The Best Budget Mac for Linux?

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Apple declared this iMac obsolete about half a decade ago, but I think it has plenty of life left in it. Let's max it out, and install a cutting edge Linux distro - KDE NEON!
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#Linux #Apple #iMac

[@TommyAgramonSeth]

"2019 was half a decade ago" stop 😭

[@DanielTolentino42]

😢

[@ottf24]

He was referring to when apple stoped supporting it…

[@andy23r]

Still 2019, being a half decade ago 🥶😞

[@raven4k998]

16 gigs of ram max what happens if you slap 32 gigs in there try it i dare you😭

[@matt-irby]

@@andy23r Hearing him say that made my heart stop a little. Oof, my back's hurting now.

[@JeffGeerling]

Showing the new thermal paste takes a bit of bravery!

[@ActionRetro]

😅

[@lenni-builder]

I also wonder if he just forgot to censor it or did that on purpose

[@asnovasdodia]

Probably way too much (bravery)

[@der4rdi]

Multiple people have shown by now that putting on more thermal paste than necessary makes virtually no difference in performance (but putting on too little will cause severe throttling), so I’m not sure why this discussion/debate still exists.

[@LeSpameurYT]

I bought this iMac for 50$ because the guy thought it was just a screen 😂 I’m now using it everyday running Monterey, it’s still powerful!

[@京都-v8b]

😂

[@RWBHere]

One day, he'll be kicking himself! 🤣👍

[@easycompzeelandold2521]

You can update to Ventura at ease with OCLP!

[@VIRACYTV]

You can put Sonoma on it.

[@easycompzeelandold2521]

@@VIRACYTV Yes, I tried that too, but unfortunately, my SSD went corrupt and eventually failed. It might have been a faulty SSD. After replacing it with a new one, I noticed a significant decline in performance. My Late 2012 Mac mini Server, which has an i7 processor and 16 GB of RAM, became extremely slow and sluggish. This issue did not occur when I was using Ventura. So I decided to downgrade to the latest version of Ventura. Based on my personal experience, I can only recommend Ventura for better performance and reliability.

[@Benzona]

Older Macs have an incredible shelf life. I still use a PowerMac as a file server and an 08 Mac Mini as a secondary machine to this day.

[@Fay7666]

dat power draw for the powermac tho, especially considering how they only had 2 internal HDD slots (at least the one I have only has 2)

[@supercellex4D]

computers have an incredible shelf life. High end ones at least. You just notice this with old macs because Apple sold at the top of the market back then but I have a 2014 PC AIO that I still use (writing this comment on it!)

[@ClaireFelidae]

​@@supercellex4DEven some older low end PCs can have long self lives as well. I have a first Gen i5 Acer Aspire laptop that is still running. Maxed out at 8gb of RAM and a SSD. I have it running OpenSuse Tumbleweed KDE and it runs well. However, Low end components did need replacing over time. New cooling fan, new battery a few times now, it's on its 3rd charger I think.

[@stgigamovement]

I still have a working 2002 eMac with its original drive still running Panther, as well as an early 2006 white Intel Core 2 Duo iMac in its largest size (featuring a physically-giant 1920x1200 display), a 2013 MacBook Air and a thick-shell Aluminum iMac, all of which still work. I also have a case-damaged but still living Early 2008 MacBook Pro, though it had its drive replaced and RAM upgraded in 2013. Old Macs do last decades. Don't get me wrong, I'm no longer an Apple fan due to the iOS headphone jack removal, no Mac touch screens, and most importantly the move away from Intel x86 for Mac.

[@Benzona]

@@supercellex4D Yes but in my experience Windows bloat destroys PCs a lot faster than Macs become useless.

[@andresbravo2003]

Konqi and Katie Appreciates you.

[@philtkaswahl2124]

The default theme of that distro also fits really well with the overall aesthetics.

[@vendetta.02]

yeah that's the default kde plasma theme uwu

[@philtkaswahl2124]

@@vendetta.02 Never actually used said desktop environment myself since I usually prefer keeping it light with window managers like openbox or i3.

