43
Considering Gentoo
(slrpnk.net)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
You'll need to be a bit more specific about the iMac. What year is it?
If it's pre-2017, I'd expect some difficulty with the WiFi. If it's newer, you might have luck with https://wiki.t2linux.org/distributions/gentoo/installation/ . I haven't followed that guide, so YMMV.
It’s a 2015 Retina 27”.
I’m fine rocking Ethernet for the purposes of this experiment.
Go for it then! Gentoo is a blast (if you enjoy this sort of thing) and is surprisingly stable once you get it set up.
One tip, before I forget, is to save your firmware from MacOS before wiping the drive. Unfortunately I don't remember where it's located, and no longer have access to try and find it 😅
You can easily add Wifi with a USB dongle anyway. Hardly a hurdle.