Modern Ubuntu is KILLER on old Intel Macs!

Рет қаралды 679,859

10 ай бұрын

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Today we're installing the latest Ubuntu Linux on an old 11" Macbook Air. How does it compare to running MacOS Catalina on it, which is the last officially supported MacOS?
More importantly, which is better for playing Minecraft?
LINKS:
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🍎 Macbook Air iFixit: www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook...
🍎 Battery: amzn.to/3riAAnC
🍎 OWC SSD: amzn.to/3PNxZMS
🍎 Ubuntu: ubuntu.com/
🍎 Classicube: www.classicube.net/
(Amazon links are affiliated links)
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#Mac #Ubuntu #Linux

Пікірлер: 1 300

@lucyinchat 10 ай бұрын

it's gnome4X now.

@ActionRetro 10 ай бұрын

Ah whoops lol. GNOME 44

@zilog1 10 ай бұрын

That new gnome is sexy AF imo.

@andrzejos7003 10 ай бұрын

GNOME 3 called as 4 because of version - this is more true 🙂

@kargaroc386 10 ай бұрын

Now can they make an orthodox gui toolkit now? My computer was not a phone in 2013 and it still isn't a phone today.

@mathman0569 10 ай бұрын

@@kargaroc386 There's KDE with QT if you like, though I don't really mind gnome, I just wouldn't ever use it, plus I want a 2d array of virtual desktops, easy to switch tasks that way

@curious1706 10 ай бұрын

That moment of uncertainty when it doesn't turn on immediately lmao

@blueberrydreams7799 9 ай бұрын

Yeah

@marh122 3 ай бұрын

and calling it "she" for some reason

@michaelmcshane6395 2 ай бұрын

lol, copy that. Been there got the t shirt.

@DouglasWalrath 10 ай бұрын

in classicube the FPS mode was set to limit to vsync, which limits the FPS to the refresh rate of the monitor

@ActionRetro 10 ай бұрын

Ohhhhhhhh that makes sense

@stephanemignot100 10 ай бұрын

@@ActionRetro I lost it when you didn't notice ^

@geraldgutsueii3324 10 ай бұрын

@@ActionRetro same with the vanilla minecraft, it had vsync on

@ActionRetro 10 ай бұрын

@@stephanemignot100 🤣😅

@bjn714 10 ай бұрын

@@stephanemignot100 same and I've never used minecraft in my life! That whole 1s of screen time at 16:22 was enough to instantly spot the issue.

@tarajoe07 10 ай бұрын

I used a MacBook air for a time and discovered that MacOS would stop even trying to run a network stack if you changed static IP addresses. I promptly installed Ubuntu on it and was floored how much better of an OS it was for the hardware. The battery life was almost double

@blueberrydreams7799 9 ай бұрын

Interesting

@jsalsman 9 ай бұрын

Plain Debian is even better, 10%ish.

@TheSulross 8 ай бұрын

goes to show that the MacOS kernel architecture is a just sh*tshow - and Apple has dropped back on GUIs too - I find my Ubuntu Gnome desktop way more effective to use (especially virtual desktops) than the spouse's contemporary MacOS experience (which I maintain for her)

@SnakebitSTI 8 ай бұрын

Apple has a bad habit of including changes in updates that strangle old hardware.

@johnlozauskas778 8 ай бұрын

Good Morning All, my notebooks of choice have always been Dell for the simple fact over the last 15 years I've done a lot of migrations and it was usually Dell be replaced by Lenovo. The companies would throw out these awesome machines and they would usually let me take 1 or 2. Putting Endevour or Mint on an old laptop makes it scream with speed. Whereas bloated windows would need much more resources.

@golimonkey 10 ай бұрын

PS. For some reason Minecraft f3 debug screen is known to kill a few frames on old pcs. It really runs smoother if you disable it.

@AntiGrieferGames 10 ай бұрын

Yes, same on windows, no matter how good pc/laptop are.

@supergeekjay 10 ай бұрын

@@AntiGrieferGames It makes sense because the debug info is added to an overlay layer which has to be constantly refreshed along with the game layer underneath.

@SyphistPrime 10 ай бұрын

I left a longer comment about more Minecraft info and why it performed much better under Linux, but did not note this. You are 100% correct. F3 does like to take a hit to the framerate in MC.

@saltdad5263 10 ай бұрын

@@SyphistPrime yeah im on a pretty decent gaming desktop running linux and even i get some frames dropped when opening the f3 menu

@brodogman484 6 ай бұрын

Someone teach buddy about optifine and sodium lol

@dosdude1 10 ай бұрын

This thing absolutely needs my custom 16GB RAM upgrade done LOL. Also, it CAN be upgraded to a quad-core i7 CPU (either 3615QE or 3612QE)... Though I'm not sure that's the best idea in the Air, as it'd run REALLY hot.

@cholomiranda1418 10 ай бұрын

Woah, dosdude is among us! 😂

@ActionRetro 10 ай бұрын

Oh yes!!! And bad ideas are the best ideas

@Wilus0 10 ай бұрын

@@ActionRetro water-cool it

@jayfalzarano8046 10 ай бұрын

This is because DosDude is a bonafide Mac Genius!

@escapetherace1943 10 ай бұрын

it isn't the 3615 and 3612QE's are very power hungry and super hot for their gen. They aren't terribly good anyway or much better than a 2640m to justify the heat and power it will want to use, and they will make a 50-90 dollar laptop a 300+ dollar one because those chips also cost a lot.

@microcolonel 10 ай бұрын

The funny thing about this machine is, there's still plenty of room in that chassis, and it accepts full length user-replaceable SSDs, even though they sabotaged the chassis volume by making it wedge shaped... but now they've completely eliminated user replaceable storage on laptops with twice the chassis volume.

@neoqe6lb 10 ай бұрын

Contributing to the electronic waste problem.

