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?

  • danielfgomEnglish
    2•4 months ago

    Linux Mint or Linux Mint Debian Edition installs very nicely on that machine and is one of the better working distros for apple hardware. It should auto detect the WiFi driver which is normally the pain point because it uses broadcom and the drivers are reverse engineered.

    I don’t think thunderbolt works, the SD card reader might not work and the video camera definitely won’t work. Plus on standby the battery will drain flat.

    These are the issues I had on my 2015 MacBook Pro before it died. I need to take it to apple for diagnosis but don’t have the money right now.

    However I run Linux Mint Debian Edition on a 2014 Mac Mini and it’s ok

    Generally Apple hardware is a pain with Linux. You get better results with pc hardware - better Harare compatibility and less issues