[@NotTheGaslighter]

​@@philtkaswahl2124 never used KDE Plasma? are you even a Linux user if you haven't given it a good try?

[@LordManhattan]

"2019, half a decade ago", you really just wanted to make us all feel really old, didn't you 😂

[@joe-skeen]

Last week I found a bunch of iMacs on Facebook Marketplace from 2009-2013 for $20-$40 a piece. Perfect condition. I bought a few, put a lightweight Linux distribution on them, and voila! Beautiful computer lab for my kids.

[@joe-skeen]

My biggest issue was installing the Wi-Fi drivers (as I didn't have a way to connect the ethernet at the time), but once that was figured out, they've been amazing beautiful devices

[@joannelucille]

So cool! Wish I had one as well 😅

[@kaminekoch.7465]

Meanwhile where I live, somebody is trying to sell 2012 iMac for 600 euros lol.

[@joe-skeen]

@@kaminekoch.7465 wow that's insane, if they haven't revamped it (upgrading hardware) and have a modern OS (probably not MacOS) preinstalled...

[@joe-skeen]

And include tons of peripherals

[@mikaelbiilmann6826]

I sold a 2013 imac a couple of months ago. I had put in an ssd instead of the hybrid hdd that died in 2017. It still worked wonderfully. Btw, if you are going to do this: be very careful when you open the screen as you have to remove the ribbon cables to the screen. Second: the power supply has exposed lines, so do not touch it!

[@VincentBrabandt]

Note on the Nouveau driver: the reason it's so slow is because the GPU is set to run at the minimum clock speed, there's actually a script you could run to enable the highest clock speed (though it's still like ~60% performance of the proprietary drivers) Another thing though, I'm not sure if the latest Ubuntu 24.04 comes with the Nvidia drivers for 600-series GPUs anymore (I have a MacBook with 750m)

[@DryPaperHammerBro]

Neon's using 2*2*.04

[@antikommunistischaktion]

The 600 series GPUs actually don't have the clock speed issue as the reclocking issue only started with the 800 series.

[@VincentBrabandt]

@@antikommunistischaktion you're a bit wrong on this, anything pre-maxwell yes has unlocked clock speeds, but it's not automatic, you have to set it manually (like I said). Maxwell (800) and up (until Turing GPUs) needs a signed firmware, those are the ones that have issues. I painfully daily-drive Nouveau with my 750m, if there was auto-reclocking I would have noticed it.

[@pavuk357]

Idk about Ubuntu 24.04, but when I tried to use Ubuntu 20.something on my old laptop with 820M it was weird. Ubuntu installed proprietary drivers as I ask, but it was the latest version of main branch. These old cards aren't supported by the latest main branch drivers and you actually need to use legacy branch ones or last supported main branch one. I have no idea why it wasn't detecting the card being old and switching to other branch automagically, though it wasn't only Ubuntu but Mint, PopOS and Manjaro too.

[@domoncar6782]

​@@pavuk357if you still want to install supported drivers in 22.04, you need to install older drivers, which are not supported, but ppa with older drivers for 22.04 exist. Message if you want instructions on how to do that, it is very easy.

[@steveg5122]

Fedora 40 has a pretty vanilla KDE 6.0 install, and has kernel 6.8.9 as of 5/18/24. It is a stable cutting edge distro as well.

[@andrewr1355]

Nice to see a fellow Fedora fanboy. I set up a used 2014 MBP with fedora yesterday and I’m going to use it to explore open source alternatives to the Mac eco system. Can’t pull myself away from that light up Apple on the lid. 😂

[@CRYPTiCEXiLE]

KDE stands for Kool Desktop Env. the K-Desktop was the OG KDE before it became Plasma.

[@raven4k998]

wait wait wait hold on 30 bucks for ram 9 dollar for redhsive kit 30 dollars ssd what is this sorcery?