@tamwilfred 10 ай бұрын

The new M2 Macbook Air went back to a boxy shape. Anyways with the wedge shape design, Apple decided to "think differently". Not sure which year Apple decided to solder the SSD directly onto the board, but Apple started making their laptops harder to upgrade compared to simple plug and play.

@axethepenguin 10 ай бұрын

@@tamwilfredit was 2016

@protocetid 10 ай бұрын

@@neoqe6lb "B-b-but Apple said they were so green and supported user repairability! Are you telling me a trillion dollar corporation lied to me to hide their greed??"

@another3997 9 ай бұрын

@@protocetid Greed? Surely, the whole point of owning and running a business is to make a lot more money than you spend? At the end of the day, no matter what noble things they may say about providing products and services, it all boils down to making money. If they don't make enough, they just do something else that does. But most people go to work solely to earn money, so clearly we're all really greedy too, especially the ones who go on strike because they don't get paid enough. Selfish barstewards 😂

@shehanum 10 ай бұрын

I loved owning the 11" back in the day. It was such a cool little computer to tote around. It is really cool to see it have a new lease on life with Linux... it gives me the itch to go get one just to do what Sean did on his, but I need another old laptop like a hole in my head.

@CommodoreFan64 10 ай бұрын

I'm not the biggest modern Apple fan, but yeah these older Macbook Airs make great basic Linux machine, but like you I need another laptop like a hole in my head, and the wife giving me the evil eye lol!

@MarcoGPUtuber 10 ай бұрын

Few years ago I used to install Ubuntu for PowerPC on my old Macs for fun. Linux is great for adding software support to macs that Apple has abandoned.

@MCBuilder 10 ай бұрын

not only macs but also windows machines with the new Windows 11...

@StaceyAyodele 10 ай бұрын

@@MCBuilder 100% this. I run Debian 12 on my 11 year old ThinkCentre gaming PC and on my 8 year old DELL Latitude E7450 laptop. They can't run WIndows anymore, but they run Linux smooth as butter. Linux frees your computer from the chains of corporate whims.

@doctahjonez 10 ай бұрын

@@NRGY Yeah adelie linux is one of them

@BilisNegra 10 ай бұрын

@@MCBuilder You don't have to use Windows 11 yet, 10 has all you need, but if Microsoft doesn't extend its lifecycle and indeed pulls the plug in 2 odd years, at that point it will be the way to go in many cases.

@tmbrwn 10 ай бұрын

Gentoo PPC was also … an experience. :D

@TheDemocrab 10 ай бұрын

Fun fact: Considering that has an Intel HD 4000 iGPU, you're also getting a higher maximum supported OpenGL version. I recommend downloading Prism Launcher and using one of the modpacks that just has the various optimisation tools built in, I'd wager you'll manage to get Minecraft running quite well on that machine then.

@appsaucetech 10 ай бұрын

No.... Multimc due to the fact that prism is based on it and it is oss.

@TheDemocrab 10 ай бұрын

@@appsaucetechlol Prism Launcher is OSS too. It's a fork of MultiMC that is easier to use, has more modpack options and has a better UI.

@tacokoneko 10 ай бұрын

@@appsaucetech polymc - 20 commits in 2023 multimc - 50 commits in 2023 prismlauncher - 1000 commits in 2023 polymc and multimc were abandoned because their maintainers are toxic. prismlauncher is the actively developed launcher. just use the other ones if you want it to constantly break and crash.

@crashniels 10 ай бұрын

@@appsaucetechah yes multimc. The one were the Devs get mad if you don't use their binary.

@tbm7301 10 ай бұрын

what i was thinking. newer version of minecraft are quite demanding these days, i remember being able to play minecraft 1.8 on a macbook pro at 50fps atleast. nowadays my dedicated gaming rig stutters in minecraft without using sodium.

@fbelard 9 ай бұрын

These 2012 macs are awesome. I had mine on Ventura with OCLP, and if I hadn't let the battery bulge and destroy the trackpad connection I think I'd still be using it. And those Intel 4000 IG were great, only problem with the whole machine was lack of hardware decoding for vp9/h265 really.

@pixelpusher8986 10 ай бұрын

Hey great video. And yes… I’m currently running Zorin OS an Ubuntu distro on my 2012 iMac and 2013 MacBook Air. Tried Ubuntu desktop for a few months and later fell in love with Zorin OS gui. It’s much more stable and absolutely beautiful.

@UpLateGeek 10 ай бұрын

I had the 13" version of the 2012 air, I even splashed out for the upgrade to 8GB RAM. It was my triumphant return to Mac OS since my 2005 12" Powerbook G4, which I had reluctantly sold a number of years earlier, before I started getting into vintage/retro computers. That 2012 air got me through most of university, it really was the perfect machine for the job. I've still got it, but haven't powered it on in years. My current laptop is a much more powerful 15" MBP from 2015 (with AMD GPU!) that I got for free from work because they were going to send it to e-waste. The only thing wrong with it was they were missing the power supply, so a quick trip to the electronic bay website and after a couple of days waiting for it to arrive, I had a fully working machine.

@angelinastone9164 10 ай бұрын

Decided to go out and get my hands on one of these little Macbooks, Installed Pop!OS on it and have not looked back. I'm very happy I came across this video and finally have a travel sized laptop for all my Linux needs!

@roberthazelby4424 10 ай бұрын

Great video. I have Linux Mint installed on a 2008 White Core 2 duo MacBook. It has 2 gigs of RAM and a 256gb SSD. It mainly comes with me to Amiga meets so I can transfer files between more modern systems and my Amigas.

@PlanetLinuxChannel 10 ай бұрын

I have a mid 2015 MacBook Pro which was remarkably *fine* back in the day (quad-core i7 (4th gen I think) with integrated graphics). Decided to retire macOS and have turned it into my Linux testing machine for my Linux KZfaq channel. It’s fantastic hardware that runs Linux wonderfully! (Other than just a couple Arch-based distros done recognize the wi-fi for some reason, but pretty much everything else has absolutely no issues.)

