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Liberating the MacBook Air 2013 with Linux
- killjoywashere 4y agoDropped Ubuntu 22.04 on an original 15" rMBP. Nice to finally have a high end Linux laptop. Now, if only the cmd-ctrl functionality was consistent across OSes.
- xnx 4y agoDepending on your goals, ChromeOS Flex is another excellent and way to revitalize older laptops like MacBook Airs.
- cmcconomy 4y ago* macbooks air
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- enriquto 4y agoIn GEOD, the author alternates freely between "the Duncan Idahos", "the Idahos" and (gasp) "the Duncans". I don't recall ever reading "the Duncans Idaho", but it would be cool.
- rsynnott 4y agoI think that, even if you accept Apple's rather awkward usage, it's less clear that it works for the Duncan Idaho case; that's a single name which happens to be split into two words, whereas the 'Air' in MacBook Air is a descriptor.
- shepherdjerred 4y agoI love both that a Dune book is being used as a source of truth, and you know the plurals used for the gholas.
- qup 4y agoi veto this
- UmYeahNo 4y agomacs books air
- mikae1 4y agoJust gave Fedora a go on my 2015 MacBook Air. The most frustrating thing was how bad the trackpad suddenly sucked. I haven't tried https://howchoo.com/linux/the-perfect-almost-touchpad-settings-on-linux-2 https://howchoo.com/linux/the-perfect-almost-touchpad-settin... yet.
- toastal 4y agoSo Apple doesn’t have a monopoly on “good” trackpads and most things are fixed with software? But hardware is the arguments they make for their Apple purchases!
- pseudostem 4y agoNot exactly, I tried to configure the trackpad open-source (driver?) ages ago. The hardware itself has so many features/switches which are not open and hence not available to the software. The hardware and software go hand in hand IMO. Maybe things have changed now, this was at least 7+ years ago.
- Toutouxc 4y agoAs a customer I don’t really care if it’s hardware or software, Apple delivers where others don’t.
- whateveracct 4y agoHah I too have a 2013 Air that's collecting dust with its 4GB RAM that I want to boot NixOS on. Thanks for the nudge.
- whateveracct 4y agoI really don't believe in trashing computers. That Air can probably still run emacs and ssh in 2030. That alone can be valuable.
- jandrese 4y agoThe biggest problem is usually the battery just plain giving up. Sometimes blowing up like a balloon and damaging the case. Unfortunately Apple makes it quite challenging to replace the battery on an Air, or any of their modern laptops.
- fsagx 4y agoOn the older airs, it's very simple. I finally got around to replacing the battery on a 2011 air that I still use every day. Cost about $65 and took about ten minutes. The kit even came with the odd little screwdriver bits I needed.
- wrycoder 4y agoI’ve got a 2013 Air. I’ve replaced the battery twice and doubled the size of the SSD. Compared to replacing the battery on an iPhone, it’s a piece of cake. Just buy the battery from iFixit and follow their online instructions.
- winrid 4y agoFWIW my 4gb 2012 air runs latest OSX pretty well. I mostly just run terminal and Webstorm. Gotta watch those chrome tabs lol
- Toutouxc 4y agoFWIW my GF has just finished her Master’s thesis on my old 4GB 2013 Pro. So apparently it’s still good for that.
- mikae1 4y agoA lack of web browsers for older versions of macOS shouldn't be a problem when there's https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy
- Jnr 4y agoI installed Linux on Macbook Air 2012 the day I bought it in 2012. I actually still have it in use. :) Back then the driver support was great, until I think 2014 when the security chip was introduced and a few drivers were missing for some years.
- microtonal 4y agoT1 was only introduced in 2016 on touch bar MacBook Pro models. The T2 only came too the MacBook Air in 2016. Luckily Linux on Apple Silicon Macs is becoming very good.
- drblah 4y agoI have tried this multiple times on my 2014 MBA and it works mostly. Unfortunately, my model has some weird hardware(?) issue where the screen starts flickering when the intel i915 driver is loaded AND something communicates on the smbus. So if the cooling fan kicks in, or I use the function keys to change keyboard backlight brightness, my screen starts flickering. Same thing happened when I tried dual booting Windows. I guess Apple has some workaround for this specific hardware model. Now this Macbook is running Debian and is relegated to be a headless controller for my 3D printer with Klipper. It's pretty amazing for this, as it boots in like 5 seconds.
