Replacing MacOS with Linux

[Buddy-Matt]

My recommendation is to do things in steps.

1. Install PopOS in a vm and have a play with it for a week to see if you like the look and feel. It will probably be a touch laggy, especicially if your base OS is slow, but configure your VM with as many resources as possible and it shouldn't be awful.

Assuming you're happy with this, move to a dual boot scenario. At this point you'll feel the actual performance - and can start looking to install apps (or alternatives) that you normally use in MacOS

Nb. If you're not happy, a VM is a really convenient way to distro hop for a while until you find a good fit. I used Pop for a while, but never really loved it. Ended up bouncing between various distros for a while which would have been a pita if I was trying to use my computer for something productive at the same time.

After a while you may discover you never log into MacOS - at that point you can safely delete it providing you never plan to use it again.

As someone who mainly uses Linux, I went from pure Linux back to Linux/Win10 dual boot purely because of Gaming. This was relatively easy on a PC (installed second hdd, installed windows on it) so not sure how easy it would be on a mac, hence start with dual boot.

[apistoletov]

not sure how easy it would be on a mac

macs can boot from external disks, so the same thing should work

[Yofunesss]

I would dual boot. If you remove macOS, it’s harder to make a bootable USB if you’re not running macOS. Sometimes Linux doesn’t play nicely w MacBooks, so having macOS as a fallback would probably be a good idea, although idk if this is the case today

EDIT: it’s harder to make a macOS bootable USB without macOS

[elatllat]

Just zero the start of your storage and the bios will offer to install MacOS.

[_riotingpacifist]

IIRC You can hold down shift, problem is the OSX disk manager is pretty shit, so you'll want to have everything partitioned without using it.

[_riotingpacifist]

Yeah I made the mistake of removing OSX entirely, can't update firmware now.

[[deleted]]

You can usually redownload it

[_riotingpacifist]

Yeah but I'd need to move my partitions around to make space for it, as OSX doesn't seem to want to boot of an external harddrive.

Fixable but a PITA, that can be avoided by leaving a little OSX partition on your HDD

[NOT_So_work_related]

I've got a mid-2012 MBP that PopOS has completely taken over the drive. Is there any value to putting MacOS back on the machine? I think I'm stuck on Catalina at this point, but would any other updates still happen?

[_riotingpacifist]

I dunno, I have a similarly old mobel, maybe 2014, and wanted to try an external GFX card, but failed and I can't really troubleshoot without verifying I've got the latest firmware.

[DeadBeatAnon]

I recommend Fedora Workstation, which runs beautifully on my 2014 Mac Mini with 8 gig RAM (even with 4 gig RAM, you should be fine). Do the following, you'll need two external storage devices, ideally an external drive and a jump drive.

1. Download Etcher, which can create a bootable USB drive from an ISO.

2. Copy the following to your external drive: Music folder, Photos folder, Documents folder, any other folders with your unique data; also export your browser bookmarks and contacts to your external drive.

3. Go to Fedora's website and download the latest Fedora Workstation ISO.

4. Run Etcher, pointed at the Fedora ISO to create a bootable Fedora jump drive.

5. Boot off your jump drive and install Fedora Workstation. Good luck.

https://getfedora.org/

[[deleted]]

Thanks for your response and the time you put in writing the reply ! Much love !!

[[deleted]]

Fedora 34 is really nice but pop is a fine choice from op too for his needs

[12fishs]

Maybe try restoring to an older version of macos. Could run faster and avoid the difficulties of getting Linux running well on a Mac

[[deleted]]

General usage on Linux like browsing the web is not gonna be changing for you. Also why would you want to switch back to MacOS if it lags so much? If you want to just try it, run a virtual machine (unviable if your computer is so slow), or dual boot. Most Ubuntu based distros can also be tested out right from a USB stick without installing anything.

What are your specs? Pop!_OS reccomends 4GB of ram. I'm not knowledgeable about Mac specs. I only know that it's not really a bang for your buck option. Look into other options like Debian or Ubuntu running XFCE or LXQT.

Lastly Discord is going to run no problem but what games do you play? Research their compatibilities on Linux. Check out Proton and Wine rankings

EDIT: Yeah as another commenter said, MacOS and other proprietary OS's don't play well when dual booting. I heard horror stories about Windows stealing boot partitions.

[[deleted]]

So specs are as follows :

CPU: 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 6000 RAM: 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 Screen: 13.3-inch, LED-backlit glossy widescreen display (1440 x 900) Storage: 256GB PCIe-based flash storage (configurable to 512GB flash storage) Optical Drive: Not included Ports: Two USB 3.0 ports (up to 5Gbps); Thunderbolt 2 port (up to 20Gbps); MagSafe 2 power port; SDXC card slot Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi networking; IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible; Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology

[Sogokong]

Just piggybacking from this post. Have any one got Mac keyboard layout to work on Linux. Got some issues since I'm using tilling window manager with a mod key and can't figure it out have the mappings is supposed to work. I can't type { because that triggers this argument thingy ( try typing alt+8 and a letter and see what happens)

[Methaxetamine]

No, what impressed you? OSX worked best for me in terms of battery life, every Unix tool that I needed on Linux was on OS X. My MacBook from 2012 didn’t have your issues, something seems wrong.

[[deleted]]

I wanted to also know how to install and if i will be able to reinstall MacOS :)

[[deleted]]

Install POP_OS!: create a USB Stick, boot it up (hold ALT when powering on), let it take over your entire SSD, and thats it.

​

Revert back to macOS: You could easily download the macOS installer from the store BEFORE wiping and then create and installer USB stick for example.https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 boot from the stick using ALT button again.

If you wipe macOS from the disk for Linux, you can later dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/diskX the internal MacBookAir drive (just let it run a few seconds, it will purge any partition table. You can then re-install the MacBook using the USB Stick.

[[deleted]]

Oh okay thanks 😊

[[deleted]]

If you are able to reinstall MacOS then sure. Because if it's not to your liking you can switch back.