sad seeing so much talented engineering being put in today's apple silicon Macintosh computers and then dealing with irreplaceable SSDs and such..
Indeed!
13- year old CPUs are slow but they are still capable for casual use and that’s what majority of people need their laptops for!
What Framework laptops and Fairphone are doing is commendable with regards to repairability and support for their devices and I wish more companies would focus on making reliable and long lasting products.
Understandably this goes against their primary business models where selling a whole new device is much more profitable then replacement and upgrade parts :(
@@TechFi-te3ik my main issue with old CPU and x86 for general consumption is power efficiency, too bad we still don't have lightweight arm based laptops widely used as apple silicon models and chromebooks
Awesome video. I'm thinking to try Pop_Os on my 2014 Macbook Air. There's no way to use MacOs on that hardware.
Thank you!
Pop Os is a solid operating system, I used to run it as a daily driver several years ago.
I’m curious how well it would run on 2014 air.
An enjoyable video!👍👍 Linux Mint Mate is my preference and I use the Opera and Vivaldi browsers, Opera comes with a free VPN., and a free advert and tracker blocker, Vivaldi comes with a free advert and tracker blocker.
Zorin OS., Core is another distro which in my opinion is worth trying, it's default desktop resembles Windows 7 but there a several pre installed desktops to choose from, Zorin 17 is the latest version and I did install it on a Samsung laptop, but I could not get the WIFI., to activate until I pressed the reset button on the router, I had Zorin 16.3 installed on my travelling laptop and I used the upgrade to Zorin 17 tab and the upgrade worked without any problems.
I have two old Dell 32 bit laptops and I have LMDE 6 installed on those and so far they work well enough, they were my first and second laptops so I like to keep them in working order.
Thank you for your comment! I’ll make sure to give Zorin OS. a look!
I love Linux Mint. Use to run plain Debian too
If you used Ventoy you could just use one USB stick.
Im the exact same bro. Ive bought 20 Unibody Macs not working and brought them all back. to life for pennies and knowledge to resell or donate to poor kids in my bldg. All my 2010-2011 Macs run sonoma flawlessly via Open Core. All run basremetal Linux perfectly and are veryy usable
This is amazing initiative!
@@TechFi-te3ik All these Macs most people think are bricked have TONS of life left. Reset them starting with High Sierra which i think resets the firmware then use Open Core to get them to Ventura or sonoma. New fast SSD and put more RAM and fastest RAM i can. Flawless machines still for a basic user. With Open Core they are fully integrated with your iphone and all the latest apps the hardware can handle which is a lot.. Most would be thrown away as e waste or scrapped for part then thrown away. I havent lost a dime yet and taught myself how to repair them. Most of these with Homebrew installed. I have them al ost more anonymous as any windows machine. Got TOR running in the background helping to keep you safer. All on a 2011 or 2012 unibody 15 inch. Some of these Macs ive got for 15$ on ebay. Not running or even working the sellers "THINK"
Consider a distro with QT. The tables of graphical heaviness have turned. These days, funnily enough, they are more optimized than GTK.
Thanks! Which one would you recommend ?
i have the same question, as i also own a 2011 macbook air!!!@@TechFi-te3ik
@@TechFi-te3ik I ran Lubuntu 22.04 recently on an old Dell E1505 (that's 2006!) and was happy with it. Core 2 Duo T7600 with 4GB of RAM. I haven't tried it on the MacBook yet, perhaps soon. I've got a late 2010 MacBook Air which is chugging High Sierra.
Currently installing mint on 2011 . Its been hours on black screen boot up
Even Mint Cinnamon would likely have worked well on that machine. One question: on the 2015 MacBook Air (11") I have issues with the Camera in Mint. Did you try the camera on that 2011?
Hello. I did try the camera and it worked!
@@TechFi-te3ik Excellent! I think the hardware on the 2015 (and maybe 16 and 17 too?) had some issues unique to those models where Linux is concerned.
This is such a great video! I got a 2015 15 inch MBP, I wonder if I can use egpu via those thunderbolt 2 ports on my machine
Glad you liked it!
You surely can use eGPU through thunderbolt 2, but the data bandwidth will be limited compared to the PCIe slots on the PC. So unless you already have an eGPU lying around, I wouldn't do it :)
@@TechFi-te3ik yeah, I have a 5700 xt and I know those ports are only capable of 20Gb/s of speed, but I think it will still be much better than the current graphics cards on that machine right now. By the way, I can still use egpus(via TB2) if I install Linux on it, right? And thank you for replying my comment!
