Hello,
I have an old macbook pro 2012. With Apple dropping all support for it, I want to run Linux on it. The caveat is - Im looking for the same feel as the experience with the macbook trackpad and keyboard.
I’ve tried a few different OS’s on it, and each time, it runs as how you would expect. No issues with installation or anything, and most issues have a small or easy fix.
Being used to old habits with that laptop, I haven’t had good luck with remapping things to give it it’s old feel again.
By feel, I mean things like mapping trackpad gestures, some of the “function row” to map the same things as they keyboard has them, remapping some hotkeys to make use of the command button, etc.
I was wondering if there was an OS that has a lot of the things like mouse gestures, or the keyboard mappings of those laptops already built into it.
I run Pop!_OS 22.04 on a 2015 MBP and it works perfectly (except the camera). If a 2012 can’t handle Pop!_OS, you could try Lubuntu or Debian 12 with XFCE.
I used to use Pop! on my desktop for years, until an update they did a few years ago I didn’t like, and I switched out of the distro. Never gave it another chance, but maybe I can revisit it for this mbp.
Do you know if you are able to map and do all the multi-touch gestures on it fine? And have you tried remapping some of the keys with the CMD button?
I haven’t had the need to remap keys so I cannot answer that, but I do use multi-touch gestures without a problem. I do not know if the options are as diverse as the ones OSX offers since I left Mac years ago, but they are there
+1 for Pop. I’ve just done this. I had to run updates plugged into the cat 6 to get wireless, apart from that, everything just worked.