Modern Ubuntu is KILLER on old Intel Macs!

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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

[@lucyinchat]

it's gnome4X now.

[@ActionRetro]

Ah whoops lol. GNOME 44

[@zilog1]

That new gnome is sexy AF imo.

[@andrzejos7003]

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

[@kargaroc386]

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]

@@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]

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

[@AnotherSkyTV]

Yeah

[@marh122]

and calling it "she" for some reason

[@michaelmcshane6395]

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

[@apreturns]

the reason laptops/pcs dont turn on immediatly after upgrading is because the computer hs to run self diagnostics to detect the new added devices

[@DouglasWalrath]

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

[@ActionRetro]

Ohhhhhhhh that makes sense

[@stephanemignot100]

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

[@geraldgutsueii3324]

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

[@ActionRetro]

@@stephanemignot100 🤣😅

[@bjn714]

@@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]

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

[@AnotherSkyTV]

Interesting

[@jsalsman]

Plain Debian is even better, 10%ish.

[@TheSulross]

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]

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

[@johnlozauskas778]

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]

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]

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

[@supergeekjay]

@@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]

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]

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

[@brodogman484]

Someone teach buddy about optifine and sodium lol

[@microcolonel]

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]

Contributing to the electronic waste problem.

[@tamwilfred]

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]

@@tamwilfredit was 2016

[@protocetid]

@@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]

​@@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]

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]

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!

[@UpLateGeek]

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]

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!

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

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]

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

[@StaceyAyodele]

@@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]

@@NRGY Yeah adelie linux is one of them

[@BilisNegra]

@@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]

Gentoo PPC was also … an experience. :D

[@dosdude1]

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]

Woah, dosdude is among us! 😂

[@ActionRetro]

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

[@Wilus0]

@@ActionRetro water-cool it

[@jayfalzarano8046]

This is because DosDude is a bonafide Mac Genius!

[@escapetherace1943]

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.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

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 KZbin 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.)

[@TheDemocrab]

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]

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

[@TheDemocrab]

@@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]

​@@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]

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

[@tbm7301]

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.

[@roberthazelby4424]

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.

[@pixelpusher8986]

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.

[@trylleklovn]

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]

This is not used by mad gaming noobs !

[@Francois_L_7933]

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]

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

[@CoffeeOnRails]

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]

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

[@gambyt5952]

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

[@chucku00]

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]

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]

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

[@chyldstudios]

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

[@davidrobb3338]

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]

Did Linux impact battery life?

[@davidrobb3338]

@@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]

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

[@Auroraixion]

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.

[@guyhornbeck8940]

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.

[@BeesonsCars]

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]

Wow imagine getting computers from school, must be nice

[@rfwillett2424]

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

[@fbelard]

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.

[@mediocrefunkybeat]

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]

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

[@ninline2000]

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]

@@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]

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

[@tejasraman6913]

You should use either Fedora Workstation or OCLP.

[@sjgrall]

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]

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]

@@bsnedden Which version? I'm curious.

[@kbhasi]

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

[@David_Quinn_Photography]

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]

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

[@tanmoymridha5002]

I just love how you revive old machines

[@ShadeAssault]

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]

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]

​@@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]

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

[@ShadeAssault]

@@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]

@@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.

[@otter-pro]

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.

[@grandmaster101587458]

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.

[@jonsouth1545]

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.

[@zenbrandon]

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]

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]

@@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]

@@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

[@DontGetHit648]

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

[@brad1785]

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]

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

[@tuxi04]

@@lucasremthat was not an NVMe drive.

[@bitduelist]

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

[@pulsatingsausageboy2076]

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

[@randallsmith2521]

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.

[@wxTVTWC]

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]

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

[@JonTrott]

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

[@ShadowPriestBear]

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

[@sn1000k]

I enjoy your delivery and tone

[@rickkarrer8370]

My daughter has the 2012 model running Monterey via OCLP. It’s a great little computer. Gives me PowerBook Duo vibes.

[@tejasraman6913]

Same here (2011 MacBook Pro) but I’m dual booting with Fedora

[@inatorpiggies1560]

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

[@NeoNine10]

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.

[@JapanPop]

I still have my 2013 11” air with i7, 8GB, and 512GB I had ordered custom. For too much money then, but it managed to do everything I wanted it to and more. And still does!

[@mi2595bs]

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.

[@pete3897]

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]

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

[@pete3897]

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

[@beenine5557]

@@pete3897 I stand corrected.

[@NaoPb]

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

[@TechKingdom35]

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.

[@OzRetrocomp]

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]

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.

[@linux42069]

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]

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

[@linux42069]

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

[@DengueBurger]

@@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

[@userperson5259]

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 KZbin 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...

[@thewillsfamilyaccount6486]

Nicely done! 😊

[@socketwench]

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.

[@AutumnRain]

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]

Until Retina displays arrived every MacBook was easy to work on

[@cringemaki]

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.

