2026: after having the family chat group migrate from WhatsApp to Signal, I just installed Linux on the last computer of the house with a proprietary OS.
Looks like a good year start on the open-source-karma side of things. I'll take it! \o/
Discussion
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@apodoxus Thanks 😊 Nothing exceptional from me here, but I'll congratulate the computer owner for pulling the trigger!
@jeremy Congrats, well done!
@jeremy I did all my Apple stuff a couple of years ago. The laptops work even better than before.
It's such a breeze to do this in 2026. Which reminds me that the first time I tried Linux what 20 years ago, with an Edgy Eft live CD. Happy 20th Linux anniversary to me! 🎂
(If you'd have told me the insane amount of hours I would spend in the next years geeking out on stuck install and esoteric command line, I'm really not sure if I would have insisted 😅)
If you need to import your photo library from macOS Photos app, the osxphotos is perfect. It's a command line tool, and it's absolutely worth the effort if you're not comfortable with the command line but want to get your photo library on your new Linux machine.
@jeremy I may have a very similar old macbook air awaiting a similar fate. What model is this exactly?
(Also is that a LaCie usb key?)
@_nb I think it's a 13 inch early 2015 MacBook Air (model A1466). And yes, it's a LaCie USB key! My most faithfull live USB squire for years now!
@jeremy thanks, I do think that’s the same model!
(A very very long time ago, I was responsible for the hacks that made the Lacie usb keys show up with a cool icon on the desktop when plugged on macos, windows – and maybe linux)
@_nb Regarding the computer: you'll need to have a wired network as the wifi drivers aren't there out of the box, but that's the only hassle (see https://askubuntu.com/questions/55868/installing-broadcom-wireless-drivers).
Oh, there's the keyboard, too: if the user wanna keep the same keystroke habits, you'll need at least to install gnome-tweaks and... well, tweak things.
@_nb Oooh nice! They have the coolest for factor of them all.
@jeremy My spouse's perfectly functional and not all that old laptop hit "end of 10" in the fall and is now running #Kubuntu
We normally think of KDE as being a somewhat "heavy" desktop user interface in the Linux world, but they are absolutely amazed at the performance boost. It's like a brand new computer. :)
@leftylabourtech Yes the performance boost is an easy win!
I went with Gnome here as I find it kinda closer to macOS than KDE (absolutely subjective opinion here :D). I personnaly prefer KDE. Both are great DE and both have flaws.
@jeremy I'm more of an XFCE person myself. I just do one small change to the default layout of the XFCE desktop in MX Linux moving the taskbar from vertical on the left, to horizontal on the bottom.
It just means I can throw more icons of commonly used apps across the bottom of the screen. Again, just a personal thing. This world gives you pretty much whatever you want and we're all a little different.