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DevelopmentLinuxComputerMacBook

What are the best Linux distributions for old MacBooks?

15

Options
Considered

411

User
Recs.

Feb 6, 2024

Last
Updated

14 Options Considered

Best Linux distributions for old MacBooks	Price	Based On	Default Desktop Environment
79 Xubuntu	-	Debian>Ubuntu	Xfce
-- PsychOS	Free	Devuan	XFCE
-- Linux Mint	Free	Debian>Ubuntu LTS	Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce
62 Elementary OS	-	Debian>Ubuntu	Pantheon
-- Lubuntu	-	Debian>Ubuntu	LXQt

Xubuntu

Top Pro

Customizable

Official distro of XFCE, one of the most customizable desktop environments. In XFCE you can create as many tasks bars as you need and configure every one of their elements and behaviors. You can also change any icon, font, color... etc. Literally, there's nothing you can't change in GUI. See More

Top Con

XFCE development is slow

The desktop environment used in Xubuntu has not been updated in over two years and is developed at a snail's pace. See More

AdventurousUoke's Experience

i had tried POP OS and Ubuntu on my old mac, worked poorly to not at all, with those you have to find the divers for the wifi card and most of the buttons wont work. Xubuntu blew my mind, everything woked perfect and i am still surprised at it's performance. Not Flashy but it gets the job done See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce

Main Usage:Ubuntu with preinstalled Xfce desktop

Init-System:Systemd

Top Pro

Conservative, yet modern

It comes with all Ubuntu goodness but without bloat, a perfect mix between new ideas and usability. See More

Top Con

XFCE is not "the first league desktop environment"

Top Pro

Quick boot time

Boots at about half the speed of most distributions. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

Xubuntu is very fast and makes good use of resources. See More

Top Pro

Comes with lightweight applications

Xubuntu is designed as a lightweight operating system and as such polished applications that come with Ubuntu are replaced with applications with a smaller footprint. See More

Top Pro

Works with great driver compatibility

The older systems work especially well xubuntu, unlike other distros like lubuntu, which in theory should be lighter and faster than xubuntu, but does not give as smooth of an experience. See More

Linux Mint

Top Pro

Low learning curve to go from installation to advanced configuration

Mint is extremely easy to install, and with community support, easy to move onto adjusting the OS to meet your specific needs. The vast majority of instructions for undertaking configuration work and are easy to understand. See More

Andrianos Papamarkou's Experience

Installed on a MacBook Late 2009 4GB RAM Core2Duo 2Ghz. The only "trick" is to use Ethernet connection through the installation proccess. After the system installation it will download and intall more specific drivers like the wifi and video ones. It is faster than last supported OSX. Very convenient and beautiful user interface. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce

Main Usage:Desktop, Showcase for the MATE and Cinnamon desktops

Init-System:Systemd

Top Pro

Already functional out-of-the-box

Mint comes bundled with software for browsing the web, editing pictures, browsing files, watching videos and even a full office suite (LibreOffice). An average user can use Mint right away after a fresh install, using all the software that comes with the distribution to complete most of their daily tasks. See More

SociableAmurru's Experience

I have installed this on a number of older 2012-2014 iMacs and macbook airs and they run very well See More

Top Pro

There is a "system restore" tool to restore the OS if something breaks

This tool backs up the core OS files to an external drive with an option for full encryption. See More

Top Pro

Good community support

There are several different ways to get support for this distribution, including the forums, their IRC channel, or their github repositories if you think their software isn't behaving as it should. See More

Top Pro

Company has a good track record

These folks have been dev of great packages / distros for many years! See More

Top Pro

Dedicated upgrade process

The Linux Mint team is very dedicated to upgrading and improving Mint, to the point where the releases are fairly predictable. They are also dedicated to their users, meaning that they are responsive to critiques, suggestions, etc. See More

Top Pro

Pretty desktop

Linux Mint has a quite pretty default desktop. Cinnamon is adopted by other distros also. See More

Top Pro

Supports proprietary software

Linux Mint does maintain a free software environment, however, it does offer full support to proprietary software (Chrome, Skype, Teamviewer). See More

Top Pro

Familiar user interface

Mint is highly recommended for both users coming from Windows, as well as users coming from Ubuntu, but unhappy with Ubuntu's recent, rather dramatic interface changes. Mint provides an updated interface with a look and feel similar to Gnome 2, with an application menu reminiscent of the Windows 7 Start Menu, with categorization and search. See More

Top Pro

Compatibility with Debian and Ubuntu software builds and repositories

Mint gains a very strong package ecosystem and software manager of Debian, including more than 30,000 packages available from the Debian repositories. See More

