Resurrect an Old Computer with Linux

Have you got an old computer that runs slow? A perfectly good old machine that time has passed by, and you don’t know what to do with it? A Mac that Apple no longer supports with the latest OS or even security updates? We have one word for you: Linux. 

Wait, don’t click away! You might think of Linux as some super-nerdy hobby project, only good for folks who are really, really into tinkering with their computers. And while it can be that, Linux is also a totally legit full-time computer operating system for anyone. To test this, I recently installed Linux on a 2012 MacBook Air, and it’s not only viable, but a joy to use. You can revive old computers with Linux, and easily install Linux on a Mac (although with Apple Silicon your options are limited).

Linux Inside

First, what is Linux exactly? 

Most simply, Linux is a free alternative to macOS or Windows. To get nerdy for a moment: What people usually call “Linux” is more precisely “GNU/Linux.” This refers to the combination of the Linux kernel, developed by Linus Torvalds, and the GNU operating system, developed by Richard Stallman and the GNU Project as a free UNIX-like operating system. GNU/Linux are “free” not just in the sense that you don’t have to pay for them but also free in the sense that they have open source code that you can read, modify, and redistribute however you like. As the Free Software Foundation likes to put it, “Think free as in ‘free speech,’ not ‘free beer.’” 

Once it’s running on your computer, it consists of several parts. There’s the operating system, which does all the behind-the-scenes work. Then there’s the “desktop environment,” which is the windows, the menus, and so on. This is the part you interact with when you use the computer. You might also call it the user interface. And finally there’s a “package manager,” which is like an app store, only way more open than any you might be used to. 

This is, incidentally, exactly how the Mac works. It has UNIX under the hood, instead of GNU/Linux (which was designed to be UNIX-like), and its desktop environment is called Aqua.

These elements are packaged up into what the Linux world calls a “distribution,” or distro for short, and there are many, many distros to choose from. There are minimal distros that can run on ancient computers, fancy distros tweaked to look like macOS, and distros which are meant to make it easy for a newcomer to just install them and get going, with no fuss or typing into a text-based terminal. 

(Note: Not all Linux distros have free software all the way down, so if you’re into tinkering with your source code, you’ll want to take a recommendation from the Free Software Foundation.)

What Can You Expect?

If I set my old MacBook Air in front of you and let you use it, you might recognize that the interface wasn’t quite like the Mac, but you’d immediately feel at home. You’d see windows, a task bar, maybe a dock. You can browse in Firefox, Chrome, or Edge, play music, check out your photos collection (or my photos collection, I guess, in this example). And so on. 

The biggest difference would be speed. I can run an older version of macOS on that Mac, of course, but it’s a bit slow, and there are many apps that are no longer compatible. At some point, I wouldn’t be able to even browse the web because newer security certificates are not recognized. 

But put a version of Linux on there and you are running an up-to-date OS, with up-to-date apps. And because even the heaviest of desktop environments is lightweight compared to macOS and Windows, it will feel super fast. I installed Linux on this MacBook Air as an experiment to see if I could get along with it before picking up a second-hand convertible 2-in-1 PC, and I wound up loving it. You get the excellent Apple hardware, with a very capable OS. I installed Slack for work, Obsidian for writing, and more. If you’re a 1Password user, that’s available for Linux, and will sync with your other devices. And depending on which Linux distro you choose, you might even be able to share the clipboard with your iPhone. 

Linux runs on pretty much everything, so no matter how old your computer, you’ll be covered. And many distros now use familiar app-store-like software repositories like FlatPak and Snap, so you can install, and uninstall, apps with one click. 

Watch Out

It’s not all perfect. If you’ve only ever used a Mac, then you will have been utterly spoiled by their amazing trackpads. Linux trackpad drivers are better than Windows in my opinion, but not as good as the Mac. 

Another thing to watch out for is driver compatibility. If you follow our tips below, then you hopefully won’t have to deal with any of these, but it’s worth bearing in mind that Linux takes a while to incorporate drivers for new hardware. If you buy a brand-new laptop from a manufacturer which doesn’t explicitly offer Linux support, then it may not work as expected. 

