A friend wants to gift me an old macbook pro he no longer uses. Specs follow:

MacBook Pro, Core i5, 2.8 GHz (I5-4308U), model A1502 (EMC 2875), Retina Mid-2014 13", MacBookPro11,1, RAM 8 GB, VRAM 1.5 GB, Storage 512 GB SSD

Out of principle I don’t use anything made by that brand and the only way I see myself using the hardware is if I can nuke the software and install any linux distro, ubuntu is the distro I know best.

Can it be done?

Any drawbacks?

It’s a model with a screwed aluminum case, meaning I cannot unplug the battery when I don’t need it. How long does it last?

Alternatively, what could I use this notebook for? Is there anything apple does better than linux that deserves I don’t nuke it?

  • burgersc12
    4•10 months ago

    Ubuntu worked out of the box for me on my mid 2015 Macbook Pro. Don’t remember any specific drawbacks, but it does take a bit of getting used to the differences. Also dual booting is possible, if you want to consider having both systems on the same laptop, good if you need Facetime or something

    • @[email protected]
      2•10 months ago

      I have a 2013 MacBook Air. No issues. I have open core legacy patcher on the Mac OS side to push me well past the cut off for the OS, but it’s slow. The Ubuntu side works great still. Good battery life and the battery is still the original, I believe. I don’t remember ever changing it out. Been meaning to switch to LMDE or something, but I had a number of false starts dual booting back when I did it and have been busy.