[@hippiejeez]

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

[@brianb6653]

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]

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.

[@SyphistPrime]

I'm apart of a discord for Minecraft optimization mods and i would like to point out that Java Edition tends to run the best under Linux, especially on old hardware, and even more so on old Intel integrated graphics. 23.04 was probably the right choice for performance in MC too as you would have a more up to date Mesa driver than 22.04 LTS. Nothing wrong with showing off the gains, just something interesting to note about Minecraft. This thing with Sodium and Lithium could probably stay above 30 fps easily on a proper render distance and if tuned right could possibly even do around 60 fps. Also Fast graphics are kinda "broken" in the sense that they don't increase performance due to a bug that's been around for a while. Most of your gains were from lowering your render distance. Still, I loved the video and it was entertaining to watch over my lunch break.

[@stevenlu7324]

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.

[@mllarson]

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]

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

[@daol03]

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]

I believe the airs are fanless

[@jrayv]

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

[@user-ec8zd8zp4x]

I have a M1 Air with 16GB mem/512GB SSD as my daily driver now, but until about a year ago, I used a 2012 Air with 8GB mem/1TB Samsung SSD with Fedora Linux. I also replaced the battery and renewed the thermal paste on the CPU a couple of times. I use the old one in my hobby room now. It is still going strong!

[@indy1725]

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]

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

[@indy1725]

@@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!

[@zilog1]

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

[@TheSulross]

the bonus in installing Ubuntu with Gnome is not only get better performance (leaner kernel architecture) but also get a superior desktop GUI

[@migo-migo9503]

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

[@40percentyt]

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]

I think there was a workaround to turn those messages off

[@jktech1955]

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

[@elmukaltino]

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]

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]

@@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]

@@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. ;-)

[@codysandusky2130]

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!

[@biotrekker]

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.

[@paytonbostwick2899]

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]

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]

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]

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

[@joeMW284]

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

[@lookatmygames]

Thanks for this video, learned somethings.

[@jamesregan688]

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

[@charleschilton3818]

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]

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

[@babyboomertwerkteam5662]

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

[@CommodoreFan64]

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]

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

[@jktech1955]

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

[@tejasraman6913]

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]

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]

@@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]

@@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]

@@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...

[@FrancescoAloisio-pc5ev]

Great job!🎉

[@berkant_k]

I had that same model of MacBook Air back in the day, and it was such an amazing little machine I kinda miss it

[@jswidget]

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]

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]

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]

@@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.

[@tyttuut]

The 70MB/s read, 5MB/s write ratings are a red flag for crappy flash.

[@user-th4us5kl1k]

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

[@skirnir393]

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

[@georgecagle3829]

This is such a cool breakdown!

[@miskaknapek]

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" :)

[@MacintoshMen]

I used to have a stock 2010 model, despite the only 2GB RAM it ran pretty fast on Mountain Lion. I then sold it.

[@amadzarak7746]

I was literally thinking about doing this last night!

[@leandrocosta3709]

Well, I'm watching this on a big TV, with the image being shared as a second desktop from a 13" MacBook Pro mid-2009 (Core 2 Duo), with maxed out RAM (8Gb), 420Gb SSD and running MacOS X 10.11.6 El Capitan. Runs just fine for most things anway.

[@pipoviola]

Nice job, man. Thank you.

[@XinLiu]

The Minecraft world you guys built is so cool!

[@the123king]

I daily drove a top spec 2015 11" air until a few months ago, when the charging circuits in it died and it refused to charge without being fully drained. An incident with coffee and toddlers was it's downfall. Despite it's age and thermal limitations, it was a solid machine, still more than capable of holding up in 2023. Those machines, in good working order, still fetch a premium price, for a good reason.

[@nix-nicholas]

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.

[@AlexKiraly]

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.

[@livefreeprintguns]

I still have my 11" MacBook air! I used to be the maintainer for the linux-macbook AUR package for Arch Linux.

[@abhas1]

Such an awesome video! Thanks for sharing this! I will try breathing some life into my old MBA from 2012 😅

[@TronNerd82]

It's always a good day when Action Retro puts out a new video!

[@djazz0]

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

[@peterdempster2257]

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

[@josevschmidt]

I had a work colleague that used to say that the perfect Windows machine was actually one of those old macs. It's a really neat piece of tech overall

[@PotatoFi]

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!

[@Ricelord4]

I just installed Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS on my 2009 13" MacBookPro5,5, and it really does breathe new life into these older Intel Macs. Granted, I also have macOS Mojave 10.14 that I installed using dosdude1's patch as a dual-boot on it, and that runs all right. But to have a brand-new OS that can run modern web browsers is such a game changer. Even installing Broadcom Wi-Fi drivers for the Airport Extreme card and NVIDIA drivers for the GT 9400M GPU was super easy. Everything works, and with an exFAT partition to store files, I can freely access the data on either OS.