In the spirit of my previous post about switching to Linux Mint, I decided I’d go ahead and re-purpose my old computer.

Introducing: Apple MintBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2012)

I think you nerds are gonna love it. I can actually do light gaming on this, too. Runs surprisingly fast, too!

Unlike modern day Apple, this MacBook was always fun to work on because you can easily swap parts without worrying about cloud activation locks, soldered RAM, glued batteries with self-destruct, etc. I dropped in a new aftermarket battery that took me five minutes to replace, upgraded the RAM, and slapped in a higher capacity SSD than what I originally bought this with back in the day.

My MintBook Pro runs fantastic, especially on Linux Mint 22.1 Xia with the new battery performance modes. Can’t wait to use this more!

I tused to sit in a drawer as ewaste since the last possible compatible Mac OS version on this computer ran terrible and made my MacBook Pro unusable. Now that I upgraded to a MintBook Pro, the performance is incredible! Going to use this for when I need a computer away from my desk. Nice to have one for the couch that functions as an actual laptop!

Specs:

  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
  • 13.3-in LED display at 1280x800 (LOL)
  • Intel i5-3210M @ 2.5 GHz
  • 8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz (we ballin’ boys)
  • 1 TB SSD Samsung 850 EVO I think
  • CD/DVD burner (yass slay queen)
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000 (i can play Stardew Valley with so many frames, biggest frames ever)
  • This bad boy has the MagSafe power connector (my favorite back in the day) and firewire! Remember firewire?

Edit: Lemmy.world is having issues with uploading photos, so here’s some links instead for two more pics:

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      36·
      22 hours ago

      Dead ass, bro?! Ong I swear I thought this was Linux fr. At least I got my bonzi buddy on my desktop, I swear on me mum

      Edit: I have no idea how the kids talk these days.

      • atro_city@fedia.io
        16·
        22 hours ago

        That rizzed my brain bro.

        (No idea what fuck that meant, but I think you did a better job)

          • chingadera@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            18 hours ago

            As someone directly between boomer and zoomer ages, I legitimately cannot tell which you are. Either you’re a boomer and are really good at capturing this, just doing what you would do anyway, or my age and just funnier. Either way, I applaud it.

            • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
              2·
              17 hours ago

              I’m a millennial with a weird sense of humour lol. I try to diversify what I can, so I love classic old timey movies. Gone with the wind is great, and this meme just popped in my head so I whipped it up. Side note - I like old Chaplin movies, even some silent films too! One thing I’m gonna try to do is watch the “top movie of every year” for every year that movies were made. Seems like a fun challenge and a way to explore stuff I’ve never seen. My spouse won’t participate because she’s not really a movie person, so it’ll be something I’ll have to tackle solo! Could be fun.

              You can tell I’m a millennial because a lot of my sentences around here end with lol, lol.

              • chingadera@lemmy.worldEnglish
                3·
                17 hours ago

                Lmao no one asked all that, but I did love reading it.

                I absolutely love movies too, and I’ve never thought to sort them let alone marathon them in that way for lack of a better word. Absolutely gonna do that.

                What I do is I tell me girlfriend, yeah you don’t like this genre but give it 30 minutes if it’s a movie, and two episodes if it’s a show, if I can convince her in that span, she’s usually into it anyway because good content is good content.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      23 hours ago

      Yep no distro shaming. Just Linux fam. And actually that reminds me I have an old 2009 MacBook laying around. Seeing how standardized the hardware is. At least among Apple computers. It’s likely a really good base. Not that I need another computer running linux. LOL. But it’s always nice to have another.

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      17 hours ago

      No issues with trackpad. Worked immediately once I set up the OS. It doesn’t have the multi touch gestures i was accumulated to. I can still two finger scroll through pages, but scrolling speed is a little too fast for me without the ability to modulate it. When I get some time to sit down with it I’ll research what ways I can tweak it, because native settings has no customisation.

      WiFi worked flawless for me. I installed OS with Ethernet cable plugged in, opened Driver Manager app, and it detected an available Broadcom driver for me to install. Quick update and reboot later and WiFi was perfect.