@sjgrall 10 ай бұрын

Funny you mention this: I made an Ubuntu VM for giggles, and was shocked at how fast it is. One of my non-tech friends has Ubuntu on his laptop, so I figured it was time I actually learn more about it. After seeing how fast it is, I figured this would be a good option for some folks to get more life out of some older equipment..... Also, Nyan Cat to run down the battery made my moment. 😸

@bsnedden 10 ай бұрын

I run Lubuntu on even older devices with the LXQt desktop. Reminds me of the XP days and actually runs better than XP did on the same computer.

@basilcat3111 10 ай бұрын

@@bsnedden Which version? I'm curious.

@kbhasi 10 ай бұрын

Yep! (or Ubuntu Cinnamon for a layout more akin to older Windows releases)

@David_Quinn_Photography 10 ай бұрын

the only systems to give me issues with Ubuntu are unsupported Chromebooks I have noticed Mint is usually 1st to set up compatibility with them it takes a year or so but they are on it.

@TheSulross 8 ай бұрын

have used Ubuntu for number of years and also maintain my spouses late model Mac (and before that machine was also a Mac) To me, I find Ubuntu Gnome desktop an overall more effective GUI to use than MacOS - especially virtual desktops. MacOS GUI is just incredibly clumbsy to me. I visibly wince when having to use it. Not only is the MacOS kernel architecture a sh*tshow - born out in the benchmarking in this video - but Apple is an also ran when it comes to desktop GUIs - the domain it was once king of the hill

@mediocrefunkybeat 10 ай бұрын

I've got a 2013 MacBook Pro that is just barely still getting security updates. I'm counting the days but Ubuntu is probably going to be the future for this one long-term. I've had it for 9 1/2 years, I think it's done well!

@greatquux 10 ай бұрын

Got the same model. Once iMessage stops working it will be Ubuntu quite likely.

@ninline2000 10 ай бұрын

If you want to stay with an Apple OS, OCLP works great at installing newer Mac OS versions on unsupported Macs. I'm running Monterey in my 2012 15" MacBook Pro, and it works superbly.

@mediocrefunkybeat 10 ай бұрын

@@ninline2000 That's a good shout. I'm on Big Sur (the last supported OS). I'll take a look at OCLP. If I can get a couple of years more out of this and in that time get my overdue lottery win...

@ghost-user559 10 ай бұрын

Open core patcher and you have the current OS. At least Monterey

@tejasraman6913 10 ай бұрын

You should use either Fedora Workstation or OCLP.

@chyldstudios 10 ай бұрын

I also have Ubuntu installed on some older Macs. Works like a charm.

@CoffeeOnRails 10 ай бұрын

I find Linux does wonders for speeding up older computers. I've swapped to it from Windows 10 on my main desktop (Kubuntu 22.04, Ryzen 5 1600, GTX1060, 16GB RAM, PCIe AIC SSD) and the difference is amazing. I remember doing a similar thing back in 2010 with Ubuntu 10.04 on my Atom Netbook. It's amazing how far Ubuntu has come since then. 10.04 was when Ubuntu really started looking good too, IMO.

@lucasrem 10 ай бұрын

What you run on UNIX, why you need op systems ??

@gambyt5952 10 ай бұрын

I’m running antix on a core 2 duo with a gig of ddr2 😂

@chucku00 10 ай бұрын

I'm watching this video on a desktop Core2Duo with integrated Intel HD graphics from 2009 and 3 GB RAm with Xubuntu 20.04 x64, and except from the sluggish mechanical HD this old box still does the job very well.

@luki8806 8 ай бұрын

I still have one of that old atom netbooks (N450, 2GB ram). Actually it's up2date, I have a 64 bit debian system on it without gui. It's a utility laptop, have bunch of ISOs on it, with the help of chatGPT I created scripts and alias them to connect to wifi, mount usb with rw rights to a specific folder, download and unzip the latest ventoy, etc. It also had servers setup to save data to itself, usually using live ISOs (created by ventoy) to login into crashed systems and rsync the important data as backup and then move it back after the PC restored/reinstalled. Without GUI it's still fast enough to copy files via network on cable. I also updated the internal HDD to 1TB to have space to save backups. Actually it's still really handy and a useful little device to me. As an added bonus it can play online radio, mp3 files, even pictures with fbi or videos up to 720p via mpv. YT is also possible on 720p with ytfzf, maybe it stutters on video start for 3-4 seconds but after it's rock solid.

@a1xmsk 3 ай бұрын

@@luki8806 you're lucky to have 64bit. I have 32bit atom

@davidrobb3338 10 ай бұрын

Oh man, this video speaks to me. I had an 11" MacBook Air of about that vintage, and I absolutely loved that thing. And when I replaced it in every day use with a newer 13" MacBook Air, naturally I installed Linux on it (Kubuntu being my preference for desktops and laptops) to keep it some measure of useful for longer... which turned out to be much more useful for much longer than I thought. Literally the only reason I'm not still using it is because it completely died a few months ago.

@marklisseman7765 10 ай бұрын

Did Linux impact battery life?

@davidrobb3338 10 ай бұрын

@@marklisseman7765 couldn’t really say; at this point it’s battery was mostly dead and it spent 99% of its time running on AC. There didn’t seem to be much point running any comparative endurance tests.

@DengueBurger 6 ай бұрын

What’d you do with it Sell it for parts?

@grandmaster101587458 10 ай бұрын

I got a MacBook Pro early 2013 from a friend and while it absolutely struggled to run MacOS Catalina as well (As that's the last supported version it got as well) with various performance issues and even overheating, I installed Linux Mint on it and it felt like a whole new laptop. It's much faster and the fans even hardly rev up. I use it as an on the go/travel device when I'm away from home for my more daily computing tasks that don't require me to use Windows.

