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?

  • notTheCat
    15·
    9 months ago

    I had Fedora and Arch on a 2012 Intel MacBook pro, it’s running well, I think macos manages power consumption better, either way I believe if you have no dGPU you should be good to go, also you probably must check the Arch wiki Mac page (regardless of what disro you choose)

    • NinjaCheetah@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      9 months ago

      I had Arch on my trusty 2012 MBP too, right up until my SSD gave out 😓

      It ran great while it was alive tho and I’d definitely recommend it.