[@Trickyflorence]

Macs use laptop dimms, laptop ddr3 is ridiculously "cheap" for the most part and an SSD on eBay can be found really cheap if you look hard enough, heck I found a 450gb SSD from Intel used for 25 @@raven4k998

[@Gravarty]

Calling 2012 iMacs “vintage” is so weird to me while I'm still trying to keep my iMac Late 2009 27” alive with hardware upgrades, OCLP and copium, thanks xD

[@charliesretrocomputing]

OCLP is amazing, what OS are you running on it? Not sure if you saw my comment but I think it's near the top, I'm installing Sonoma on my 2010 27"

[@Gravarty]

​@@charliesretrocomputing Also on Sonoma. Apps like Chrome, Spotify and Discord etc. run fine, only Apple's new “universal” apps like weather and system settings take a bit to load because my GPU lacks Metal support (used MXM GPU's are still really expensive). The most stable “unsupported” version i had running was Monterey, which is still getting software updates I believe.

[@freedomlinux]

How does it run? I found a 2009 iMac on the street last year, gave it 6GB RAM and macOS 13 with OCLP. It "works" but certainly not happy

[@IsaaSooBarr]

@@charliesretrocomputingmonterey is the best version for these old intel macs tbh, speaking from my own experience

[@andrewdunbar828]

12-year-old kids enjoying their retirements.

[@zetho.270]

I have Linux Mint installed with KDE Plasma desktop, and I can agree that KDE is beautiful

[@pcs9518]

I have tons of Apple and Windows machines that are “obsolete” running on the current operating systems through various work arounds and they perform flawlessly

[@CatBacon-qc5ot]

More heavy metal montages in the future, please, thanks. Great video, I live for this stuff. I've, just today, installed Fedora 40 KDE Plasma 6, XFCE, GNOME, and Debian 12 KDE Plasma, XFCE, GNOME, and Cinnamon, on my 2015 MacBook Air, everything runs beautifully. I ditched MacOS a long time ago on all of my Apple hardware, even my M1 Air, though I had to keep Sonoma on it in order to run Asahi Fedora. Keep up the amazing work, you're awesome, dude.

[@charliesretrocomputing]

I'm gonna install Sonoma on a 2010 iMac and daily-drive it for a month. That's "Seananigans" right there!

[@MaxOakland]

Let me know how it goes. Is it slow?

[@charliesretrocomputing]

@@MaxOakland Right now it's running Monterey and it's slow, but I'm installing an SSD and it's the high-end i7 model with 12gb RAM, so I have a feeling it's gonna be pretty fast even on the latest macOS with OpenCore.

[@VincentBrabandt]

I have 2 2013 MacBook pros (13" i5 & 15" i7) , I installed Sonoma on them and they run extremely nicely too

[@half-qilin]

I’d only recommend installing Big Sur or later on Metal-capable Macs (aka past 2012). Existing OpenGL patches are really slow, and Catalina is the newest version to use OpenGL natively. That said, I do use a 2012 15” Unibody MacBook Pro as a daily driver and it works great on Sonoma.

[@rossgeography]

^ 2012

[@danilaros]

I have this iMac model. I just put 16GB of ram and a ssd, install Fedora and is super stable and fast. Is been my computer since 2013 and I find no need to update. Linux is amazing🙂

[@rickkarrer8370]

As soon as you got that board out, I was thinking "re-paste he CPU! while you're at it!"

[@dukeseb]

It’s so nice to start my morning with a retro video

[@DarthEd77]

I still "daily drive" a mid-2010 Mac Pro with 6 Westmere Xenon CPUs, 128 GB RAM, and a 2 TB SSD. Best Mac ever. Up until the release of Apple Silicon, it felt just as fast if not faster than any brand new Core i7 or i9 Mac. I'm still not seeing a very compelling reason to buy a new Mac. That said, I don't render KZbin videos or run Blender or anything like that that uses a tremendous amount of CPU or GPU power.

[@billybartcody3591]

Haha, as a Mac Pro aficionado, I can tell you that if you hooked up an Apple silicon Mac, you would definitely notice the lack of fan noise by comparison. They're whisper quiet and cool to the touch, shocking to those of us used to living with the high temperatures and hullabaloo the fans put out on Intel machines.

[@DarthEd77]

@@billybartcody3591 Yeah, I’m sure that’s nice, but I don’t see that as a very compelling reason to buy a new Mac, personally.

