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?

  • @pathief
    1•9 months ago

    As for the browser I’m going to assume it’s my bad. My MBP no longer has browser updates and I incorrectly assumed it to be the case for the 2014 model as well. My bad.

    Regarding the performance difference, it really is true. I thought my macbook was just filled with junk but even after (painfully) reinstalling everything it remained just as slow. Note that “everything” is basically a web development stack without a database, nothing too cluttered.

    I used to get the spinning wheel all the time, never had it on any of the distros I’ve since installed on my MBP. Don’t like Arch? No problem, there’s plently of choice out there. Whatever distro you want will probably work fine. It’s really fast but don’t take my word, try it yourself.

    “Works flawlessly” and “primary way of interacting” are limited to your use cases and experience. Not even allowing me to install xcode is not flawless, it’s really dumb. The trackpad works good enough and I wouldn’t trade, say, security updates for an improved version 🤷