Looking for resource-light distro to run on 2010 Macbook

Hi all, I'm dipping my toes into Linux again after almost 30 years, and I'm looking specifically for any distros that will run on a mid-2010 Macbook (Intel Penryn-3M Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM and a 1T HDD). Video is integrated Nvidia GeForce 320M.

I've already tried Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon booting off USB (but not installing) and it runs well, even wifi and video, no hitches at all. And going forward I'd be fine with Mint from what I've seen so far.

But before settling in on one distro, I'd like to try as many as will run on this ancient Macbook, because my endpoint is to eventually convert my much newer Windows machines to Linux, so I'm not just deciding for the Macbook. I am, however, limited to that as my test machine for the moment.

I'm not at all new to tech, but consider me a noob to Linux, esp Linux GUIs: last time I ran it in the early 90s it was text only. I don't even remember what flavor it was, lol. So yeah, I'm starting from scratch here but can pick it up quickly if I'm pointed in the right directions.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

--------------------------

Many thanks to everyone who gave me their time and made suggestions. I was looking for myself as well, so now I have many distros to try, lol. I have checked the system requirements and install directions for each of the following, and here is the list I have so far of distros that will work on this old MacBook (not in any particular order):

Will definitely try
Linux Mint 21.2
OpenSUSE Leap 15.5
AntiX 23
Debian 12 "Bookworm" with Xfce
Peppermint OS
Linux Lite 6.4
MX Linux 23 (after RAM upgrade)
Pop! OS 22.04 (after RAM upgrade)

Might also try, but might not (various reasons):
Zorin OS 16.3 Core and Lite
Solus 4.4 "Harmony" with Budgie (after RAM upgrade)
Fedora with Xfce

Thanks again!

36 comments

Debian.
- @wildbus8979 @ChunkMcHorkle +1 for Debian. I ran Debian with XFCE for a number of years on a 2009 standard white MacBook, without any problems....
  
  I'll give it a try. Thank you!
- it akways comes back to a single root. :)
  
  I'm probably going to try Debian Bookworm with Xfce, but to be honest . . . ain't nuthin "beginner" about Debian, lol. Still, it's worth doing, because I want to try as many as I can.
- Debian with what DE? It has to be light enough to run on this old Macbook.
  
  Xfce is very light
  
  I have a similar vintage Air, 4GB. I run Debian+i3, though that's not everyone's cup of tea. Machine feels quick, except for bloated websites.
  ETA: In case you're not familiar, i3wm is a lightweight, tiling window manager that is very keyboard-driven. I love it, and you might too! But it takes a little getting used to and definitely isn't a Windows-esque experience.

I recommend Mint as it's overall a fantastic distro. Better than the majority. And it's not just for beginners. It's full blown Linux so it can do anything.
They have an XFCE version so try that too, as well as the MATE version. All 3 desktops are quite light.
I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu and it's flavours simply because they have Snaps so deeply embedded now it will spoil your experience.
MX-Linux is also a great distro and quite light. Antix is even lighter and maintained by the same team as MX.
Opensuse is always a great choice, and their KDE implementation is quite good. So if you want KDE try opensuse Leap. (Don't use tumbleweed on a Mac because the proprietary drivers for Mac tend to break with frequent updates).
I'm running Mint on my 2012 Mini and it works great. Tried a few others but I find Mint the best.
- Fedora Xfce is also great on old HW, and have SELINUX if you are paranoid with security.
  
  I will check that out. Thank you for the suggestion!
  EDITED TO ADD: Given that Fedora is upstream from RHEL (no longer truly open source) and is developed in part by Red Hat, is there any chance it too will become less than open source? Because as good as Fedora must be to have all the downstream enterprise versions built around it that it does, if there's any real chance it will go closed-source I don't want to waste energy on it. I know that some will likely think this an overreaction on my part, but I'm putting in the effort here because I'm trying to get away from embrace, extend, and exterminate altogether, not just MS/Apple. Gonna list this as a "maybe" for right now.
- Thanks for taking the time to explain the differences a bit, it's very much appreciated. I'd heard about the Snapstore thing and also Red Hat's decision regarding RHEL; while I don't understand it all yet I do think closed-source defeats the whole purpose of Linux (and why I'm getting off Windows) so yeah, I'm with you on that.
  So far, with Mint I haven't had any problems running Cinnamon at all (decided to try the heaviest DE first) but I will probably still end up trying Kfce as the DE on Debian, for example. It was actually shocking how well Mint runs on 4GB of RAM, lol.
  But I have plenty of time and plenty of USB sticks, and I will try all the feasible distros mentioned, taking notes along the way. Thank you again for the suggestions!
  
