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?

  • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nzM
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    8 months ago

    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?

    Considering that it’s a 10-year old battery, it would’ve already degraded significantly, even if it wasn’t being actively used. If battery life is important to you, you should first consider getting a replacement battery.

    As to how long it’ll last, that can only be answered by you as it depends on which distro you’re going to use, what DE/apps you’ll run, and your actual usage patterns/workload.

    Is there anything apple does better than linux that deserves I don’t nuke it?

    Adobe CC, or multimedia stuff in general. And the fact that you can run MS Office natively. But if you don’t care about that, then just nuke it.

    • rotopenguin@infosec.pub
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      8 months ago

      I’ve seen an Apple battery or two puff up at that age. Highly recommend getting that old battery swapped out.

    • requiem@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Battery replacement will also boost your CPU performance, it’s worth spending a bit of money on it.