@Francois_L_7933 10 ай бұрын

I'm impressed by how easy it was to open, especially when I compare it to my Acer netbook where the access panel on the bottom leads to nowhere! To add memory I had to remove the bottom screws, remove the keyboard making sure I don't break the connector, unscrew the top, crack-open the side clips, unscrew the shield and there was the memory chip.

@DengueBurger 6 ай бұрын

Old Mac’s are great. Beautiful. Nice keyboard. Screen could be better, but not awful. They used to be pretty reparable.

@guyhornbeck8940 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for posting this video. I have a 2013 11" MacBook Air with 4 GB of RAM and a 250 GB SSD. I followed your recommendation and installed Ubuntu, however I was unable to get the camera or WIFI to work. I tried several other distros and eventually settled on Linux Mint Matte. Camera ans WIFI work flawlessly. I am very pleased with my repurposed Apple relic.

@ShadowPriestBear 8 ай бұрын

what a discovering was find this channel. Love it! great work handsome !

@DontGetHit648 10 ай бұрын

I just got a 2015 11” at the start of the summer and it is awesome. Going from the 15” unibody 2012 MacBook Pro which is super heavy, it is an amazing addition. I also paid about 130 for one with 8gb of ram

@ShadeAssault 10 ай бұрын

Haha, I was just thinking about selling my old MacBook Air. It's a 2015 model, A1465. Core i5 of some variety, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. Never occurred to me to throw Linux on it. I'll be doing that shortly!

@protocetid 10 ай бұрын

Despite what Apple tells you, recycling and buying something new from them isn’t isn’t so green. Reduce, reuse, recycle are actions ordered from most eco friendly to least; reusing old computers fulfills the first two obviously.

@another3997 9 ай бұрын

@@protocetidApple are no different to any other business. They need to make money by selling products and services. A high tech product that a customer only replaces every 10 years, and doesn't require regular servicing, isn't going to keep you in business very long, especially in the very expensive and fast moving world of computing. So the most important component for Apple products is... obsolescence.

@Seantherightway06 9 ай бұрын

Have pretty much exact same sitting here collecting dust, so I figure I’ll do the same.

@ShadeAssault 9 ай бұрын

@@Seantherightway06 I had some issues with 23.04 on mine for WiFi drivers. If you use that and have issues getting WiFi to work, try 22.04.2 LTS. That one worked fine for me.

@protocetid 9 ай бұрын

@@another3997 Strange, I was never alerted of this reply, I get to debunk another bad take. Learn about business laptops and Framework, they make it work. "Not going to be in business very long." All my lols, they're a mobile company first and computers second, I wouldn't be surprised if they almost got out of the computer business. Even if their products were tanking, I'm sure they could last a while with their tens or hundreds of billions in the bank. To Apple's credit, their products have highish durability and can last ten years. They could last longer if they let customers service them, but they disincentivize tech literacy and want to gouge you for repairs and upgrades. Another part where you're being ignorant is Apple did move a bit towards DIY repairs, it's so minuscule it's most likely just to keep regulators from legislating away part of their sleazy sales model. Learn to stand up for yourself as a consumer, enough of this megacorp apologia.

@tanmoymridha5002 8 ай бұрын

I just love how you revive old machines

@zenbrandon 8 ай бұрын

My dad gave me his old 2012 MacBook Pro when I started school, and running MacOS on it was so sluggish. I installed Linux Mint on the system instead and it gave the machine a whole new life! I'm definitely going to try to use Ubuntu on it as well just to see how well it works. Excellent video.

@cmposting 3 ай бұрын

geniunely, i came in the possession of a 2012 macbook air 13-inch and despite it being the 4gb model, with debian installed using xfce for the window manager, it can play (reasonable) games, browse basically all sites perfectly, can handle vscode & gimp, and fits all other needs when i have to do desktop activities on the go, with how cheap they are even to buy second hand, it is certainly a good place to look considering the admittedly sound build quality of this macbook generation

@escapetherace1943 2 ай бұрын

@@cmposting doesn't even have to be a macbook. It can be a toshiba, dell, or thinkpad. Honestly I'd go with the cheapest option out of all of those although the macs usually have better screens by default so they're worth going for maybe

@cmposting 2 ай бұрын

@@escapetherace1943 absolutely, the top-end laptops of the past can be found for very cheap and can usually be improved from the state they're now in with some cleaning and whatnot, their generally sound build quality due to their previous high price still stands as an improvement over a modern mid/low-range laptop of a similar performance and price which is very nice

@trylleklovn 10 ай бұрын

Replacing the thermal paste on old laptops can also often help a lot, since it often dries out and the cpu then starts throttling.

@lucasrem 10 ай бұрын

This is not used by mad gaming noobs !

@Auroraixion 2 ай бұрын

I love your Intro very sleek and straight to the point. I miss that desktop I use to play Glider and lemmings on that OS.

@Zombehmoviez 8 ай бұрын

Does Pop OS work on these old Macs? It has the same trackpad gesture support of modern Mac OS which I find very handy on a small laptop screen.

@jonsouth1545 10 ай бұрын

As someone who has brought similar new life into a PC from the same time period by using Linux. I'm not surprised the modern versions are really well written and are very resource light allowing older systems to still be very usefull.

@BeesonsCars 10 ай бұрын

My Highschool gave everyone mid 2015 11” MBAs to all the students and I actually kinda fell in love with the. The battery life and form factor were perfect and the SSD made it feel very responsive despite the lackluster specs. I’d often use it over my 15” Retina at the time due to the portability.

@DengueBurger 6 ай бұрын

Wow imagine getting computers from school, must be nice

@rfwillett2424 3 ай бұрын

@@DengueBurger One way or another you pay for it. At private schools often through the school fees.