Elementary OS

Top Pro

If you like MacOSX the UI/UX is similar

Top Con

No proprietary driver installer

Elementary OS removed the driver installer of Ubuntu. See More

KnowledgeableAmphictyonis's Experience

Just works. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Default Desktop Environment:Pantheon

Main Usage:macOS-like Desktop, Showcase for the Pantheon Destop

Init-System:Systemd

Top Pro

UI design consistency

Excellent uniformity between all the stock application and an overall extremely clean design with simple animations. See More

Top Con

Very slow development cycle

elementary does not offer any release date for their stable releases going more with a "it's done when it's done" attitude. Making depending on newer apps a difficulty as well as a poor choice for those that need consistent release schedules for their OS. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight & fast

Runs well on limited-resources hardware, including netbooks or chromebooks. See More

Top Con

UI doesn't let you change anything

Every installation of elementaryOS looks excactly like the same See More

Top Pro

Simplicity, limited configurability

Sane defaults with less confusion for new users. See More

Top Con

Old base and applications

The slow release schedule makes the applications outdated. It drags behind Ubuntu LTS (on which it's based) which itself drags behind Ubuntu which is often still quite far behind Arch for example. See More

Top Pro

A dedicated StackExchange site

elementary OS has a dedicated StackExchange site where users can easily find answers to common questions. See More

Top Con

Poor Linux community reputation

The devs of elementary OS feel anyone not paying for their Ubuntu respin are not worthy of using it. Which upset a good bit of people. Obviously the core dev team have issues with their community outreach and PR. See More

Top Pro

Extremely user-friendly

This distribution promises you a very tailored user experience and it does deliver on that promise. The developers provide you with a custom desktop environment and a set of neat programs. And the whole desktop looks simply gorgeous. See More

Top Pro

Consistent development practices

All Elementary apps are written in Vala and hosted on Launchpad, and there are standard APIs such as contractor for applications to interact with one another. This is different from most distros, in which apps are written in a variety of languages. This design decision makes it easy to get started developing for Elementary and to understand how the various pieces fit together. See More

Top Pro

With new tweak tools customization is not a problem

Now the OS is amazingly customisable. See More

Lubuntu

Top Pro

A lot of skins and styles to customize the DE

Top Con

Clock in panel is broken currently in LXDE

The clock panel applet does not work as expected in the newest versions of LXDE. If the clock is set to not show seconds in the display when waking from suspend the clock will not update until the time actually changes in the applet which means it can take up to a minute for the clock to update when seconds are not shown. The work around to this is to display seconds on the clock which allows it to update after suspend within one second. Sadly the clock does not display seconds correctly as it skips them by one to three at least once a minute, often more. This is also not the first time there have been problems with the panel clock which clearly illustrates this to be an ongoing problem for the developers. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Default Desktop Environment:LXQt

Main Usage:Ubuntu with preinstalled LXQt desktop

Init-System:Systemd

Top Pro

Uses Openbox as the default window manager

Lubuntu (LXDE) uses the lightweight Openbox window manager to manage its windows. By using Openbox by default LXDE is able to remain lightweight as there is no built in composite manager in Openbox to take up resources. See More

Top Con

Long term support not as long as other Ubuntu spins

Lubuntu has not always had LTS support. Luckily they do offer a 3-year LTS now but it is shorter than other Ubuntu spins that receive a full 5 years of support. See More

Top Pro

Offers a long term support release

Lubuntu offers a long term support release with their 14.04 Trusty Tahr based version. See More

Top Con

No composite manager

Being a modern desktop many users expect compositing, even on lightweight systems. Without compositing, there will be screen tearing, a lot of it. Though there is built in support for users to add their own compositors such as Compton. See More

Top Pro

Low minimum requirements

Lubuntu can run on 256MB of RAM, but 512MB is recommended. See More

Top Pro

Part of the Ubuntu family

Being based on Ubuntu (which itself is based on Debian), there's a good amount of information and support to be found when searching for it. It also means that there are certain security and usability standards enforced and you can use Ubuntu .deb packages. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight desktop environment

The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE) used by Lubuntu performs fast and conserves resources. See More

antiX

Top Pro

Extremely lightweight

Has a 70-90MB memory footprint. See More

Top Con

May not be the best option for beginners.