[@IdiotRace]

@@DarthEd77As long as you aren’t somewhere that has expensive power. I ran a 5,1 with dual 6 cores and an RX580 when I was working from the office. Now I’m wfh I use a 2018 Mini, but it runs so hot most of the time I end up blasting the fan at 100% and waiting for the next Mac Studio to replace it with. There is also a well specced trashcan pro sitting at work that I could’ve taken home but I know it was just gonna make my electricity bill spike with those old xeon cpus.

[@Xe4ro]

To be fair, the Mac Pros are quite a bit stronger than the iMacs and way more modular.

[@BilisNegra]

I guess you can use it as a space heater in the winter, too. I wonder what the power draw of such a behemoth might be.

[@tdk0bob]

Honestly Neon is one of my favorite distros because of how clean its customization menus are here. Also it's Neofetch ascii-art always looks nice.

[@tdk0bob]

Oh if you want to really make people confused get the Mac themes like Mojave or ventura kde has great themes for that.

[@Chompingbits]

I murdered my 2009 iMac replacing the SuperDrive and HDD. Those ribbon cables are really delicate.

[@mikaelbiilmann6826]

My friend did the same on his 2013 iMac. I bought the iMac from him for very little money and bought another ribbon cable, put in an ssd and it was as good as new.

[@JohnnnyJohn]

Same. 2011 iMac murderer here.

[@mikaelbiilmann6826]

@@JohnnnyJohn You guys didn’t murder them. 😁 You can fix them!

[@mcal27]

I dread it when I get an iMac upgrade job. I recommend heating the glued area of the screen before using the pizza cutter. I have had a couple crack on me when the adhesive was applied stubbornly… or use a razor blade then switch to pizza cutter. Not a favourite Mac of mine

[@joe--cool]

I was just about to comment on that. Ridiculous procedure to upgrade RAM. That would've been easier on my phone. Glueing that stuff together should be illegal. 8 screws from the back side would be better and sturdier.

[@weab]

​@@joe--cool For what it's worth I remember the 2017 iMac had a small hatch on the back for RAM access. Who knows how many years it took them to introduce that change though... lol

[@haysoos123]

@@weabThe 27” versions from this era (2012) and further on all had the memory hatch. They just removed it from the 21”.

[@phillippereira6468]

The heavy metal montage was brilliant, please keep using it

[@The_Last_Ninja]

I have done exactly the same with my Late 2012 IMac 27inch. Maxed it out with RAM and installed Linux Mint on it. Now it’s not ‘obselete’ and it’s also pretty snappy to boot! Up yours Apple….

[@BeesonsCars]

I have had one of these set up for my grandma in her office for the past 6 years or so. With an external USB 3.0 SSD it's still quite quick on Catalina. Works absolutely fine for web browsing currently including content consumption, however I'm sure this will change as Catalina is quite old now.

[@tanithis]

I swapped in an ssd into mine, plugged in the display to make sure everything was fine. Then unplugged the screen, put the adhesive and put the screen back on. Turned it on and realized I forgot to plug the screen in. That adhesive was so strong that I ended up cracking the glass in the corner trying to get it back off.

[@rabscots910]

Finally.....KDE.... I'm using Tuxedo - working beautifully with 7900 xtx. :)) I would love to see this channel find a solution to the HDMI 2.1 and linux debacle. :))

[@samshort365]

Good job! I recently installed Manjaro on my sister's early 2009 iMac, doubled the ram and installed an SSD HD. It won't win any benchmark tests, but it's great for typical office and internet use and it's certainly not obsolete just yet!

