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!

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36 comments

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.
- 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
  
  This is genius. My spouse is busy formatting unused USB drives for this Linux try-every-distro project right now, so your suggestion is just in time, lol. Thank you!
  
  weve all been there. enjoy and have fun.
  edit: lovely that you can enjoy this together.
  my SO always asks me why Im working when I come home from work......
  
  I have a bit of bad news. Ventoy is not supported on Macs. Mac minis, Macbooks, just Mac hardware in general as far as I can tell.
  But it's a fact that's buried deep into the Github notes when you go looking for support; if you're not running a Mac there's no way you would have known. But there it is:
  https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/282
  https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/381
  https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/246
  https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/1056
  But this comment especially from the repository owner was delightful after I'd already done everything suggested and more:
  Ventoy actually doesn't support Macbook. I never test it on Macbook.
  You can do some try though
  Lol, no. No more try, though at least this post let me know it was not user failure. But I want you to know it was a great suggestion, I did learn more along the way so it wasn't all a waste of time, and I'll definitely try Ventoy again when I get to non-Apple machines.
  Thought I should tell you just in case you run into another Mac user. And thank you for the well wishes -- we're both nerds, so one of us disappearing into tech at odd moments is standard operating procedure around here. Happy Labor Day if you're in the US.
  
  I indeed did not knew that.
  And actually I would not have thought that this would affect ventoy.
  but now we know.
  is there also a different procedure to write bootable media for macbooms?
  edit: thanks for digging and replying. some will for sure appreciate your post in the future. good luck anyway. have you found yet a suitable distro?
  
  Well, now I'm back to one USB at a time for Macs, using Rufus to do the deed and just overwriting the ones I know I won't like. Same as it ever was. I think the problem has to do with how Ventoy interacts with the boot process that involves assumptions about Mac architecture; everything the author suggested, like enabling Grub2, just laughed and flashed the ol' cursor. Not all Macs are the same under the hood and there have been some fairly big swings in architecture over the years, so when I read that he had not ever tested it specifically on a Macbook it made me think he tested it on one other Mac somewhere and that was enough for him, lol. I still think it's genius just not on Macs.
  Some of the distros I can try now; others have to wait until I get more memory in the Macbook. So right now I'm just doing preliminary look-sees just to find out if I like a given distro, and if it will find drivers and do hibernate without an issue. Funny thing is that one I can't really look at yet except via review videos may be the one I go with: OpenSUSE Leap. As far as I can tell, it has no Live USB trial, you have to install it. But it's incredibly feature rich, can bend to a user's needs even if those needs aren't foreseen out of the box, it's not overly CLI dependent but CLI tools are there if you prefer them, has an extensive selection of software, supports multiple package handlers, and most importantly, the wiki is very complete. I just can't install it until I get more RAM in the test box, lol.
  I expect similar with Debian, to be honest, just because it's so robust, though Debian does support live USB preview. Same with Pop! OS, there is a live USB preview but I have to wait until I get more RAM into the test box.
  But of the ones I've tried so far, Linux Lite 6.4 seemed kludgy and repellent (not sure why, but I hated it); Zorin OS 16.3 Core was visually gorgeous but seemed VERY limited in other ways (maybe the paid tier would be different); Solus 4.4 "Harmony" with Budgie was responsive, intuitive, and fabulous to use but I need to look under the hood further, and Linux Mint 21.2 remains the winner so far, but I would rather go with a different desktop than Cinnamon (I do not find Cinnamon intuitive) so it's on the list to retry with Kfce.
  So I'm still looking. And now I have an in-law with an old MacBook Pro who is also paying close attention in case I find something, lol. But it's all free and it's been years since I did something like this, so I'm happy. Thanks again for your help!
  
  I did something like this, so I'm happy.
  thats almost 80 % of the linux life.
  trying things out and finding joy in it.
  keep up your curiosity.
- 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.
  
  No, I don't think so, as Red Hat only source revenue is RHEL and cloud, not fedora. And RHEL still open source, just you can't get the builded binary from red hat, but you can build it yourself, as open source means the code is available for public, and it's available for public, and most of the codes are in CentOS stream, https://gitlab.com/redhat/centos-stream/src
  And most of the Enterprise linux downstream could inspect and use rhel code, just the binary and how to build is restricted, it's still adhere with the GPL/LGPL in my opinion

36 comments