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What to install on an early 2008 Macbook..?

paulfromcamden

paulfromcamden

Baffled
I've had an ancient early 2008 Macbook on the shelf for yonks. I thought it might be nice to revive it as something that can just run as a web browser for google docs etc. I have a 120Gb SSD drive fitted and it already had the max 4Gb ram fitted.

What should I install? I've seen people suggest Linux Mint as it has decent mac driver support. I'm also wondering about turning it into a Chromebook.

Any suggestions? Ease of install and speed more important that functionality (within reason!). I have realistic expectations about how fast it's likely to run :)
 
I fired up my old original version Mac Mini the other day to make sure it still worked, I think that has Panther installed. Felt remarkably primative - OS X updates have been many and gradual since 2005 or whenever that machine dates from. Still works great though! Probably qualifies as a ‘vintage computer’ by now. It’s close to mint and boxed so it can stay in my collection!

PS Any Intel Mac should be able to run Linux pretty well if the latest OS X it can cope with is a bit old and insecure to go web-browsing.
 
The OS X that was on it is too old to install current browsers and the browsers installed are too old to render web sites properly... sadly I don't think it's going to cut the mustard for any useful OS X install.
 
I have an even older MacBook that I no longer use. The GUI now looks very old fashioned, as Tony says the change in interface has been gradual, but now looks very different to the old one.
 
I use Ubuntu on a White Intel iMac and it feels snappy and works well. I've had Minto on it as well but Ubuntu suited the applications I was using better.
The only thing I had issue with was the startup chime at full volume but that was easily fixed with an OSX boot disk and getting into the EFI with a terminal.
 
It should run Linux Mint and Windows 10. I have both running on a 2006 Lenovo T60. BTW you don't need a license to install Win 10 but you'll get a nag bottom right of screen. Personally I prefer Mint to Windows and macOS - I have several versions of both O/S running. Mint has been my main O/S now for 6 months of daily use.

The early 2008 Macbook can only upgrade to Lion due to the graphics processor that needs 32 bit drivers, Mountain Lion and above are 64 bit only and won't run :- well not out-of-the-box. However if you like hacking............

Cheers,

DV
 
david ellwood said:
Windows 10! unless you want to make life hard for no reason?
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Not sure what you mean David but I upgraded a 2008 Vista machine with an SSD and Linux Mint for a lady in her late 60s who had absolutely no problems and was away customising it in no time. She can even run her old Windows Vista Bridge programs in Mint. The laptop now feels like a new machine.

Windows 10 feels old before its time and updating is so sluggish.

I found Mint great for my old games like Myst III and my old Bridge Baron (both Windows 95) etc. They run natively!

The OP could install Win 10 then shrink the partition down to 60GB. Then install Linux Mint so have a dual boot system. He can then choose which he prefers and remove the other if need be.

Cheers,

DV
 
over the years I have tried many flavours of linux from command line slackware to the various versions of debian and red hat and every time I get hung up on something that it either doesn't do, or something that it makes unduly difficult.

The only linux I use regularly is OpenWRT

Windows may be clunky but it is properly user friendly and has support that works.

And most importantly it makes available every software tool I need.
 
I started with Linux in the early '90s when you had to download the source code overnight (this on a 2Mbps circuit) and then spend the next day compiling! Later along came Red Hat and I have a big thick 1128 page Red Hat Linux book that came with this Linux on a CD printed in '96. Believe me Mint and other latest flavours of Linux are way ahead.

Cheers,

DV
 
paulfromcamden said:
Windows 10 is an eccentric suggestion for a ten year old Macbook...
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Why? Its just a PC and I am running Win 10 pro and enterprise on a 12 yo T60.Works well and even supports the fingerprint reader. The only thing I can't get to work is the Wireless WAN and thats because the manufacturer didn't write any drivers for it after XP. Still works with XP though.

Don't knock it if you haven't tried it yourself. Doesn't cost anything to try just a bit of your time and thats fun extending the life of older kit rather than sending working stuff to land fill.

Cheers,

DV
 
My assumption was that any recent Windows release would be too resource hungry to run on old hardware with 4Gb. Happy to learn otherwise - thanks!
 
I had the displeasure of having to install linux in a VM recently, I cannot recall why now, something to do with running roon or something, spent a day pissing around with it and as usual something in each variant did not work correctly or required terminal or some other head scratching over why all these hippies couldn't just work on one project and make it actually good.

Not sure however how you would install windows without bootcamp, I guess thats the plan?
 
garyi said:
I had the displeasure of having to install linux in a VM recently, I cannot recall why now, something to do with running roon or something, spent a day pissing around with it and as usual something in each variant did not work correctly or required terminal or some other head scratching over why all these hippies couldn't just work on one project and make it actually good.

Not sure however how you would install windows without bootcamp, I guess thats the plan?
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You can manually partition the disc in disc utility, then you press the option key on boot up with your windows installation media (disk/usb drive) inserted, boot from the windows installation and just format the new partition to NTFS, it’ll then install windows as it would on a PC. If you install an new drive and only want to install windows without having OSX installed, just press option on power up as before, boot from your windows installation media and format the whole drive to NTFS.
 
paulfromcamden said:
My assumption was that any recent Windows release would be too resource hungry to run on old hardware with 4Gb. Happy to learn otherwise - thanks!
Click to expand...
For info the T.60 has a 32 bit T2400 1.83GHz CPU with 2GB ram. Oh and did I mention the fingerprint reader - it works 12 yo and all!

These Lenovos are excellent test beds and I have several O/S on disks in UltraBay caddies. Change O/S in a jiffy!

Cheers,

DV
 
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