@jamesregan688 8 ай бұрын

The 11 inch was my favorite for work, did all i needed and was easy to carry

@Malte-Micha 8 ай бұрын

Sound worked on it?? Sweet!! I have a 2017 macbook pro that id like to install ubuntu on. How did you get it to boot from the usb?

@randallsmith2521 10 ай бұрын

I got a couple of old 2010 Core2Duo Macbook Airs from an IT guy I know who was going to recycle them. He had some programmers who insisted on them because of form factor, but his company didn't support MacOS. They all came to me with Linux installed on them. I ended up installing MacOS and selling them, but they really were fantastic light weight Linux Machines.

@mi2595bs 10 ай бұрын

In the last game you use VSYNC which limits to 60fps or the limit which your screen has which in your case is 60. Try fiddling with LimitVSync in FPSMode.

@AlexKiraly 8 ай бұрын

I use a Macbook Air 2017 (with 8 GB of ram, original 128 GB SSD) as my daily driver, it's really quite snappy. I installed Arch on it with KDE Plasma, all smooth sailing.

@skirnir393 9 ай бұрын

I had the late 2012 13" model and i loved the keyboard. That laptop lasted 8 years.

@socketwench 10 ай бұрын

The performance bump tracks with my experiences with a 2013 air. I managed to do a lot of open source coding and Docker stuff on it for years running Arch on just 4GB.

@pete3897 10 ай бұрын

Sean here's a tip to speed up your DD transfers! Next time, try writing to the "R" version of the device (eg /dev/rdisk2) and make sure to specify a block size (eg bs=8M). The transfers will go MUCH faster :)

@beenine5557 7 ай бұрын

@pete3897: I don't think Linux supports BSD's /dev/rdisk notation to talk directly to the raw drive.

@pete3897 7 ай бұрын

@@beenine5557 recheck timestamp 2:24 - that sure looks like dd running under macOS to me :)

@beenine5557 7 ай бұрын

@@pete3897 I stand corrected.

@bitduelist 10 ай бұрын

Thank you for making this video, it helped me decide to install pop is onto my 2014 MacBook air

@pulsatingsausageboy2076 2 ай бұрын

I loved the 11 inch Air. Super light and compact. Cool video! 👍🏻

@wxTVTWC 10 ай бұрын

I absolutely love these tiny machines. Thanks to their (unfortunately pitiful) resolution they’re also able to happily run Monterey with OpenCore! I see this less as a hindrance and more of an advantage. Nice to see a great video appreciating this machine :)

@tuxi04 10 ай бұрын

I installed Ventura to a friend of mine which had the exact same MacBook Air as this video. It runs great.

@JonTrott 5 ай бұрын

2015 runs Monterey without Open Core. And can run Sonoma, no problem, with Open Core.

@brad1785 10 ай бұрын

For anyone else looking to do this, it's cheaper to get the sintech adapter and an m.2 sata ssd than those OWC drives. Especially for 2013-2015 models which can use NVMe instead.

@lucasrem 10 ай бұрын

He did found an NVMe drive for it, why go this cheap ????

@tuxi04 10 ай бұрын

@@lucasremthat was not an NVMe drive.

@sn1000k 10 ай бұрын

I enjoy your delivery and tone

@TechKingdom35 10 ай бұрын

Cool video. The 11" MacBook Air is my favorite Mac as well. Cool to see it running so well on Ubuntu. I use Linux on all of my old Intel Macs like the 2006 MacBook. Works very well to keep them somewhat usable.

@linux42069 10 ай бұрын

I love seeing old Macs revived with Linux. This one skirts the issue of fan control but simply... Not having one? Def curious about thermals. I'd also love to see the difference between gnome and a minimalist desktop like lxqt or a custom window manager setup! A+++++++ content

@yellowbadbeast7458 8 ай бұрын

It does have a fan, as seen at 5:41. Only the newer M-series chip Macbook Airs don't have fans.

@linux42069 8 ай бұрын

@@yellowbadbeast7458 ah, I was under the impression the air line was always passively cool and that's why they were so thin

@DengueBurger 6 ай бұрын

@@linux42069back in the Intel days they had to have a fan. With Apple silicon, they Air’s no longer have fans, though they’d benefit from a tiny quiet one imo

@OzRetrocomp 10 ай бұрын

Very nice. I've only just discovered the joy of older MacBooks in the past six months or so, having acquired a late 2011 MacBook Pro i7. After throwing an old SSD and a spare 8GB RAM stick I had kicking around, Monterey runs like a champ on it (thanks OpenCore). If/when MacOS isn't cutting it any more i.e. once Apple stop releasing new version of MacOS for Intel, at least it'll be a decent Linux machine. If I find an 11" MacBook Air for the same price as my MBP, I'll grab it with both hands.

@richardbryanesq 26 күн бұрын

I got Sonoma to 14.3 with OCLP and wasn’t careful enough installing 14.4 and broke the system. Debian12 runs nicely through so no big deal.

@otter-pro 10 ай бұрын

One nice thing with form factor is that it was so light and thin and so portable. I'd choose this for portable linux machine on the go. It reminded me of how portable and light like chromebook, except that chromebook was a much slower machine, and the macbook air was so much nicer to use.

@peterdempster2257 10 ай бұрын

Hello , great article, thanks for making it. Would this setup also run photo editing apps like Darktable, Gimp, Rawstudio?

@brianb6653 10 ай бұрын

One thing that you didn’t check as you were focused on CPU benchmarks and FPS, is disk performance. The SSD that comes with that generation MacBook including my 2014 MacBook Pro, is a 2x (2 PCIe lanes) version. Aftermarket SSDs are usually 4X (4 PCIe lanes). My disk performance almost doubled when I swapped it for third-party Samsung 2tb with NGFF adapter (that proprietary format you were talking about). I’m not sure if the 2011 MacBook mini can use 4 lanes. I guess I’m just surprised you didn’t do this benchmarks when you swapped disks. 😊

@mrz80 4 ай бұрын

I was given a 2011 MBP a couple years ago, and it's been a solid performer with Ubuntu Studio. Alas, the USB ports are dying (prob. coming loose from the motherboard) and thanks to an unplanned desktop to floortop excursion the screen, while readable, is spiderwebbed with cracks in the glass. Still keep it on hand for ham radio call logging.