@@user-lollll I suggest you find a successful online presence of an actual linux distro that runs eGPU on a mac hardware first :)
I believe everything is possible, tho
@@TechFi-te3ik thank you! I will definitely find a way to run egpus on Mac with Linux
linux mint supremacy
Thank you very much for this compare! I have exact the same specs in a 11 inch early 2014 I Was thinking what distro use. I will try mint!
Glad I could help!
Well done! I have one question: were you able (in any distro) to reproduce the touch-pad gestures comparable to ones in macOS?
Hello there! I haven't tried to reproduce all the macOS possible gestures there. I know that Mint has quite an extensive customization options and by default a lot of them work - tap instead of click, double tap, three tap to move window....
But I don't know the extent to which you can go :)
@@TechFi-te3ik Of course you know. Like you, I was able to squeeze out all juices off my macbook pro late 2008 (2 SSDs; RAM to max, Linux dualboot, OCLP) but lets be honest - at the moment no distro (out of the box) can beat Apple's gestures capability. But overall I 100% agree - on the same machine Mint performs way better than El Capitan. On this machine via OCLP I was able to install the latest Monterey. Yes, it works, but apparently Mint works better.
Did you ever consider the LMDE version of Mint? It seems very popular in the last couple years since the Ubuntu controversy
No! Thanks for telling me about it - sounds pretty interesting.
What is the Ubuntu controversy are you referring to?
@@TechFi-te3ik Specifically, I believe it was Snaps. But I think by now there is a certain caution about any distro that is run by a commercial firm, as its policies are likely to serve the commercial interests of the maintaining company, rather than the interests of the users: Red Hat once it got taken over by Microsoft has got everybody cautious.
The Debian edition of Mint is something they describe as a development they have just in case Ubuntu becomes unfriendly in some way. They describe it as something they're working on, but one of the things we love about Mint is that they are a little slow and cautious. I've tried it, and didn't notice any differences in fairly casual use (which is a good thing), except that the installer was not quite as user friendly as the normal one, IIRC, though still fine. Also the kernel was much newer than the one in Mint 21.3, but there is less difference now.
I put a salvaged SSD in a mid-2010 Macbook and installed Linux. Runs like a top, I use it every day. I have given several old PCs similar treatment, with excellent results. SSD will noticeably speed up an old machine. Install 16GB of memory as well. SSDs and parts for old PCs are remarkably cheap. Getting rid of Windows/MacOS is the key. If you need a new machine right away and don't know anything about computers, a Chromebook is the best bet. It just works, and will last for years and years. Windows is the worst option for anything; Macs today are overpriced and badly-made.
Never tried Elementary so I can't rate that one
Ubuntu is becoming Microsoft so that is out
Linux Mint Cinnamon and LMDE are my faves
I installed Mint Cinnamon on a friends Macbook Air from 2015 and she absolutely loves it
Yes its nice when an old device works well again!
I tried LMDE on a macbook air 2011. if you can put up with the turbojet engine sound of the fans that kick in after 2-3 minutes and run full throttle... apart from that, it is reasonable and cheap.
That's interesting - Cinnamon Mint works cool enough to not kick off the fans.
@@TechFi-te3ik nope
sorry for commenting on older video but wanted to ask how the touchpad is compared to MacOS was, I've heard and read that it diminishes it quite a bit but wanted to hear your opinion on it
Hey there - thank you for your comment!
Touchpad worked fine! I did not see any difference compared to my normal day-to-day actions on MacOS.
Of course, built-in MacOS gestures don't work under Linux out-of-the-box, but there are plenty of options how you might want to configure your touchpad.
@@TechFi-te3ik thank you for replying, I'm gonna give Linux a go
What about battery life? Macbook's battery life wold be horrendous under linux a few years ago. Has it improved? Honestly battery life is the most important criterea for me onec the machine is usable.
This macbook air only survives about 40 minutes on battery when under macos. Under Mint it was kind of similar.
You’re correct in saying that battery drains faster under Linux - it lacks optimizations from Apple itself.
I am wondering if NixOS would install OK. That would be amazing.
Never heard of NixOS before! Thanks for telling me about it.
linux M X, a 2008 ASUS laptop with 2GB of memory - the flight is normal, the video from RUclips is playing.