  save some usbs write cycles and use ventoy:
  https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

Pretty much anything with XFCE, LXDE/LXQt, Cinnamon, MATE, a window manager like Sway or i3, or probably some others I'm forgetting, will work just fine. GNOME and KDE are the most popular but the slowest, and from what I remember, Deepin, Budgie, and Pantheon are somewhat slow.
- I'm mainly using Budgie lately, and its quite fast, even on older hardware. I would say it feels faster than cinnamon (and much more pleasant to work with imo), but unfortunately it's very unstable.
  
  I tried Budgie (packaged with Solus 4.4 “Harmony”) yesterday and loved it. It seemed fast enough even on this old MacBook with 4GB of RAM, but I was just test driving it on a live USB so I don't know what it would do in a real world scenario. Even so, it was definitely the most pleasant OS/DE combo of all the distros I've tried so far.

Ooh, I just did this! Mid 2010 white MacBook, Core 2 Duo P8600, 2GB, spinning rust HDD.
*Strongly recommend switching to SSD. I also added an 8GB stick (so 9GB total, hah) but my hunch is that even the SSD alone would have made this machine much more enjoyable.
I ultimately decided on MX Linux, although with systemd as init so that logind could handle lid and power button events. The default power manager (XFCE?) would result in a black screen upon resuming otherwise. MX Linux also worked the best for me in terms of optimizing for battery life.
PeppermintOS was my second place but also had the black-screen on resume.
I also tried various flavors of Mint but felt that Peppermint and MX were ever-so-slightly leaner in terms of features I actually use and battery life.
Avoid Void Linux. On my system the trackpad only worked in one direction.
I was not able to get the nVidia card to work with proprietary drivers. It's so old that it requires legacy drivers (340) and I just ran out of patience. Nouveau or bust.
I am currently using it for casual web browsing and YouTube. It handles YouTube pretty well although I'm still searching for a native frontend that allows me to login to my YouTube account so I get all my subscriptions and stuff.
- This is incredibly helpful, thank you. Especially the info on coming out of sleep or hibernate. You're right about the SSD, but there's only a SATA port on this one, so the best I could do would be SSD through an adapter. Sounds like SSD was an adapter add on for you as well. Is that what you did? I could definitely use your advice on that part.
  In other news, and for whatever reason, Mint saw the onboard Nvidia, wifi and Bluetooth hardware and installed correct drivers with zero further modification necessary. I pulled a Mac system information report to try to help with this if I get into a position of having to manually find drivers with any of these with other distros, but it's good to know Mint will run for me without modification out of the box. I did NOT try going into or coming out of sleep, though. I will add that to my list of things to check on each distro, thank you!
  I looked at MX Linux too but it's considered "midweight" and not optimal for really old hardware; antiX is recommended instead? Apparently MX Linux gets laggy with so little RAM (4 GB) so I have it on my list for after I throw more RAM on the pile. Sounds like you were able to make it work for you.
  Again, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time to write this out. So helpful. Thank you again.
  
  SSD: Best Buy (US electronics store) still had some SATA SSDs in stock, so I didn't need an adapter. This is what I got: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-cs900-500gb-internal-ssd-sata/6385542.p?skuId=6385542
  Take advantage of the fact that you can make Live USBs of the distros as you decide what you're looking for.
  For me, I found AntiX a little too barebones for me. But your mileage will vary.
  I will have to give Mint another go sometime!

I always used Xubuntu or Linux Mint Xfce. Both have access to the Ubuntu package repository and are easy to use and install.

Peppermint OS
- I just looked it up, sounds promising. I will definitely add that to the list, thank you!
  
  Linux Lite, and Xubuntu also work too! You're welcome!

36 comments