So, I have an old mac mini, one of the flat ones. You know, it’s shaped more flat than the new ones.
I want to put Linux Mint on there.
Or maybe Ubuntu
and then, I am going to buy a really cheap monitor on eBay.
The 2018 mini is a wonder of a machine. It’s the last one with replaceable RAM, so max that bad boy out and go wild with the distro of your choice. I’m running Mint on a 2014 which is solid.
Word of warning though, setting up the wifi on Mac hardware can be a ballache initially. So make sure you’ve got a wired connection.
You can use any distribution but will most likely have to load the Broadcom wireless modules manually.
If you’re able to use a wired network connection then this is no problem and might not even be something you’re worried about.
When you do decide to get wireless running, make sure to figure out a way that’s copacetic with your chosen distributions package management so everything “just works” on a system update. If you don’t take the time to integrate third party modules into package management then system updates can unpredictably break the functionality those modules provide. You may not remember what you did, how to reproduce its effects or even that you did it in the first place, leading to some pretty unenjoyable situations.
Consider keeping macos on there and dual booting: you will need it for any firmware updates, it’s a good fall back when something breaks and when you want to sell or give away the machine you’ll use macos to get it back to good to other people. Many Intel macs can have their macos installation loaded onto a usb device and depending on how you do the bootloader and efi situation still easily start it up.
Great idea; these are nice little machines. I have one running as part of a Proxmox cluster. I recall that there was some rigamarole to get it installed because of the T2 security chip that comes in that vintage of Mac. I’ll check my notes and see if I can find how I handled that.
I would be interested to hear your results and which flavor Linux you end up with. I have one of these just sitting around too.
In my experience, EndeavourOS works best on these old Macs.
People report good results with Mint as well but I get the impression they have to jump though more hoops to get decent WiFi.
I’ve put Mint, Kubuntu, and Arch on a few different Macs from 2011-14, and the Broadcom drivers are an arsehole every time. I wish I was smart enough to save a note on how I did it.
I’m leaning towards Ubuntu because that’s what everyone said would work. Some people in the comments are also saying this. I’ve never installed Linux on a Mac before.
I have a similar model 2016. Ubuntu worked the best on it. A trick is to connect the Ethernet so it can detect and download the latest drivers while its installing. WiFi and fans are spotty before that.
I’ve heard multiple people say that about the Wifi
I always thought about picking up a older mini just to play around with MacOS, but I use an Iphone for work and it is the most unintuitive OS i have used.
Update us on your linux mini journey!
I also have an old Macbrook Pro I got the same year
MacOS is way less stupid than iPhone iOS.
Strangely iOS on an iPod or iPad is less stupid too. I have no idea why that should be, but it is.
Cool
You should do that. It’s great hardware.
I like it because it’s flat.
I use a MacBook Pro 2012 as a secondary computer and I find it very exciting to install Linux on beautiful hardware like these old Macs.
It’s surprizingly Linux friendly (except reseting the wifi once a year). I don’t know why but previously I never thought you could install Linux on a Mac😅
I have a 2011 MBP running Arch (btw). The thing won’t fucking die. Well, apart from the battery, which went spicy as hell a couple of years ago.
x86: it’s easy peasy
arm: asahi is where you need to go, and the most recent chips are not really very well supported
Well for arm it might come but since you can’t really upgrade these new Macs, they are less interesting in a way…
Thumbs up! Refind plus mint and you have yourself a nice little machine! This is my “music when I game” or “quick Google the walkthrough” secondary machine. Mine might be older though.
Couldn’t you juat do that stuff with a phone?