SociableShara's Experience

Difficult documentation. Easy installer. Fast . Lightweight. Debian stable. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable

Default Desktop Environment:IceWM

Main Usage:Desktop

Init-System:SysVInit

Top Pro

Quick installation

The installation procedure for antiX is quick and painless. It installs the OS and grub in no time. See More

MemorableTakemikazuchi's Experience

antiX boots quickly and runs smoothly on my 2007 MacBook. See More

Top Pro

Stats appear on the desktop

Top Pro

Works well on 2011 MacMini 5.1 i5-2415 2.3ghz XFCE install. Allows you to tryout other desktops with the LightDM.

Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition

Specs

Based On:Ubuntu

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon

Release Schedule:Release Every 6 months.

Debian GNU/Linux

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Main Usage:Universal

Init-System:Systemd

Deepin OS

Top Pro

Quite lightweight

Deepin 15.7 is lighter than Windows 10 and Ubuntu. See More

Top Con

Slow default repos

Download speed for packages from the default repos, is abnormally slow if you don't choose the correct sever. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian

Main Usage:Desktop, Showcase for the Deepin Desktop

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Top Pro

VLC media player works without any issue

In some cases, VLC media player has some problems with Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based Linux distros. That isn't the case with Deepin. See More

Top Con

Deepin store apps not up to date

Top Pro

Launches programs faster

Programs load and launch faster in Deepin than other Linux distributions. It takes only about 3 seconds to launch Chrome. See More

Top Con

Installer lacks features

Top Pro

Great support for graphics cards

Deepin OS includes a program called "Deepin Graphics Driver Manager" which can easily install a good driver for the graphics card. See More

Top Con

Slow on some computers

Very slow - launching apps takes more time than other distros. On the other hand - booting and shutting down is very fast on SSD. See More

Top Pro

Gives warning messages when upgrading packages using apt

Deepin uses their own modified version of apt. When there is a distribution upgrade available and if we try to upgrade by running "sudo apt upgrade", then this modified version of apt gives this warning message, "DDE programs will work abnormally if run this command. Run sudo apt dist-upgrade or sudo apt full-upgrade instead." See More

Top Con

Customization is a bit hidden

GUI is not straight forward for changing GTK+ or QT themes. See More

Top Pro

Includes both Windows and macOS style interface

Top Pro

Easy to use

It's very easy to use. You can easily uninstall a program by going to the menu then right-clicking on the preferred app and selecting "Uninstall" option. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

Installing Deepin OS is very easy. Even easier than installing Ubuntu! See More

Top Pro

Includes a lot of packages in the official repository

The official repository of deepin OS includes over 73,000 packages. See More

Top Pro

Based on Debian

It is based on Debian which is the best Linux distribution for desktops. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Even though it is based on Debian unstable, it is still pretty stable and you will hardly ever get a dependency issue. See More

Top Pro

Blur and transparent design

Deepin has a blur and transparent design throughout the OS, which makes it one of the most beautiful Linux distros. See More

Top Pro

Automatically cleans package cache

Deepin automatically cleans package cache. Cleaning package cache is a good thing as it will make the OS much faster and lighter. See More

Top Pro

Well-designed in every detail, developers have a professional aproach to the system

Deepin has a sane default set of apps including custom apps of their own design that gives the distro a very consistent look and feel. By working with the community on these tools as well as custom translations there is a great sense of polish when using it that is not often seen when using such a new desktop environment. See More

Top Pro

Exciting applications

It has some exciting applications, such as Deepin Graphics Driver Manager which can easily change between free and proprietary drivers without any issue. See More

Top Pro

Supports Flatpak

Deepin OS supports Flatpak. It also has some Flatpak programs installed by default. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

It is a rolling release Linux distribution which is quite popular these days. See More

Top Pro

Excellent apps

Having Deepin installed also means you have thousands of quality apps to choose from. The apps which come with installation will suit your needs to browse the Internet, listen to music, watch videos, talk with friends, editing documents or simply any task you want to do at home or in your office. See More

Top Pro

Has its own toolkit

It has its own toolkit called "Deepin Tool Kit". And the maintainers themselves use it. See More

Top Pro

Enjoy the simplicity of Deepin's desktop

The desktop interface and apps feature an intuitive and elegant design. Moving around, sharing and searching, etc. has become simply a joyful experience. See More

Top Pro

Can be made to look like Windows easily

By default, Deepin looks kinda like macOS but it can be made to look like Windows by right-clicking on the dock and changing the mode from "Fashion Mode" to "Efficient Mode". See More

Parrot GNU/Linux

Specs

Based On:Debian Testing

Default Desktop Environment:MATE, KDE

Main Usage:Desktop, Penetration testing

Init-System:Systemd

Mint

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