@daol03 10 ай бұрын

good video :) but i can't say that ubuntu is less bloated with snaps taking over more and more these days. And how is the battery under Ubuntu? did you use power-profiles-daemon or TLP? and is mbpfan installed as well?

@linux42069 10 ай бұрын

I believe the airs are fanless

@Gearsandco 8 ай бұрын

my first even Mac was a 2014 13 inch MacBook Air and I loved it, I bought a 2015 model just to remember the old days I still really enjoy using it. btw I would recumbent you to replace the thermal past it's easy and worth it, your Mac would run cooler and will keep the CPU clocked a but faster, then you get an even faster and more stable machine.

@cringemaki 10 ай бұрын

This is why I love old intel macs. I have my late 2010 13 inches that I bought for around 160 USD and it accompanied me through the whole university career. I wish it was a 2012 or 13 model because it gets hot as hell, even after some maintenance. It is what it is. Thanks again, boss. Keep the good content.

@indy1725 8 ай бұрын

Oh man, I really wish Apple would keep a sub-compact laptop in their lineup. Love these little guys, I might have to look one up myself soon.

@DengueBurger 6 ай бұрын

Don’t they still have airs? Not to mention the MacBook pros are pretty slim these days.

@indy1725 6 ай бұрын

@@DengueBurger For me it's not about slimness, it's about screen size. Also, I like a LITTLE heft to my laptop, I need to know it's not going to crumple if I put it in a backpack to carry around. And the thicker laptops allow for more ports, the lack of which is something I will never forgive Apple for. Give us back our ports, dang it!

@AutumnRain 10 ай бұрын

i had no idea that this generation of macbooks were that easy to open up and replace the battery and ssd! i might just have to dig mine up... seems like a fun project!!

@tuxi04 10 ай бұрын

Until Retina displays arrived every MacBook was easy to work on

@hippiejeez 7 ай бұрын

My favorite laptop I've ever used (and still do) is my 2016 Retina MacBook running Linux Mint Cinnamon. SUPER smooth and responsive.

@valdez66667 7 ай бұрын

Used multiple distro's on my old 2011 13" MBA (4GB/256GB/i7). Settle on Fedora w/ GNOME, and it is GREAT!

@paytonbostwick2899 10 ай бұрын

I would try linux mint, it runs like ubuntu but with some tweaks to make it run better, and i believe it has a gnome flavor. Its the distro i always recommend to beginners, and i even use it for data recovery at work.

@SyphistPrime 10 ай бұрын

Mint does not have a Gnome flavor. It has Cinnamon, XFCE, and MATE. They used to do KDE years ago but abandoned that flavor.

@miket.220 6 ай бұрын

Mint is an excellent distro for beginners and experts alike. I daily drive it on my 2012 Mac Mini and see no reason to distro-hop. Works perfectly and simply. While Cinnamon is based on an older Gnome, it really is it's own thing at this point.

@escapetherace1943 5 ай бұрын

@@SyphistPrime Gnome is easily the worst environment so nothing of value is being missed.

@zilog1 10 ай бұрын

My choice has always been Pop OS but that might change with the recent major updates to Debian and Ubuntu. That new gnome is sexy asf

@stevenlu7324 6 ай бұрын

this gave me a pretty solid idea, to run Arch on my 12 inch macbook, a fully loaded 2017 model with the i7. I even did the thermal pad mod on it a few months ago in hopes of breathing new life in it. What this mod does is prevent the machine from overheating its CPU (which eventually reliably leads it to die) to giving you a mild burn on your thigh.

@NeoNine10 10 ай бұрын

It is. I've tried various Ubuntu distros on an old 2011 21.5" iMac and they work well on it. Just needed a config edit to enable brightness control. I used this trick from askubuntu: Run in a terminal: sudo nano /etc/default/grub and add the parameter like this (edit the line): GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor" Then save and quit the file with ctrl + x, run sudo update-grub in terminal, and reboot. On Ubuntu Budgie you have to add brightness controller with Budgie extras. After installing, log out, log back in, then use Budgie Desktop Settings to add it so now it shows in the middle of the top bar next to the clock. Lubuntu seems to have brightness controls already working and enabled detected as EDP, so seemed the quickest to get set up. Recent non-LTS releases up to this point work the best, otherwise you may encounter issues with sound due to the lack of PipeWire.

@inatorpiggies1560 10 ай бұрын

My laptop's battery lasting 10 minutes: wow 3 hours is a lot!

@mllarson 10 ай бұрын

I bought the same model from a coworker after her husband died. I gave her the eBay going rate for it. Still works fine and I use it to back up my iDevices (when I remember).

@ShainAndrews 10 ай бұрын

I capped my MBA 13" Early 2015 at High Sierra. Anything beyond that I can tell the slowdown.

@user-th4us5kl1k Ай бұрын

Thanx for the video. I have an old Dell core2duo and centrino processors, installed Ubuntu and its running extremely smooth ❤

@biotrekker 10 ай бұрын

I still have an 11" mid-2013 Macbook Air w/ the 1.3 GHz i5 and 246GB SSD. The battery life and low weight were the key metrics for my use case. The battery still lasts several hours and it is fast enough for web browsing, videos and word processing running Catalina.

@jswidget 10 ай бұрын

I do love Micro Center but I've found their USB drives are hit or miss. I've had some that are still going strong and others that in a few weeks brick themselves and computers only see a small fraction of their maximum capacity.

@JosephHalder 10 ай бұрын

I remember picking up a 8GB USB3 one when most drives were USB2. I thought, "Oh boy, I bet this is going to be fast". While it negotiated USB3, it certainly didn't utilize the additional bandwidth. It was as slow or slower than other drives that I had, and had issues like in the video where it wasn't always reliable for booting off of. Years later, It still works, but kinda sucks.

