I spent the last couple of days trying to get Arch Linux onto my 2009 Macbook Pro. Although the machine is quite old, I actually still like it. Unfortunately, Apple decided it doesn’t meet the specs for Sierra so I felt like I wasn’t getting the latest and greatest. For this reason, I wanted to breath new life into my aging machine by installing Linux on it, specifically Arch.
I chose Arch, because of the nimbleness of the distro. I had installed it once on an old desktop and really enjoyed adding only what I needed. But I’ve found the process to be a little more tough getting Arch installed on an old MBP.
I feel pretty comfortable at the command line, but having to go through so many Google searches to get bits and pieces of it to work was exhausting, then came the feeling of what if I break something? I’d have to figure out or Google search my way to a solution. After attempting several times, I decided to give up on Arch.
Instead I chose to install Mint, a distro based on Ubuntu which I’m pretty familiar with. The Live CD or in my case, USB, was super helpful and getting it up and running was pretty straight forward. Sound, graphics card, even tethering to my iPhone to get the drivers for my wireless card all worked out of the box. I was quite amazed compared to my Arch experience.
Instead of having to spend time searching for a solution, the solution was provided for me. Which to me was a better deal, since I can rather spend the time to sit here and write about my experience on my new Linux install.
This whole experience reminded me again that to just use what I have, or in this situation, a solution that I’m more familiar with.