[@quadmods]

Very cool to see. Word of warning regarding the aftermarket adhesive kits, I had one kit fail at work after swapping a power supply on a 2013 iMac. 3-4 days later the screen fell out in the middle of the night smashing on the floor from desk height. Now imagine coming into work to whiteness this. As a technician I had the weirdest feeling for a few hours, not quite traumatic but uncomfortable nonetheless. TLDR Cheep adhesive kit cost $600 and changed me inside… 7:35

[@orionfl79]

Just saying, a wee bit of a home brew mad sciencey type mod using metal tape and magnetic strips instead of adhesive makes those things WAY more serviceable. The only down side is that your screen will stick out a few millimeters but its not that noticeable. ;)

[@MrAlan1828]

I have a 2013 i3 27" , adding ram 16gb on these is just simple, remove cover at back done. Upgraded the cpu to i7 , replaced the aging 1tb to 1tb SSD and installed Batocera Linux to play games and linux desktop. These imac are definately NOT obsolete. Tim Cook is

[@Smittron]

Nice video. Thanks. I'm running Xubuntu 24.04 on a 2012 15" HP laptop with a dual core Intel CPU, 8 GB RAM and a 128 GB SSD. No issues and a nice experience.

[@jonathankleinow2073]

I remember being glad that I bought a loaded 2011 27" iMac because Apple was going to make it that much harder to upgrade the iMac with the new, thinner configuration. Oh, if we'd only known just how impossible they would make upgrades... I should go clean up and test that iMac. Maybe I can get Linux working on it, too.

[@threequeersinabasement7994]

I use one of these iMacs with ubuntu as a TV like machine. Works great with all the subscription services as well as jellyfin.

[@vanCaldenborgh]

I noticed, the mid2011 21.5 iMac had a much better sound than this one released one year after. Especially after installing the EasyEffects equalizer the 2011 got a super standalone multimedia device in my kitchen, really rocks.

[@albertkovtoun662]

The value here is insane actually. If you're doing simple things like browsing the web etc. This is perfect

[@darthkielbasa]

I bought a trash can Mac Pro and dual boot Ventura/OpenSuse after running Big Sur in a VM. Amazingly resilient hardware. The used Apple market is unbeatable imo

[@SyphistPrime]

As someone who has opened several of these iMacs for an SSD upgrade, you handled it almost exactly as I did when I worked in PC repair. Although my boss didn't believe RAM upgrades were necessary at the time. It's tedious, but definitely not as bad as replacing a keyboard on a unibody 2012 macbook pro.

[@mikegoggin570]

I'd love to see someone design new internals to throw in these older shells. It's such an aesthetically pleasing design. It's such a waste to throw it away just because the internals are old or broken.

[@blakecasimir]

Another great video, sir. I find it's easier to pull the screens off these iMacs by pre-heating them with a heat gun first. I'd also be concerned about models with Geforce and Radeon graphics eventually falling foul of dying GPUs. Seen many of them. Maybe put some thermal pads on the VRAM modules as well...

[@russellbrooks3622]

I forgot you were a musician, too. Followed your old band on spotify.

[@Tomonomonous]

I picked up a 2011 MBP for $50 recently. Did some upgrades, tightened the hinge, replaced the thermal paste, and installed Debian. A perfectly good portable for a student!

[@DamianMontero]

I literally needed a video editor because my online web photoshop editor was costing me too much. Installed GIMP and then BLAM! Krita... OK. WOW! Amazing!

[@Bushidounohana]

Intel iMacs of any any vintage + Batocera = retro game station excellence. Thinking of fashioning a faux cabinet out of one.

[@TheGameboyGTS]

this video popped up while i was resetting a 2017 iMac slim, and a 2013 model, now i think i'm brave enough to do these upgrades myself. i got them for like, $1.25 each at auction only some screen cracks/chips

[@Aeduo]

Before you try the proprietary Nvidia driver, make sure it still supports that GPU. Like on windows, they do drop support for older cards on newer drivers, but linux's graphics driver API isn't quite as stable as window's so there's a lot less chance that a modern even LTS kernel will work with a very old Nvidia driver.

[@gregfarley715]

This went too smooth, what have you done with the real Action Retro

[@MyurrDurr]

I love the floating panel so much

[@mhelmreich1]

I have a 5k imac which I am running LMDE6 on, it is a fully productive and useful and enjoyable computer. I am totally satisfied with it as a work computer for 3D CAD, 2D CAD, and general business work. No need to upgrade. The screen is just beautiful, the processor is pretty performant. I don't do [much] video editing, or gaming.

