My grandma just gave me her old MacBook Pro (MacBookPro11,1 A1502) and, after removing a spicy pillow, air dusting everything, and copying off her old photos, I’m ready to do a clean install.

I would like to dual-boot either Linux or BSD (which will be my main partition) alongside macOS (which will be handy for testing and for use with certain peripherals; either Mavericks, High Sierra, or Big Sur).

I am already well-versed in unix-like operating systems, so I’ll only start having trouble if I try to use a source-based distro (e.g. Gentoo, Source Mage, LFS, etc.)

Can I have some recommendations for the Linux and the macOS version, please?

  • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘English
    4•9 months ago

    I put LMDE on my 2010, and it runs smooth as butter. Fedora Silverblue, as some one else stated, will give you the ability to run Linux as your main and have Macos in a drawer without the need to dual boot. If I needed Macos on mine, I would have gone this route, too.

    Edit: personally, I prefer official images, so I would have installed the official Silverblue and not the community edition from uBlue, but whatever floats your boat.