      I only know Broadcom driver was available for my 2012 MacBook Pro Mid Summer. If you don’t have Broadcom you’ll need to search online for compatible driver. I think someone else commented here they had a 2015 and it didn’t work out for them.

        • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          3·
          17 hours ago

          As a hopefully former windows user (been on Linux full time only for ~45 days), that makes sense to me. As a Linux noob, it sounds like it would work?? Wish I knew, but I can say I love Linux Mint at least.

          Def research if it’s possible. And if you can, best of luck with the switch. Hope it’s smooth without much hiccups.

  • entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    10·
    23 hours ago

    Given that it’s effectively 720p, you can probably run a decent number of 3D games, even. For sure anything 2D should run fine unless it hammers the CPU like Dwarf Fortress.

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      6·
      23 hours ago

      Ooh that’s a good point. I’ll install Steam and see what this computer can handle! I’ll probably use it more for idle/cosy games, but I’m sure there’s some 3-D ones that could play well on here. My current gaming setups are Steam Deck when I want to be away from desk, and if I’m serious for gaming time it’s on my desk PC.

    • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      41·
      22 hours ago

      HD 4000 was great back in the day. But by modern standards it’s not good at all.

      If you try to play games ~2010 or older they’ll perform great. But anything 2015 or newer will struggle. Even some modern 2d games that should be simple just use way too much power.

  • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    23 hours ago

    Apple has great notebook hardware and old Intel systems can be had for cheap. If I was gonna daily Linux that’s how I’d do it.

  • Mereo@lemmy.caEnglish
    5·
    23 hours ago

    How’s the trackpad on Linux? I tried Gnome distros and KDE distros and the trackpad didn’t feel natural… It seemed off.

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      5·
      23 hours ago

      All the familiar gestures that make MacOS great to use don’t work here. Candidly I haven’t tried anything else apart from the typical use such as scrolling with two fingers - and that works just fine, but it’s just really fast. I didn’t see an option to slow down two finger scroll speed, so I’ll play around with that next time and see what options there are.

    • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3·
      22 hours ago

      Nothing compares to Apples trackpads in Mac OS. OPs machine is the older unibody MBP which has a (by modern standards) small/normal sized trackpad so the palm rejection not being perfect isn’t really an issue. But the acceleration and gestures just don’t feel right compared to Mac OS or even windows (with precision drivers). It’s better than a Windows trackpad without the precession drivers, but just off.

      A long time ago when I first tried using linux on a 2012 MBP I spent ages trying to tweak the trackpad to be closer to Mac OS but could never get it right. I spent like 3 hours a few weeks ago trying to tweak things and I think your options are even worse now than before.

      • Mereo@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        21 hours ago

        I was afraid of this. I have a mid-2014 Macbook and it runs much better in Linux, but the trackpad leaves something to be desired.

  • I_Miss_Daniel@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    22 hours ago

    I use my older Linux laptop with Rustdesk to remotely control my ‘good’ one. Works nicely, and they’ve fixed the Windows key / alt tab issues as well.

  • LandedGentryEnglish
    2·
    23 hours ago

    Mint was solid but I had issues with the Wi-Fi drivers on my Intel MB pro. Basically had to keep it hardlined all the time. Did you have any issues with that or did it work out the box?

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      23 hours ago

      When I first installed it, it was running 22 (whatever version before Xia). Then, the embedded driver utility detected new drivers and I saw that there was a Broadcom driver available. The 2012 MacBook Pro had Broadcom, so I was lucky and knew this would be compatible. After updating drivers and the OS to Xia, wi-fi was working perfect!

      I’m not sure for other MacBooks which may have different network cards.

        • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          22 hours ago

          Darn, maybe it’s too new then, or maybe locked down drivers? Hopefully a solution opens up for Linux compatibility. Else, perhaps you can buy one of those miniature usb wi-fi dongles - a compromise for sure, but something to potentially consider.

          • LandedGentryEnglish
            2·
            22 hours ago

            Yeah I did this a little over a year ago so maybe things have changed, though a hardware solution is probably the better call at this point ha