[@JessePlays3434]

As of yesterday, I just got a mid-2010 polycarbonate macbook! I proceeded to install Ubuntu 24.04.

[@theaveragecactus]

have you tried mint? it's based on ubuntu but with a lot of the less favourable stuff like snaps removed

[@doctahjonez]

I got Debian on mine 😎

[@schuetting]

I have 3 of them and they are still great! Greetings from Germany

[@chadmasta5]

Currently rewatching this on a laptop with KDE Neon! My sister's friend gave it to her saying it was dead and she gave it to me. Turns out it just needed a new charger. KDE Neon is plenty smooth on this 6th gen dual core i7 and 8 gigs of ram. I was surprised even the touch screen works. I've had issues with them on linux in the past but this one worked straight away no problem!

[@LightTheUnicorn]

Runs well! Nice to see KDE Neon, too!

[@CRYPTiCEXiLE]

i have a 2011 imac in very good condition upgraed to 24gb of memory... i use arch linux / freebsd on it :) great machine.. its in a storage closet with all my hobbyist computers ... i have a problem / addiction... i have too much computers... :P and I love linux :)

[@rmcdudmk212]

Same here. I own like 3 dual core laptops that i still uses for tinkering and playing around with older programs. We may need a 12 step program for old pc users. 😂

[@vetrixfx9264]

​@@rmcdudmk212same. got a TP T60, X201, W520, an X61s is coming soon, some 2007/08 HP pavilion, a PB G4 12", a 2007 MBP 17" and probably a few others i forgot. Usually I play a few days w em and then I kinda forget them LMAO

[@waydegutman7339]

Thank you for keeping these “old” Macs running and showing that Linux can make them useful. The iMac that I would like to get a hold of is the 2017 iMac with the Xeon cpu, that would be a fun rig. Wished I kept my Mac Mini. Oh, my daily driver is a 2009 Mac Pro with Linux Mint, Sparky Linux, and MX Linux running on it. Each OS have it own job to do.

[@blackghost7263]

Just installed Debian 11 on this late 2008 iMac ;) Functions perrrfectly.

[@ThePsychoticWombat]

Try NVK and Zink, probably superbroken on a 640(hinted by the variable to set it up) but should be a fun adventure. Stuff is happening for open source nvidia

[@GuyJames]

great job. I watched this video on the chunky predecessor, the iMac 12,1 from 2011 with an SSD and High Sierra (going to put Linux Mint Cinnamon on it soon)

[@binarydinosaurs]

Had to smile when you stuck the masking tape on. Back in 2021 I bought a 2017 iMac and did the SSD/NVMe/RAM upgrade. Stuck the screen back on while it was testing. Only the testing ended up in production for a few days. Went downstairs for lunch one day and heard a crash - the screen's masking tape had come undone and the panel was on the floor. Thankfully it only cracked and didn't smash utterly so ever since then I've just kept it taped shut because new panels are £LOL.

[@falxie_]

I'd really like to see that GT 640M running with proprietary drivers. A quick search shows 430.40 being the latest compatible version

[@jamescharron8550]

Is Neon really a distribution? I thought it was just to try out the latest KDE release not something you’d daily drive.

[@RohanSpartin]

I have a 2009 iMac that I use as an XP machine. Halo 1, FEAR, Crysis, NFS Porsche Unleashed, and Diablo 2 run really well. I even have old versions of Visual Boy Advance and No$GBA for Gameboy through DS emulation. I consider it the Big Brother to my old 2004 Dell Latitude D610 that I used forever.

[@gydo1942]

I recently got an old 2009 iMac, the chonky one with the core 2 duo. I'd installed Pop OS on it before, which runs surprisingly well. Although it boots very slow, probably because of the spinning disk. The display is absolutely beautiful though. Even though it's only 1920x1080, it leaves my modern monitor well behind it in terms of vibrant colors! Definitely not obsolete, it can still be very useful.