Happily, Linux support for older hardware is amazing. There have historically been some issues, with NVIDIA graphics cards, for example, but mostly, old hardware will be well supported. And as we shall see right now, you can find out with no risk. 

Live Trial

The best way to try out Linux is to download an ISO, or disk image, copy it to a USB thumb drive, and boot your computer from that. It takes a while to get going, but once it’s there, you’re already running Linux on your computer! This is a great way to check out the feel of it, and to see if it works with your hardware. 

For example, connect it to your Wi-Fi, try it with any peripherals you use, your external monitor, for example, and see if all the keys on your keyboard work. I have installed Manjaro Linux on my trusty MacBook Air, and everything works, from the Wi-Fi to the brightness keys, the media playback keys, and so on. It even sleeps and wakes when I close and open the lid. 

Usually, installing Linux can be done directly from this live trial. In one of the most popular distros, Ubuntu, you’ll find an icon on the desktop to begin the process. 

Be careful. Installing Linux will wipe the drive in your computer, so you’ll lose any data you had there before. It’s possible to dual boot, swapping between Linux and macOS, or Linux and Windows, but that’s beyond the scope of this article. 

Many of us have never installed an operating system from scratch before. PCs and Macs come preloaded. That’s why it’s important to pick a Linux distro that does it for you. Let’s take a look.

Which Linux?

There are many, many distros, but today we shall look at a few popular ones that are easy to install, or geared towards beginners. The best Linux distros for beginners are not dumbed-down. Rather, they’re just designed not to shove all the low-level configuration in your face, and they usually have a well-curated selection of apps to get you started. 

The most popular, and best-known version of Linux might be Ubuntu, because it is totally beginner-friendly. You boot from the USB stick, play around to make sure that things work, and you like what you’re seeing, and then you click to install. There’s very little setup, it comes with most of the software you’ll need, and it runs fine on pretty much any computer. It’s also easy to install proprietary software like Slack from the Snap “store.”

The only downside is that Ubuntu might not run so well on very old or low-spec hardware. For example, the recommended minimums for Ubuntu Desktop are a 2 GHz dual core processor, 2GB RAM, and 25GB of storage space. This is fine for pretty much any consumer-grade PC laptop from the last 15 years or so, but even then, you might prefer a lighter distro.

If you’re coming from the Mac, and you want something that has a similarly fancy UI, then try Elementary OS, a Linux for Mac users, which comes set up out of the box to mimic Apple’s UI conventions. Although to be honest, if you’re willing to tweak, then you can take any Linux distro and make it look like any other, which is one of the biggest advantages of Linux—its flexibility and customizability. 

Other beautiful distros include Deepin and Zorin. 

If you are looking for something ultra-light, then opt for something like Xubuntu, which has the advantages of an Ubuntu back end, but with a much lighter-weight desktop environment. It looks kind of old-fashioned, thanks to being so pared back, UI resource-wise, but it’s just as powerful as anything else, and can run in just 512MB RAM on a Pentium Pro or AMD Athlon. 

Another nice aspect of Linux is that you can get some very specialized distros. Ubuntu Studio, for example, is as easy to install as any other, but comes optimized for creative pursuits. It favors drivers that enable low-latency audio, for example, and comes loaded with apps for music and video work. 

Revive an old computer with Linux

Take a look around, and see what catches your eye. Once you’ve learned how to flash the downloadable ISO disk images to a USB drive, you can experiment all day long. Linux is free, so you really can try everything before you… don’t buy. In fact, it can be so much fun to install new versions and explore that there’s a name for it: Distro-hopping. There’s even a subreddit. 

With Linux, you can keep your main machine going for years longer; you can dig out an old machine and press it into use, or give it away to someone who needs it, or—if you really do need a new computer—you can buy used, or last-year’s model, and save money that way. And when you do it, you’ll see that Linux is definitely not a sub-par alternative to Windows and macOS. In many ways, it’s a lot better, and it’s certainly more fun.