First look: Linux Mint 21 beta, on a 10 year old Mac!

Thx to spread the procedure, I 'm a big fan of Linux mint and also did install it on several Mac with OS X custom themes that looks like Monterey or Snow Leopard. On my Pcs, I keep the original look so people can notice that I 'm using Mint instead of Windows. It 's a fantastic distribution and it keeps getting better and better at each versions.

Questions-
if I want to move from Windows 10 to Linux and having all the third party software run on Linux.
Some of those are portable software which don't need installation on windows. Will the work?
Also, I would like to keep the look and feel as in Windows 10 with a "start" menu as it was in windows 7.

which version of Linux will do the job without any hassle?

What do you use to make music on linux?

well Veronica thank you for clear about everyting I just get confuse i have mac mini 2014 late so its 8 Gb ram so if i gonna install linux mint on it will be work perfectly ?

Is there a way to install NVidia's official drivers on an old Mac without getting the overheat ??

Can you please share what your wi-fi usb is?

Thats delamination on the screen and its easy to remove with baking soda mixed with water if done carefully!

Thanks!

I'm guessing the cpu fan/cooling fin area would be a bit blocked with fluff and dust, causing the cpu high temps. It can get pretty clogged, easy to remove the fan and remove the dust bunny! ( you need the ifixit tools or similar though.)

I've been ask to fix a old macbook pro the Opencore legacy patcher for Macos works on it but makes it so slooow. I'm installing mint and i'm very surprise on how good it works on this laptop

Installed Mint 21.2 on my Macbook Air. I needed to download a WiFi driver (easy to do), but have not got the webcam or keyboard backlighting to work. It's annoying, but otherwise works great.

How install DEBIAN_SID from DEBIAN 12??? THANKS from ALGERIA...

My MBAir is a 2015 model. I found that everything worked out of the box once I loaded the correct WiFi driver, except the internal FacetimeHD camera. But some searching around the Internet got me landed on a Github page where I could download and compile a reverse-engineered driver, and with a little tinkering it did work (not with Cheese, but with Gucview. I did, however, get a "tainted kernel" warning on the next boot up. Your mileage may vary. All that said, I did not know anything about OBS until I saw Veronica's video, and now I'm curious if that would be a more graceful way to get the camera working using a "virtual" driver.

I had been using Ubuntu since I tried it in one of my old windows machines, and it just worked. I played around for several years with it, until Ubuntu adopted the Unity desktop. I switched to Mint, and have used it as my primary OS until I retired (the university required Windows or Apple to access the database), and now I use Mint exclusively and haven't looked back. I help my wife manage her Windows system, and from that experience, I would never go back. While watching this video, I ordered a 2013 Mac Air to run Mint, and will use it as my "carry with me" machine when I travel. Thanks for your encouragement. I love your videos and subscribed.

I use Linux mint in my Toshiba Satellite (formerly Windows 10) as my main machine everyday. I also use WattOS on an old MacBook Air, and it’s fantastic there. (Except I can’t seem to get tkinter to work there.) I don’t really use my Surface (Windows 11) very much anymore.

I started with Slackware back in the day before RH existed. My daily driver is Linux Mint.

Thank You so much Veronica for this video
I’m a huge fan of Linux Mint. Actually, I have a hobby of installing Linux Mint or other Linux distros on old laptops or power PCs. I have a Linux Mint Pentium D computer that works perfectly.

I like elementary OS on my MacBook

I didn't understand a word??

I use Linux Mint on both my laptop and my desktop. Love it, I use the debian addition on the laptop and cinnamon Ubuntu on my desktop. Both are Macs and the newest is the laptop, it is a 2013 Air. The desktop is a 2011 mini.

Great idea unfortunately I fell into a trap. Live ISO runs and by using Driver manager a WiFi driver was loaded and internet connects. When I installed from the live screen and rebooted I could not get a WiFi connection. The driver manager identified the same alternative driver I needed but the process failed due to lack of WiFi connection. I tried a Wavlink AC650 WiFi USB adapter but I found that this and most others don't have drivers that will work with Linux. My next step is to get a WiFi adapter that Veronica held up in this video that apparently works with Linux out of the box. I did start the LM21 install on a 2013 MacBook Air with HD completely wiped whereas Veronica started with just the user data wiped. I am not expecting that to be a problem because the LM21 ran perfectly Live from a USB ISO. I will comment again after I get my hands on a Linux compatible TP single band WiFi adapter similar to the one Veronica finds useful.

I installed and have been using Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon on a 9-year-old iMac 13. It does start a little slow when first booting because of the old platter drive. Other than that it runs great.

Hello, Veronica. Can I install Linux on an iMac Retina 27 inch from mid-2014? I did it some time ago (I used Linux Mint), but had problems with the screen resolution (everything was too small, even after installing the video card drivers), and with mp4 files (they wouldn't sound). Eventually, I had to go back to MacOS. I'd love to have my iMac run Linux and get rid of Apple software for good. Have you heard of before of the problems I had? What did I do wrong?

10 years old is nothing! ;-) I installed Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon on a 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.

I'm doing that as well Linux mint is running on my 2012 MacBook but I might go back to arch I forgot to say because somebody will probably try it if you are new to Linux do not try arch it for more advanced users

I have mint running on a compaq 6710b I picked up for free. I bumped up the ram to 4GB and it runs pretty well.

