Question is title.

In the past I’ve installed many distros on many older PCs, but never used linux properly (although slowly moving over to avoid win11). I’ve also had a heap of history with windows installs.

A family member has been testing Mint on an old laptop and is going well. This is a trial run before I update their iMac laptop (not sure what one but no longer supposed by OS updates).

I’ve never booted to an iMac BIOS or installed over top of apple.

  • Is this going to be like installing over windows?
  • What issues can I expect?
  • Should I consider another distro?

Asking here as searching results in AI bullshit websites.

  • tvcvt
    1·
    2 months ago

    Linux runs fine on Intel Macs. There are a couple peculiarities you’ll want to be aware of, though.

    • Ventoy doesn’t work as an installer. The boot menu will come up, but any ISO you choose will hang
    • Not all distros will recognize the wireless card and install the firmware (Be prepared to install it using a USB to Ethernet adapter)
    • Same goes for the iSight web cam

    Other than those initial hiccups, everything works pretty flawlessly.