Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro?

Subject	Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro?
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.hardware, comp.os.linux.help, comp.os.linux.misc, comp.os.linux.questions, comp.os.linux.setup
References	<gYWdnXiEs-uJtTf_nZ2dnUU7-QVQAAAA@earthlink.com> <t8f3kg$n9q$1@dont-email.me> <87bkusibwg.fsf@usenet.ankman.de> <t8hjaf$j9i$1@dont-email.me>
From	"25.BX945" <25BZ495@nada.net>
Date	2022-06-18 20:09 -0400
Message-ID	<CNWdndPYCfqq9DP_nZ2dnUU7-VPNnZ2d@earthlink.com> (permalink)

Cross-posted to 5 groups.

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On 6/17/22 5:59 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 16/06/2022 21:36, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
>> On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 12:19:44 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>>
>>> On 15/06/2022 19:42, Ant wrote:
>>>>
>>>> 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.  Thank you for
>>>> reading and hopefully answering soon. :)
>>>
>>> In general Mint MATE is easy to install and covers most bases.
>>
>> I don't think even MATE will run smoothly with 2 GB RAM. Itself might,
>> but after opening only one GUI browser it might already run into a swap
>> orgy.
>>
> It will run OK  but you will of course be more or less limited to one 
> program  or browser window at a time. Firefox itself tends to eat up 
> well over 1GB just for starters. No matter what distro you use.
> 
> Here right now with thunderbird and firefox both open I am using about 3GB
> 
> Closing Firefox knocks it down to 2GB
> 
> Having an SSD for swap will help a lot, but of course its not the best 
> way to run an SSD.
> 
> I note that up to 4GB RAM is possible for this 64 bit machine, using 
> third party 'upgrade kits'. a tenner or so.
> 
> SSD is also not expensive.
> 
> Given the above, my advice would be to try and boot a live DVD of mint 
> MATE, and check Wifi works and see if any issues arise,
> 
> Then if it looks a way to go, take out the existing drive, upgrade  the 
> RAM to the max and put in an SSD.
> 
> Then install MATE. Should be another decade of usefulness...

   Good advice ... but I think his goal here is to not spend
   enough extra money to buy a whole new pc  :-)

   More RAM, SSD ... probably a couple hundred right there.

   I have a lot of virtual machines for practical/experimental/
   review/fun purposes and almost never give them more than 2gb
   and two cores. I'd say almost all have "adequate" performance,
   so long as you don't cram KDE in there, for "average use".
   My Kali VM is invaluable for probing those "suspicious" mails.
   VMs aren't even as efficient as real hardware installations.

   Mint is pretty nice and if you're careful can be reasonably
   slim. I'd suggest LXDE over MATE however for old hardware.
   MX is another good "medium" system that will run ok on
   older hardware - and its cousin Antix is very light but
   not quite as pretty.

   Firefox ... there ARE about:config settings where you can
   limit how much memory it hogs. A lot of it goes into plain
   old buffers and you can cut back on the default number and
   size. I've done it before. You may lose a litle "smoothness"
   sometimes, but it'll run ok. Basically, Firefox will use up
   a lot of your existing memory IF YOU LET IT. Run it on a
   more restricted system and it'll scale itself down to match.

   His Core2-Duo is not a terrible box ... not "snappy" in any
   modern sense but adequate for the mid/lower-end Linux distros
   so long as he isn't expecting a smokin' game box or unlimited
   eye-candy. I only traded up from my Core2-Quad a couple of
   years ago - and it was for work/development use. Still have it,
   still put it to use as a testing platform. Runs 8/16-bit too  :-)

   In any case, Deb and derivatives run nicely on rPIs ... and
   only the latest are in the Core2-Duo performance range.
   512kb - 1gb is common on Pi-2/3s. I think the Pi-4 is faster
   than a couple of my sub-notebooks. Just re-did a Pi-1-B (not +)
   with the latest OS ... but it doesn't run a GUI ... mostly
   plays a loop of 'elevator music' and has for nearly 10 years.

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Thread

What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2022-06-15 13:42 -0500
  Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? John McCue <jmccue@fuzzball.mhome.org> - 2022-06-15 20:23 +0000
  Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2022-06-15 23:16 +0000
    Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2022-06-15 18:48 -0500
      Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2022-06-16 02:52 +0000
        Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> - 2022-06-16 16:29 -0400
          Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2022-06-17 08:17 +1000
          Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2022-06-16 18:01 -0500
          Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2022-06-17 11:03 +0100
            Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> - 2022-06-17 21:58 +1000
              Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2022-06-17 16:32 +0100
              Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2022-06-17 16:33 +0100
                Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2022-06-18 10:28 +1000
            Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2022-06-17 17:35 +0000
            Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008 MacBook Pro? Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2022-06-17 20:27 +0000
    Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? "David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> - 2022-06-15 20:13 -0400
      Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2022-06-16 02:56 +0000
        Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> - 2022-06-18 19:49 +0000
  Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2022-06-16 12:19 +0100
    Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> - 2022-06-16 16:36 -0400
      Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2022-06-17 10:59 +0100
        Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? "25.BX945" <25BZ495@nada.net> - 2022-06-18 20:09 -0400
  Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? "25.BX945" <25BZ495@nada.net> - 2022-06-16 22:31 -0400
  Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? Piergiorgio Sartor <piergiorgio.sartor.this.should.not.be.used@nexgo.REMOVETHIS.de> - 2022-06-18 22:44 +0200
    Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008? MacBook Pro? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2022-06-18 19:33 -0500
      Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008? MacBook Pro? Piergiorgio Sartor <piergiorgio.sartor.this.should.not.be.used@nexgo.REMOVETHIS.de> - 2022-06-19 12:25 +0200
        Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008? MacBook Pro? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2022-06-19 06:31 -0500
          Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old? 2008? MacBook Pro? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2022-06-19 13:49 +0100
            Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old?? 2008? MacBook Pro? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2022-06-19 09:25 -0500
              Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old?? 2008? MacBook Pro? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2022-06-19 17:37 +0100
              Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old?? 2008? MacBook Pro? "25.BX945" <25BZ495@nada.net> - 2022-06-21 00:48 -0400
                Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old?? 2008? MacBook Pro? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2022-06-21 11:11 +0100
                Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old?? 2008? MacBook Pro? "25.BX945" <25BZ495@nada.net> - 2022-06-22 00:48 -0400
                Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old?? 2008? MacBook Pro? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2022-06-22 16:23 +0000
                Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old?? 2008? MacBook Pro? "25.BX946" <25BZ496@nada.net> - 2022-06-23 01:22 -0400
        Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008? MacBook Pro? "David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> - 2022-06-19 09:36 -0400
  Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2022-06-25 23:59 -0500
    Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? "25.BZ959" <25BZ959@nada.net> - 2022-06-26 01:31 -0400
      Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2022-06-26 01:42 -0500
        Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? "25.BZ959" <25BZ959@nada.net> - 2022-06-26 23:34 -0400
  Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2022-06-27 14:13 -0500
    Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2022-06-27 14:15 -0500
    Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? "David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> - 2022-06-27 15:59 -0400
      Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2022-06-27 18:02 -0500
        Re: What's the best low-end supported Linux to use in a very old 2008 MacBook Pro? "David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> - 2022-06-27 20:54 -0400

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