[@ProtoFalcon07]

This is the thing I absolutely LOVE about Linux, and why I respect it, as an OS; It breathes new, USEABLE life into older machines that are no longer officially supported, and it helps mitigate them from being scrapped. While I don't primarily utilize Linux, currently (I use macOS/Windows on Hackintosh builds, and an old Mac Pro 5,1), there are a few good reasons why I keep multiple Linux ISOs archived on my NAS/Repository!

[@xiradio]

Just as I was saying to myself "I'd re-paste those heatsinks", there you go. 👍 Also, Ultramarine Linux with KDE will upgrade to Fedora 40 and Plasma 6 once you install 39 from the download, if you're into Fedora and the newest rolling kernel.

[@BradfordBeckett]

I’ve used OpenCore Legacy Patcher to breath new life into my old machines - including a 2011 iMac that works like a champ.

[@dokichokei]

KDE's entire software lineup is amazing, KDE Plasma, Krita, KDE Connect etc. And don't forget that their old rendering engine - KHTML was forked to make webkit (which safari uses) which was later forked into Blink (which chromium uses)

[@russellbrooks3622]

My daily driver PC is the same age. Still works great running Linux.

[@talos86]

A 2011 mid 27" imac works perfectly fine with the latest Sonoma(OCLP). The system have 16Gb RAM, 500Gb Samsung 850 Evo, 500Gb stock HDD and an i7 2600.

[@kopprev]

This is totally my jam. Unsupported X86 Apple hardware is still lovely-- and it runs Linux like a boss. I said jam-- probably more like jelly-- as Mint is still my Linux of choice, and it's not just a beginner distro.

[@haysoos123]

Yep the memory access is why I like the 27” versions of this iMac. Bigger screen and replaceable memory without opening the whole shebang.

[@appleinfl]

Best way I’ve found to open them is to stick the whole thing in the oven on the lowest temp for a few minutes. It gets the entire frame hot and the tape pulls apart much easier.

[@woldemunster9244]

Or maybe just use hot air gun or hairdryer to warm up the bezel area... :D

[@geckoram6286]

12:41 If you lower the biome blend to minimum it'll probably run better, I've heard it's really poorly optimized. Although, as you say, it's not a gaming machine. Great video!

[@miket.220]

My main daily driver computer is a 2012 Mac Mini that is running Linux Mint (Cinnamon), latest version, with 16gb ram and an SSD hard drive upgrade. I had thought of using the hack to upgrade it to Ventura but I had been wanting to switch to Linux for my setup, and Windows was out of the question. It runs beautifully on the upgraded Mini, no issues. Linux Mint is great because everything worked upon install except the WIFI, but Mint's Driver Manager software found the driver and installed in two minutes. Prob the easiest OS install I've done, and that includes the MacOS. I highly recommend Mint as a good Linux to start on, it can be customized to look like either Mac or Windows, or neither and is set up to "just work" about as well as any Linux distro I've ever used.

[@JureRepinc]

Also great for preserving your privacy and digital freedoms and productivity, even on modern computers. GNU/Linux is a great update over closed bloated spyware that are proprietary operating systems today. Some of them are also showing you ads these days.

[@Nukle0n]

Not gonna replace that CR2032 battery in there while you're at it? Those things are spent by now, and it'd suck to have to get the entire thing apart just for that.

[@nuclearmonster]

Great video! Loved watching you mod your 2012. I did this recently to a 2010 iMac. Worked great, and was a little easier thanks to magnets I think though the strong magnets would frequently grab screws off of my screwdrivers!

[@xmlthegreat]

Literally watching this on KDE Neon on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 6 lol.

[@ukmk3supra]

For those 2012 models, it's nice to be able to also upgrade the CPU - you should be able to slot a 3770S in there with no problems, get a bit more horsepower for cheap. I recently fished a 2015 non-retina 21.5" model out of our e-waste at work. It had the 5575 i5 CPU and 8GB RAM - found the logic board from the 4K retina model with the 5675 i5 in it and 16GB RAM, slots right in.

[@KORUPTable]

Hell for the price and the screen I might be picking one of these up!

