Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!news.misty.com!border2.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!buffer2.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!buffer1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2022 18:48:58 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 From: Robert Heller Organization: Deepwoods Software X-Newsreader: TkNews 3.0 (1.2.13) Subject: Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? In-Reply-To: <20220615190552@news.eternal-september.org> References: <20220615190552@news.eternal-september.org> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.questions,comp.os.linux.setup Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Originator: heller@sharky4.deepsoft.com Message-ID: <_5qdnd_HFe138jf_nZ2dnUU7-RnNnZ2d@giganews.com> Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2022 18:48:58 -0500 Lines: 46 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-Uth+JeEcNV2SOVAbzUNxX6x8ZC1BAmOWMvVeBZXpnlMbA05UuIYhPxvIg855ZPTMTnGm6Et8gyYXOWQ!ETACxyVIIM8VN6/DB4xVjD7ByDSCWbezXS4nTkBoF2nY6DAr684AvjYv6q3Uz0Uh7t7LG1++0MZ0!hh4= X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 3653 Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.hardware:3530 comp.os.linux.misc:34806 comp.os.linux.setup:4771 At Wed, 15 Jun 2022 23:16:33 -0000 (UTC) Roger Blake wrote: > > On 2022-06-15, Ant wrote: > > Hello. > > > > I have a 14 years old old MacBook Pro (15" A1260 model, unibody; 2.4 Ghz > > Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB (667 MHz) of DDR2 SDRAM, 200 GB HDD, NVIDIA > > GeForce 8600M GT (256 MB of VRAM), & Mac OS X (El Capitan v10.11.6)) > > from early 2008. Its software are too old, unsupported, and too slow. > > > > I'm thinking about replacing them with Linux, but which one would be > > suitable for it? I still want basic GUI like web browsing. I remember > > trying doing the same for an old PowerBook G4, but I couldn't get its > > wifi to work with various Linux installations. I hope this won't happen > > again with it. > > I'm writing this on a 2004-vintage Acer laptop of similar specifications, > a Centrino-based system with 2GB memory and an old OCZ "Vertex" 30GB > SSD I had laying around. I'm running Lubuntu 18.04 on it and performance > is not bad. I expect though if I had left the original slow mechanical > drive in this thing it would be a lot more sluggish. > > It can even play youtube videos, albeit in SD. The problem is that 18.04 > was the last version to support 32-bit CPUs. I think your Core 2 Duo is > 64-bit internally but with a 32-bit data bus. It can run 64-bit software > but with reduced performance compared to a full 64-bit CPU. I think even newer versions support 32-bit CPUs, but 16.04 is the last version with a 32-bit installer. One can install 16.04, and then do do-release-upgrade to get to the more recent releases -- do-release-upgrade will go from 16.04 to 18.04, then doing it again will go to 20.04, then again to 22.04, and in a couple of years, you should be able to go to 24.04... If it can run 64-bit software it is in fact a 64-bit CPU. I don't think the OS is going to care about the size of the *physical* data bus, so long as the instruction set is 64-bit. > -- Robert Heller -- Cell: 413-658-7953 GV: 978-633-5364 Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services heller@deepsoft.com -- Webhosting Services