Thank you for giving me the idea, I have a mid-2010 MBP with Catalina, but I think I will install Linux Mint; I have Ubuntu on a dell laptop. Also, what is the model of the tp link wifi?

We have been using Linux Mint in our household since I dumped Ubuntu because of its silly Unity desktop back in the day. My kid, who is now in University, has been using Linux Mint since then. The first thing I did when she got her first Thinkpad was to remove Windows and install Linux Mint, four years ago!

well,, a year after this went up, and i do use mint, have for couple of years,,daily driver dual booted with W 8.1( yeah, i know)

Like many others, I like Linux Mint and use it as my default distro. it just works out of the box and - as you showed - with an add-on wifi card you can easily get any uncommon hardware configured during the install process. FWIW, I have a mid-2009 MacBook that I keep threatening to install Linux Mint on, I'll have to compare my mileage with yours.

slightly OT, as an active COBOL person, would you consider doing an episode on the use of COBOL in essential legacy systems (looks at the IRS), the work used to keep those systems running, and what the challenges and obstacles to migrating to something newer are? I work for a govt agency and keeping certain dinos up and running is a never ending chore.

thanks for a great video!

I'd love to see a warpinator video ESPECIALLY if you make a doofenshmertz reference 😂

Awesome video Veronica!
I am a noob at Linux. And have spent several hours with dozens of forums and videos trying to decide which to go for as my first Distro. I was about to go for Fedora until I saw your recent video on the Red Hat's decisions. Then this video just confirmed that Mint is the safe start for me :D

Subscribed as well! Your clarity in going over the subjects and wonderful humor is awesome!

Linux makes Macbooks almost functional! Apple should consider ditching OSX altogether.

A coworker suggested I do this on my 10 yr old hdd macbook pro that is at my parents house in another state. So I've been visiting and it was a cool project to get Linux Mint dual booting on it. I went with xfce flavor, because I wanted to be on the safe side. All I need to do with it is check email and internet searches. Now it is back to being usable!

I'm running linux on 10 years old Asus computer without issues. Why should there be any?

Lol, THOSE nvidia drivers are not made for macbooks.

I use Linux Mint on all of my old Windows XP netbooks from the 2000's and also a recently purchased Mini PC with a decent size monitor and it works great. Easy to install.
I found your video because I'm hoping to acquire a Macbook Air (2014) from a friend of mine shortly.!!! My own Macbook Pro from 2014 has the same issue with the screen, it's the anti-reflective coating. I've managed to remove most of it from mine with alcohol and a soft cloth!

the macbook screen is de-laminating. the coating on the screen is easily worn away with caustic chemicals. rubbing alcohol, and ammonia (most glass cleaners) eat away at the coating.

Guys from Debian should learn a thing or two from Linux Mint !

1. This one is not related to Linux Mint but is applicable for Debian , LM , Ubuntu & many other point release Linux OS .

Which is why not design the installation software in such a way that it automatically search the system for missing drivers while also testing the system for compatibility with kernel that has been shipped with ISO during the initial stages of Installation process.

And then suggest the user later during that installation process through a menu to install or skip those missing drivers & suggest a newer kernel version than that came with installation ISO so OS works right from get go !

I think this feature is possible to do & will be a boon to many users having newest hardwares .

Why leave them out of the Linux universe just because kernel support is not available for their system !


2. Debian should have a "default Graphical update manager " like that of ' Mint update manage ' which must be shipped with all of the Desktop Environments in debian as a standard package manager along with synaptic manager as backup ( that means no more discover app for updating stuffs in KDE plasma )

3. Debian "default Graphical update manager " like ' Mint update manage ' should also contain a menu where it shows available multiple Linux kernels than can be installed ( old , current stable & latest backport kernels ).

In this case i like how manjaro makes it easy for installing kernels , which is a benchmark !

4. Like Linux Mint , debian should have a software that automatically searches all of the missing drivers needed by system like that of graphic card or wifi after installation .

5. Debian must have a default graphical software manager to install softwares with flatpak support included in it & it must be shipped as standard in all of their Desktop environments .

I love Linux Mint, it's been my daily driver for 10 years :)

I'd also like to see a video on Warpinator ;)

Great video, thanks Veronica! Another vote for a Timeshift video please!

thank you for the detailed video!!!

I'm using Linux Mint for my main computer, but still have a Windows 11 machine for a few things. Most if not all of the apps I use on Windows are available on Linux Mint and/or have web versions.

The windows machine is mostly for games my son plays, and for familiarity for my wife. If it was just me, I'd be entirely on Linux Mint.

I'm currently running Linux Mint 21.2 on a 2015 MBA (i7) with 1TB of storage. It works very well. It's very responsive.

Is there a Linux distro that copies the Windows 10 layout?. (or have it as a custom option)
Personally Windows 10 is my favorite layout, but i refuse to buy new hardware for Windows 11, so Linux something something it is!. .

Linux Mint is my daily driver. And I've installed it on a 2012 Macbook with a "retina" display and used that for a while. It just works.

Even Alpine Linux offers a speed test for mirrors during installation ...

I stuck Mint on a new partition on my old high school laptop earlier this year. It works wonders for troubleshooting faulty disks and messing around with media.

I have my Dell Inspiron from 2011 running Linux Mint 21.2 (Victoria) and it's well worth it.