[@Xe4ro]

Pre 2014 these are only 1080p (21,5") 1440p (27") - Late 2014 the displays became Retina ^^

[@mallardtheduck1]

I'm still using a 2010 iMac as a daily driver... Albeit with a few upgrades (more RAM, SSD, GPU). Runs Sonoma just fine with OCLP.

[@0xTJ]

I've been using KDE Plasma for years on Linux, and really like it. Though sometimes it does feel a bit "Windows 11" for my taste.

[@DCM777.]

Windows 11 looks like KDE Plasma, that's the problem!

[@JureRepinc]

Luckily KDE Plasma is so flexible and configurable you can customize and personalise it to something completely else with different layout of panels and desktop widgets and such and with a different theme and color scheme and. More. One thing that no other desktop/OS comes even close.

[@frankfriedlos3721]

Got a 2006 white iMac on 22.04 Ubuntu Mate using all the Apple hardware (thanks Mr. Gadient and all) registered Ubuntu Pro, so good till 2032 and it's really good! These old Macs last forever.

[@wtf1992lynx]

Contentious point, but about half of the thermal paste you used would've been enough for both dies 😅

[@Cart1416]

I use kde neon on my main pc, planning to install it on a surface pro

[@CubeAtlantic]

IMacs were detailed & good vibes yrs ago i haven't had those Apple computers in yrs.

[@bryans8656]

I was really into the Pi4 for a time, and KDE was my favorite of the distros.

[@aviat4ion]

My favorite linux distro 😀

[@DhavidSetiawanKilluaDhavid]

I hate to pry this open... Some iMac like this didn't have RAM slot. Upgrading 2.5 HDD to SSD was like pain in the b....

[@osgeld]

I maxed out my 2012 mac mini, slapped linux on it and it runs just great ... its my garage computer I even run freecad on it (as long as the shapes do not get too complex, its more or less the same system but intel graphics and no screen)

[@michaelheimbrand5424]

They were always built for UNIX. No wonder they are great with BSD and Linux. My 2008 Dual Xeon Mac Pro and my 2010 27-inch iMac+extra 27" Cinema Display are both beast with OpenBSD (and Linux).

[@ElShogoso]

You forgot to censor the thermal paste application!

[@fairmania]

I got a 'broken' 2011 Macbook Pro for £10, the only thing broken was the file system. One SSD, 16GB of ram and it's running Linux Mint beautifully. The equipment is lovely if fiddly to work on sometimes, but well made an great to use. My new laptop, came in under £60 all in.

[@algizmo7079]

Couple of weeks ago I found a 2019 Imac 21.5" screen called 19.2 Looks beautiful with 4k screen. Just finished swapping out 8thgen I3 for 9th gen I5, and putting in 32GB ram in place of 4GB. I spent £122 on the iMac and £35 on the I5, the ram came from existing laptop so all in all I spent about $199. Lemme see how it suits Pop!OS...

[@randyhaglund7557]

Got you beat Im watching this video and its my daily driver an HP with phenom2 x4-16gb came out in 2009!

[@patricktrakzel9657]

I still run a 2009 Imac with Debian 12. It has a i7 860 @ 2.80GHz and 16 GB DDR3, 500 GB SSD. With AMD Radeon graphics card. These seem to fail a lot due to overheating so take out the cd/dvd drive and close the gap with some tape for better airflow. It runs great. And because mine is the 'fat' model, no adhesive but magnets. I can take of the glas with my fingernails. Older Macs hold their value pretty good ( in Spain they are more expensive than in the USA ) and are still usable. Either with Open Core Legacy Patcher ( for MacOS ) and/or your favorite Linux distro.

[@Mbro-dq2do]

so dope!! Thank You for showing me how basic it really is

[@CygnusTM]

I’m planning a similar upgrade on a 2011 27” iMac. It will be much easier since that one is the thicker model. You missed an opportunity to upgrade the CPU, though. I’m going to slap an i7 in mine.

[@PJRye]

My desktop is a 2013 (Haswell) i7-4770K. Running Ubuntu 22.04. Still running well, plenty of grunt, nowhere near obsolete. Give proprietary OS's a big miss.

[@aronkvh]

I'm daily driving an i7-3770K and with a dGPU everything is smooth and fast