this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2026
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DeGoogle Yourself
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So, for the first time in sooooo long, I'm down to a single laptop (an M1 air), and it's my dedicate "no tinker" device I use for school. It's also my first ever apple device, and I sort of hate how much I love it. I still prefer Fedora, but I prefer the Mac to Windows.
When I can finally get a second device I can tinker with again, I was debating getting an old Mac and installing Linux, but I only have experience with Linux via old windows machines. I know Linux on Macbooks is a thing, but is it more difficult/less preferable to Linux on a Windows machine for someone who isn't particularly techy?
I'm running Asahi Linux on my M1 Max as my daily driver and absolutely love it. And if you want you can just dual boot and keep a Mac partition.
Been running it since last year, with zero issues so far.
Are you able to do it without dual booting? I was under the impression that apple silicone macs required dual booting for asahi
Indeed you need to dual boot, but you can make the mac partition as small as possible, leaving most space for Linux.
It’s easier to install Linux on my 2012 MacBook Pro than in my 2018 Surface Go 1. With intel macs I think the only problem can be the wifi but it’s fairly easy to solve.
Thinking about following the same approach
It’s kind of the same with fewer distros recommended and extra steps loading drivers for wifi and camera.
Fedora works fairly well on 2015 MacBooks.
With the older Macs, do you have to dual boot like you do with the apple silicon Macs?
Nope, basically like a windows pc with some obscure parts. Reformat and go.
Try Mint or Zorin or just Debian for testing and have wired networking available at first. Really old imacs are good but you should worry about the hdd. Before 2014 or under 8GB RAM use a lightweight desktop environment.
Zorin on a 2013 MacBook Air 1.5gHz i3 with 8GB is usable though power management is clunky. Mint with xfce on a 2008 imac is just fine for basics.
2018 i7 mac mini with enough RAM is pretty great with latest distros. A 27" 2019 iMac would be excellent, 5k monitor for cheap and easily upgradeable RAM. Drive replacement is ridiculous but ifixit sells kits.