Very nice 😊
Did you encounter any scrolling problems with your distros? Two finger scrolling seems too sensitive. Otherwise it's been great (Ubuntu 24.04 on A1369).
Hey there. No, no problems with scrolling. To be honest, I only used a trackpad for this video - normally i use a bluetooth mouse.
But I did not experience any problems with scrolling!
I was given an old imac 2006 that would only go to Lion. I tried & tried to get 64 bit versions of mint suse & other versions of linux to install. The Imac had a 64 bit intel chip, did not want to install. I finally found solution though. I installed 32 bit version of q40s linux it was easy peasy everything works.
Congratulations! Hope everything works fine.
very good!
Thanks!
Puppy linux or ramdisk stuff would be nice on this thing
What are those?
@@TechFi-te3ik Imagine using ram as a way to power your PC instead of a HDD or SSD, while I wouldnt do this with an SSD machine, If you have a HDD this is where these kind of OS's shine.
@@I401 interesting! thanks
hoo, brother, how did you add "minimize button" in elementary? please, help me out on this one XD
Hello! It's not there by default - only for specific apps, if you install them with a terminal.
I think you can enable it if you go to System Settings - Tweaks - Window Control and then click on "Replace maximize with minimize"
Nice video! I have a macbook air 2010, But the ply problem is keyboard. The (.) and (,) don´t wonk. Any Suggestion for fix this?
Have you configured the type of your kegboard (i.e. uk vs us, etc. correctly?)
I am currently trying to install linux mint mate on my mid 2011 mbair. Whenever i am past the point of selecting the keyboard it tells me that i need more than 8gb storage to install linux. My installation medium is 8gb. Harddisk is 120gb. But its not able to find the built in SSD. Also cannot change any settings in GNU grub at startup. Any suggestions how to make progress from here? Normally this is a 5 min job but apparently not with this mb air. In some forums i have seen that turning off secure boot and EHCI helps. But as said. Cant change anything
Hello there.
Can you try with a thumbdrive that is more than 8gb?
Can you still boot to MacOS?
Any reason Windows 10 wouldn't run via BC?
Hi there. It probably will, but Win10 is also on its way out...
Any issues with your macbook taking forever to wake from sleep? When i open the lid it takes like 15 seconds before the login screen appears
On mint? There are different settings for sleep and hibernate (long sleep). In the latter, the computer actually powers down and has to power on again when you open it. Maybe thats what is happening?
Yes in mint. I've tried those settings but it doesn't seem to resolve.
I can check tomorrow and let you know!
Hello i just installed Unbuntu 22.04 on my Macbook Pro 2011 15 inch. I have the problem that the Macbbok now crashes randomly. Should i get Linux Mint Mate or has some one a solution for my problem ?
Hey there. I did not have the same problem with my macbook air.
But you could check the logs and see what are the errors macbook is registering before it crashes.
And you could always install Mint and see if it fixes the issue!
If I install Ubuntu on a 2011 MacBook Pro, will it be an easy installation? Besides the wifi drivers, is there anything else I need to consider for a full transition?
I think so, as in it should go without any problems.
Depending on what you’re using on your macOS in terms of programs, I’d suggest you check what are the alternatives that are present on Ubuntu
@@TechFi-te3ik I essentially want to repurpose this MacBook as a home server/nas/media server. It’s too old to be using as anything daily driver, I’ve put macOS Ventura and Sonoma on it, but it starts up a kernel task that eats up the cpu at about 200% -300% cpu usage while idle. This particular model is one with a defective discreet gpu so eventually it’s going to die on me, especially if I continue to use an external monitor. Which is why I removed the display (it had a crack on it too, still worked perfectly fine though), but I want to use it headless with minimal need for a display. Since apple devices worked well with each other and have screen sharing on the same network I thought it would be ideal to keep with macOS but natively it can only go to high sierra so that’s a security risk and through patches it can go up to date but high cpu.
Originally I wanted to try putting openmediavault on it, I’ve seen videos of the OS being installed on Mac minis, but I don’t know if that’s doable on a MacBook Pro in the same way.