- mirekrusin 4y agoSome time ago did Linux install on iMac 27" which didn't accept macOS upgrades anymore due to old hardware (which is very decent!). I've been using Ubuntu for very long time. But I started using popOS (Ubuntu based) - and on my - I didn't realize how polished and perfect it is, all Ubuntu muscle memory can stay as is etc. I've got it on other machine (Ryzen with GTX 4090) and all this first class support for deep learning (https://support.system76.com/articles/tensorman/ https://support.system76.com/articles/tensorman/) is great.
- nehal3m 4y agoLove their DE. Make sure you try the hybrid tiling mode!
- Synaesthesia 4y agoFWIW you can run Monterey on all post 2012 macs with OCLP, and I highly recommend it, best version of OSX on my Mac yet (MBP 2012)
- jventura 4y agoIs it fast enough? At least compared to previous versions (like Mojave, etc.).. I have my MBP late 2013 still on Mojave, but willing to move on if it's (almost) as good..
- josegonzalez 4y agoI recently upgraded a Macbook Pro 2012 13" to High Sierra. Works quite well (already had 16GB of ram) and even recently got a security update late last year. I avoided newer OSs as there were complaints about UI performance and stuttering from my research.
- Synaesthesia 4y agoNo there are no performance issues on Monterey for me.
- Synaesthesia 4y agoYeah it is, actually fastest OS yet for me, and most stable.
- focusedone 4y agoOCLP let me run Ventura on a 2010 MBP. It's shockingly stable and runs pretty well. It's working a little harder than it did on Monterey, but I suspect a few updates will have it running cool again.
- trustingtrust 4y agoLiberating an M1 MacBook Air in another 4-5 years is going to be quite something. Asahi is making really good progress and in a couple of years maybe you may be able to hand out M1 MBAs with Linux like candy. My M1 MBA is already so fast compared to my intel DESKTOP from 2018 that I can’t wait to daily drive Linux on it.
- gambiting 4y agoPresumably the M1 Linux distro won't have access to the Rosetta translation layer to run X86 programs? Or will that work anyway?
- bilqis 4y agoMy favourite laptop of all time is Macbook Pro mid-2015, with Debian GNU/Linux. It works flawlessly and almost out of box, SSD can still be easily replaced, and the screen is amazing.
- Yaggo 4y agoAlso it’s equipped with plain old HDMI and USB-A ports, still so useful.
- masklinn 4y agoTBF and much to my dismay HDMI was returned with the ARM mbps (the real ones not the 13”).
- kayodelycaon 4y agoWhy would having an HDMI port be a bad thing?
- masklinn 4y agoBecause it removes a thunderbolt port which I could use, whereas I don't need an HDMI port. In the ~18 months I've had it, I've used the HDMI port a grand total of 0 times.
- quijoteuniv 4y agoThe hardware is a joy to use, i used several years a macair 2011 snd now upgraded to a macair 2015 with ubuntu. Only had ti fix the wifi. Such a nice machine. Looking forward to get my hands on an M1 when they start to be old :D
- simongray 4y agoThe M1 Macbook Air is such a good machine, even several years after its introduction. So nice, in fact, that the M2 version really isn't all that enticing.
- suction 4y ago[dead]
- lenkite 4y agoWasn't Raspberry PI for desktop recommended for old macbooks earlier here ? https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/raspberry-pi-desktop/ https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/raspberry-pi-desktop/
- jbverschoor 4y ago"Are you tired of not getting security updates?" Not really, as I'm not running Android
- jokoon 4y agoHow is power management? I remember trying it ten years ago and a MacBook was asthmatic, always heating and ventilating.
- gabegm 4y agoStill the same unless you're willing to spend hours tweaking.
