In the spirit of my previous post about switching to Linux Mint, I decided I’d go ahead and re-purpose my old computer.
Introducing: Apple MintBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2012)
I think you nerds are gonna love it. I can actually do light gaming on this, too. Runs surprisingly fast, too!
Unlike modern day Apple, this MacBook was always fun to work on because you can easily swap parts without worrying about cloud activation locks, soldered RAM, glued batteries with self-destruct, etc. I dropped in a new aftermarket battery that took me five minutes to replace, upgraded the RAM, and slapped in a higher capacity SSD than what I originally bought this with back in the day.
My MintBook Pro runs fantastic, especially on Linux Mint 22.1 Xia with the new battery performance modes. Can’t wait to use this more!
I tused to sit in a drawer as ewaste since the last possible compatible Mac OS version on this computer ran terrible and made my MacBook Pro unusable. Now that I upgraded to a MintBook Pro, the performance is incredible! Going to use this for when I need a computer away from my desk. Nice to have one for the couch that functions as an actual laptop!
Specs:
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
- 13.3-in LED display at 1280x800 (LOL)
- Intel i5-3210M @ 2.5 GHz
- 8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz (we ballin’ boys)
- 1 TB SSD Samsung 850 EVO I think
- CD/DVD burner (yass slay queen)
- Intel HD Graphics 4000 (i can play Stardew Valley with so many frames, biggest frames ever)
- This bad boy has the MagSafe power connector (my favorite back in the day) and firewire! Remember firewire?
Edit: Lemmy.world is having issues with uploading photos, so here’s some links instead for two more pics:
Mint was solid but I had issues with the Wi-Fi drivers on my Intel MB pro. Basically had to keep it hardlined all the time. Did you have any issues with that or did it work out the box?
When I first installed it, it was running 22 (whatever version before Xia). Then, the embedded driver utility detected new drivers and I saw that there was a Broadcom driver available. The 2012 MacBook Pro had Broadcom, so I was lucky and knew this would be compatible. After updating drivers and the OS to Xia, wi-fi was working perfect!
I’m not sure for other MacBooks which may have different network cards.
yeah mine is 2016 so it’s not the broadcom
Darn, maybe it’s too new then, or maybe locked down drivers? Hopefully a solution opens up for Linux compatibility. Else, perhaps you can buy one of those miniature usb wi-fi dongles - a compromise for sure, but something to potentially consider.
Yeah I did this a little over a year ago so maybe things have changed, though a hardware solution is probably the better call at this point ha