I’ve also thought about VM’s while using high sierra but most apps won’t support high sierra anymore. So I’m thinking Linux is my best option to still get some use out of this old machine for the purposes I’m wanting
@@TechFi-te3ik well currently actually. I wanted to try running it as a server with macOS so I updated the OS with opencore legacy patcher to get it up to Sonoma. And have docker desktop running containers. I thought it would be easier since apple devices play nice with each other. And for the most part they do. But I keep running into different specific problems with docker desktop, mostly because I’m not accustomed to using docker on Mac. I think Ubuntu would have a better feel to me when using since I got used to it using it quite a bit with a raspberry pi. I’d continue using it on the pi but that carries its own issues, especially with the limited capacity for hdd’s
Also, what about instead of Ubuntu, would a Debian distribution be the same process? Cause I would be able to install open media vault if it was that way. I know it’s possible on a Mac mini but not sure if it’s the same with a MacBook
@@petrosposiedon3210 I do believe it would be the same process on a macbook.
Linux mint is best for these old airs. I have a 2011 11inch MacBook Air with only 2GB of ram and it works flawlessly. Only problem is no ethernet
In case if airport card ever fails, you could still use usb-ethernet adapter also limited to usb2 bandwidth 😅
One I run baremetal Debian raw. one of them Im running Garuda Linux and one Im running Kali Linux. ALL run flawlessly
Webcam is working?
Yes
So interesting. I have MacBook air with 2 gb RAM and dual core processor (less then i3). This method can help for it?
And if I install to the main hard dusk it will remove macos? I want to make experiment, but afraid about success. Coz I still use this laptop for work 😅
Hi! Yes i think so.
It will remove macOS. You can try to disk boot, but be careful with it.
Alternatively, you can use an app called Carbon Copy Cloner and make a full copy of the bot disk to an external drive, then validate you can boot from that drive (press alt during laptop startup). In that case of anything will go wrong you can boot again from external drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your drive back to MacBook internal drive.
Mint is the best
mate , just use sonoma with OCLP ...
Have you tried using Sonoma on an 2011 MacBook air in 2024?
I really doubt it would perform - the hardware just isn’t there.
@@TechFi-te3ik tried on a mba 2015, also a virtual machine with similar hardware as a 2011 mba , i dont know if you can upgrade to 8gb ram in an mba 2011, for sure you can throw in a nice ssd
@@theawesomerb2807 My understanding is that on all MacBook Airs, the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, so memory upgrades are impossible (except for the sort of virtuoso desoldering and resoldering you sometimes see flexed on RUclips). The earlier MBAs can take a PCIE card with an adapter (so it's not quite throwing it in, as you have to look up which adapter works reliably and order it, which takes a little time); but at some date, they changed the fitting of the disk, again, and it's less easy. I can't think of any excuse for not using the industry standard for the SSD, but you can see why soldering the RAM made sense to get the bulk of the computer reduced.
@@michaelwright2986 i still don't unserstand why soldering the ram is a great idea ? (maybe my brain is fried after a long working day lol )
@@theawesomerb2807 If, and only if, you're going for slim as possible (which is good for some use cases, but not all), then you save volume: those SO-DIMM sockets are fairly bulky, and to a standard size, whereas memory modules are getting smaller. It also saves cost, because you only have the soldering process for the RAM, instead of soldering the socket, and then inserting the RAM module (which, heaven forbid, might have to be done by a human). I can imagine, too, that it increases reliability--one less point of failure.
Those all have benefits for the user, at a cost (loss of upgradeability); but most users don't upgrade their RAM, so you can see it's a rational choice for many.
What is not good is the way that Apple uses RAM and storage as a device for market segmentation. The increment for storage upgrades is way beyond the increase in cost (I first noticed this on iPhones), so for the people who are prepared to spend more on a device, this is what you give them to justify their expenditure (I think that's how market segmentation works--could be wrong).
Try pop os
I could, but Its ubuntu based and cosmic is as heavy UI shell as Gnome 3 so it will be like trying ubuntu with a different color scheme.
@@TechFi-te3ik I said Pop OS more as a joke .You should try endeavourOS is arch based and very light weight, you can try too
Whatever Linux Distro you use you gonna have little stupid problems with something stupid, im having problems with suspend and sleep on arch
@@thotratkoceri never heard of that one, thank you!
@@thotratkoceri or when mouse stops working after the 2nd sleep, but not after the 1st or 3rd one :D
Ubuntu runs very nice on Macbook Air 2017! (i5 5350U with HD6000 and 8gb Ram.)
With Proton over Steam u can play windows-games too!