- holoduke 4y agoI have a macbook air from 2013 running ubuntu and hosting all kinds of things like home assistant, plex, sonarr, radarr. I placed the laptop in our storage room since 2016. Waiting for its final days :)
- qbasic_forever 4y agoThose generations of MacBook Airs were just unbelievably amazing laptops for the time. They were lighter and more portable than anything else, but still had plenty of ports and functionality (even the old beloved magnet-based power cables). It was the first non-Thinkpad laptop that I enjoyed using. This post is going to make me dust off an old 2013 Air I have kicking around and see if I can fix a broke space bar and get it running Linux.
- rsynnott 4y agoIt has to be one of the longest-lasting laptop designs ever. The first-gen MBAs were a little different, but from 2010 to 2022 there was almost no change to the basic design (they finally gave it up with the M2 one). Screens got better, ports went Thunderbolt-y, but the look and feel essentially never changed. I can't think of a laptop design that's been this static for this long. _Maybe_ the more conventional Thinkpad designs?
- lupire 4y agoIn 2018 (and continuing in 2019) they switched to the butterfly keyboard (named that because after a while the keys mature and fly away from the keyboard).
- creshal 4y agoEven Thinkpads iterated more often than the basic Air design. And the direct competitor to the original Air got cancelled after two years.
- e4e5 4y agoMy first Linux device was a 2013 MacBook Pro, a phenomenal device.
- vrglvrglvrgl 4y ago[dead]
- anony23 4y agoI installed ubuntu on my 2013 air aboit a year ago and it's a solid experience.
- theSIRius 4y agoI have been thinking of going down the Linux route on my 2017 15". But I am unsure if it is even feasible to get it up-and-running with the T2. With the new ARM processors the discontinuation of support for Intel-based machines is just a question of time even though the hardware is still more than capable.
- pantalaimon 4y agoCheck out https://t2linux.org/ https://t2linux.org/
- theSIRius 4y agoThanks a lot! I'll give it a chance once I have some time.
- jonotime 4y agoIts doable, but takes some extra work for the T2. I put arch on my MBPro 2019. Wifi is fine, but video playback and audio are a bit glitchy.
- theSIRius 4y agoYeah, I would expect something in that vein. I think the pros outweigh the sluggishness of desktop rearrangement or non-existent updates. Maybe I would finally get into some driver development if it became my main machine.
- j45 4y agoNeat app, it would be nice to be able to continue seeing a record button after the first transcription is done so it's just one interface. As well, if the voice notes could be indented it could be passed on to group information together as desired. The voiceliner app might be of interest to you.
- jgwil2 4y agoMy 2014 Air is still my personal computer. The battery needs to be replaced but other than that everything still works perfectly fine. When I finally do replace it, I'll probably go with Linux though.
- denysonique 4y agoThe only remaining bit is a Linux driver making the trackpad as smooth as under macOS.
- dukeofdoom 4y agoI have a 2013 MacBook still runs perfect. I still use it to boot into windows on it the few times I need windows. plus the SD slot on it works where as the one on my adapter which I need to use with the m1 crapped out in months
- mark_l_watson 4y agoWell, great advice. Last winter, Apple introduced better end to end encryption for iCloud data. But, there was a catch! All Apple devices required an OS update, or none of your devices could use the better encryption. I has a MacBook Air 2014 and a slightly newer MacBook that could not be updated. I installed latest Ubuntu LTS on each, and they are now delightful to use. If in the future battery replacements are still available, with occasional Linux updates, these could be "forever laptops."
- mattray 4y agoThere's a large community of folks who have upgraded the SSDs on these, I've upgraded 5 to very good results: https://mattray.github.io/2020/06/15/upgrading-macbook-pro-ssds-updated.html https://mattray.github.io/2020/06/15/upgrading-macbook-pro-s... And when the screens don't work they make great little servers running Debian.
- btgeekboy 4y agoI tried to do something similar recently with my 2015 12" MacBook, but the hardware support just isn't there. (I've tried both the latest Ubuntu and Fedora; both have issues with the keyboard and trackpad not being usable after sleep.) Unfortunately, given the age of the hardware, I don't have high hopes of that changing.
- bdcravens 4y agoLinus famously used a Macbook Air from that era https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/19/an-interview-with-millenium-technology-prize-finalist-linus-torvalds/ https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/19/an-interview-with-milleniu...