@bsnedden 10 ай бұрын

I've noticed that I can't trust even SanDisk drives anymore - they stopped giving them GUIDs! I had to physically track down a USB2 PNY drive at my local grocery store to use as a boot for my Unraid server cuz it needs a GUID to tie the license to. Samsung is my go-to for USB3 drives now.

@CommodoreFan64 10 ай бұрын

@@bsnedden Dang YT keeps deleting my comments, try Dollar Stores, they often have older versions of PNY drives for sale in their small electronics sections.

@elmukaltino 10 ай бұрын

I got this MacBook in 2011 and used it in absolutely every trip I’ve taken for photo and even video edit till like 2018. It’s so lightweight it’s incredible, especially back then, it would fit nearly any backpack. I love this little guy so much, it was so much value for its small price, and yes, mine is covered in all the stickers possible too. I haven’t been using this MacBook for a while, but watching your video make me think of reviving him again! Thanks!

@schmetterling4477 10 ай бұрын

I have one from that time and it runs just fine under OS X. Not sure what the problem here is that needs to be "solved". :-)

@elmukaltino 10 ай бұрын

@@schmetterling4477 The problem I’ve ran into a couple of times is that there’s increasingly less and less software supporting 10.14 (I know it can run 10.15, but it leaves virtually no SSD space in my case), as well as drivers. Last time I used it about half a year ago for some Arduino things, and some of the newer drivers just wouldn’t run on 10.14 completely.

@schmetterling4477 10 ай бұрын

@@elmukaltino A laptop from 2011 can be upgraded with a new SSD, so it's certainly not a memory issue. There is also better software for 10.13 than there ever will be for Linux. Stop talking nonsense, kid. ;-)

@drmarkuswinter 7 ай бұрын

Yep. I installed Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon on an old 2007 24in 2,4 GHz Core2Duo iMac (model iMac7,1) with 4 GB RAM and its original 320 GB hard disk. I'm blown away by how FAST it is! I didn't think it would work, but it even played x265 encoded movies smoothly without a hitch. A modern, capable, secure operating system with current software (LibreOffice, Firefox, etc) running on a 16 year old Mac like it is a brand-new computer - I'm VERY, VERY impressed. There is the occasional driver to install (eg my Wifi wasn't recognised) but a quick search found a suitable driver.

@jrayv 3 ай бұрын

This is excellent man! I have LMDE Cinnamon installed on a SSD in an old Thinkpad T410. It positively FLIES!

@tejasraman6913 10 ай бұрын

I just (tried) vanilla Ubuntu for the first time 2 days ago (I have used various Linux distros for years, but never plain Ubuntu) and it was a very frustrating experience. I had to manually blacklist some conflicting kernel modules to get the WiFi to work, and they force you to use bloated Snaps. I’ve tried lots of distros on my old 2011 MacBook Pro and that was probably the worst experience I have ever had with Linux. I would really recommend Fedora or some spin (like risiOS or Ultramarine) for MacBooks - it provides a cleaner experience with less bloat (and it was faster for me). Just remember not to use btrfs when you partition the HDD… I really like this video though - old Intel Macs make great Linux devices :)

@TurdInternational 10 ай бұрын

Old Intel Macs make great Linux devices, but they aren't always easy; I have an Early '11 MBP and the wifi issue was the same, regardless of distro/spin, and Fedora Gnome couldn't figure out the trackpad. Decided to keep with High Sierra, as it still works... for now

@tejasraman6913 10 ай бұрын

@@TurdInternational actually I currently use Monterey with OCLP (dual boot with Fedora Gnome) and it's fast :). HS hasn't been supported in 3 years now. Fedora Gnome has the trackpad fine for me, what was your issue with it?

@TurdInternational 10 ай бұрын

@@tejasraman6913 it worked in a basic sense, but no gestures, which supposedly makes Gnome more useable. iirc it required similar setup to the wifi; blacklist the standard modules and install another driver. EDIT: tried again and it worked; maybe I was remembering wrong, or Fedora 38 solved it🤷‍♂

@tejasraman6913 10 ай бұрын

@@TurdInternational gestures worked for me on 37, but I tried an old 36 iso and they didn't work..(this was yesterday; I just pulled out an old Ventoy usb and checked) on Fedora I only had to install RPMFusion and the driver, run dnf update, and reboot on an Ethernet/tethered connection an you should have wifi. If you're using High Sierra, I still recommend OCLP to you...

@charleschilton3818 10 ай бұрын

Linux Lite or MX Linux would be better choices to run on an old Macbook Air. The Snap packagess that Ubuntu uses really kills performance on old machines. I've installed lots of distros on my 2011 Macbook Air. The Macbook Airs run incredibly hot which also effects their performance.

@rmcdudmk212 10 ай бұрын

Yeah the snap package thing made my old Lenovo run so bad I switched to Mint.

@babyboomertwerkteam5662 10 ай бұрын

Stop trying to recommend super-lite, ugly and unfriendly distros. Ubuntu works just fine.

@CommodoreFan64 10 ай бұрын

I agree, Manjaro GNOME, Solus Budgie, Mint DE or MX Linux would be better, SNAP packages really do kill performance on older machines. Also MX Linux is not that hard to run.

@Dizrak 10 ай бұрын

@@babyboomertwerkteam5662 there is always Mint if you don't like other options. Not as light as others, but friendly enough

@jktech1955 10 ай бұрын

Ubuntu runs just fine on these machines, its much more secure running Wayland under Ubuntu than running x11 on the disto's you mentioned.

@aravindvinayakan 8 ай бұрын

This video inspired me to dig up my 2012 11-inch Air from back in the day, sadly the trackpad on mine is busted and I don't really feel like jumping through the hoops necessary to replace it 😅

@miskaknapek 10 ай бұрын

thank you - that was really awesome! glad to see those well designed old macs get a longer life. I'm from datavis and data science, and, well, even 10-15 year old processors can run really quite fast if you get them to crunch numbers rather than animation transitions, and other overhead in modern GUI applicatoins. that is, processors are really fast, but can get slowed down by GUIs. good the author showed you can still do a lot with old hardware. ( and, well, if you really like the form factor, you can use a server somewhere to do the data crunching for you, and just use a lovely old computer that can run a web interface / ssh terminal / code editor to the server. thanks again. ( written from a late 2013 MBP 15" :)

@40percentyt 10 ай бұрын

Still, to this day, official Ubuntu is the ONLY distro that I see that annoying 'system problem detected' popup. It's basically a check engine light, and can be ignored. Has been for over a decade at this point 🤣

@mipmipmipmipmip 10 ай бұрын

I think there was a workaround to turn those messages off

@jktech1955 10 ай бұрын

@@mipmipmipmipmip Yep there sure is, just edit the file /etc/default/apport and change the value from 1 to 0 to disable error reporting.

@joeMW284 10 ай бұрын

The last few Ubuntu releases have been real solid. Their take on gnome is the correct one.

@FrancescoAloisio-pc5ev 8 ай бұрын

Great job!🎉

@djazz0 8 ай бұрын

I love my MBA 11" from 2012. My most recent laptop heh, still going strong! Running macOS Mojave and Fedora in dualboot.

@diecinuevemx 7 ай бұрын

Hey man! Thanks for the video! I bought a MacBook Air with 8 gb ram/1280 ssd/i5 intel processor and it actually work with fine on Catalina but your video made me want to try Ubuntu. I live in Hanoi, Vietnam and I have to go to work on a motorbike every day, so carrying the laptop in my backpack is not breaking my back anymore like my old MacBook Pro 2011 was. I'm not really using this laptop for heavy work like video editing or music production (which I do on my old MacBook and a Mac mini from 2014 that I recently bought too), I only use it to project really simple PPTs/PDFs and really light web browsing. Is still on Catalina but the laptop apparently supports Sonoma but honestly, I don't think I'll upgrade it. Will try Ubuntu instead, definitely. Thank you for the video again!

@drozcompany4132 7 ай бұрын

Does Ubuntu handle the touchpad gestures still? if it does, that would be awesome

@Gramini 7 ай бұрын

By default Ubuntu uses Gnome for the desktop/GUI, which does support gestures, so it should work.

@bigbadhodad3894 8 ай бұрын

ok, so I have a 13 inch Mac air, I think it is a fall 2013 model, and IM curious can I just upgrade the hdd and battery like you did? and do you have a link to a good guide to make the bootable Ubuntu drive?

@nix-nicholas 6 ай бұрын

I really like your experiments. I recently picked up one of these just to take a look at the old form factor. While I was reimaging it with MacOS just to check out the system I did notice it was slow. I was wondering, you must have a great deal of patience. I'm new to your channel, what career path were you in before these youtube videos? Thank you. I love the content.

@pipoviola 10 ай бұрын

Nice job, man. Thank you.

@danaeckel5523 10 ай бұрын

Pretty cool, i have a 2009 macbook with Mint Mate installed and works well. Can still facebook, and from time to time watch ActionRetro videos.

@userperson5259 10 ай бұрын

I have a 2014 11" MacBook Air and you are right... These are special little machines worthy of love. I have an audio interface with microphones hooked up to mine and use it as a KZfaq karaoke machine at home, also for children's games and Garage Band. When I travel, especially internationally, this is the only thing I want to bring and it does it all... I can run Big Sur and am doing well now but I can see that Linux will be the obvious place to go next when it's time...

@migo-migo9503 3 ай бұрын

This is awesome! I've got a mba 11in from ages ago that I've kept since it's my favorite form factor.

@codysandusky2130 10 ай бұрын

Ah, 10-hour Nyah Cat videos - that and 10-hour Sax Guy were the “official” battery life/uptime tests used by techs when I worked in a local Geek Squad in college! I have a mid-2010 MacBook Pro that is running poorly on its last OSX, even after RAM and SSD upgrades. I was debating going back to Snow Leopard (which I had at purchase), but may go to Ubuntu instead to join my old Dell laptop running it. Thanks for the great video, as always!

@uf0logic 8 ай бұрын

Good for you you now have a great machine for mining and crafting

@NaoPb 10 ай бұрын

Neat! I'm trying this on my old mac tonight.

@propjoe1060 10 ай бұрын

Nice video. I installed Linux on my 2012 MacBook Pro 13 inch a few times, and the trackpad support was pretty poor. Might give it another shot with this version of Ubuntu, see how it goes.

@GlenCote 10 ай бұрын

I loved this video! Great work. Do you think this would work on a 2015 11 inch MacBook Air? Was Bluetooth working on your setup?

@emmanuel_ 9 ай бұрын

my plan all along for my 7 y/o 13 in air. thanks for the video.

@videoatelierschar 8 ай бұрын

It is really nice that old stuff can be a part of the future like this ... :) maybe i will also take an older macbook air to do so for minecraft

@terraflops 3 ай бұрын

@Action Retro i am running Pop! OS on same computer but the 13 inch version. It is working nicely, although i would love to do what you did and upgrade the RAM and battery. Great video!

@amadzarak7746 2 ай бұрын

I was literally thinking about doing this last night!

@PotatoFi 10 ай бұрын

I had a 2012 MacBook Air with an i7 and 8 GB of RAM. My work bought it for me (MetaGeek! Remember inSSIDer, the Wi-Fi scanner?) and I loved it so, so much. Still my all-time favorite laptop I’ve ever had. I’m very sad that I eventually sold it (work gave it to me as a going away present when I left to join another company). Also, I use Nyan Cat to run down batteries too!