Hi guys, I was gifted a free iMac (Intel core 2 duo) from a retired nasa engineer in his 90s (he even worked on the atom bomb!) and I was wondering if it is worth anything or if I should keep it and try to put Linux on it.
He forgot the password and I had to do some things in the terminal to get around it. So far, everything looks to be in working order. I have never owned a Mac or Apple products in general so I am kinda out of my element here lol
I installed Linux on a G5 quad. I would expect the iMac to work as well. I think I installed Alpine, but I haven’t started it up in a while. Produces a lot of heat. You’ll need the big endian PPC version btw.
Edit: That screen is not a G5. Linux will run just fine on the Intel macs which that screen is showing.
Thank you! I’ll take a look into that.
Edit: Yeah, this thing is heating up the room!
Yup. Got Ubuntu running on a 2008 imac and using it as a smart tv.
Do you think that would be worth doing for an i3 that I can’t seem to throw away? I don’t know why the fuck anyone would ever buy an i3.
Sure… Heck you could even put some older steam games on it but… Older. As a smart TV or even a firewall or router it would be fine.
Awesome, I just picked this up!
Always loved this era of macs but couldn’t afford back then.
I found the keyboard for this at a thrift store for like $7 and grabbed it like I was Gollum getting the ring back. I don’t care if the USB ports are too old to run some things, it’s peak design.
Its awesome. Also peak design for trapping dirt and hair under the clear plastic, yum!
Yeah. I definitely had to disassemble it and clean it out once I got home… but translucent keys!
Let’s gooo!! That’s actually the same reason for me too, as a kid I’ve always wanted one of these. Now I get to live those memories!
Core 2 Duo is a 64-bit CPU. And that generation should also have a 64-bit EFI.
It should handle plenty of Linux distros. If you go that route, stick with something lightweight such as MX with XFCE.
An Intel iMac should run Linux just fine. I’ve got a 2011 iMac running Mint as a spare computer for when my wife works from home. It works great!
i think i used to run 32bit linux mint on one of those things.
Was going to say that mint support was great for a while at least. I have no idea what’s going on now.
If it’s a core 2 duo you won’t get much use out of it beyond media playback
Around Christmas, I installed Xubuntu on a 2012 Macbook Air, and it has breathed new life into it. This computer was running El Capitan, and Apple decided it wasn’t worth updating. I now love it more than when it was new. No regrets. The specs are below. DeepSeek (AI) walked me through the process - it was easy.
MacBook Air 5,2 (Mid-2012 model) with: Key Components: · CPU: Intel Core i5-3427U (Ivy Bridge) · RAM: 8GB DDR3
It’s just a computer with an Intel chip. It’s no different than any other computer. You can even install Windows on it if you want
Go for MX or Arch
Your photo literally spells out Intel Core 2 Duo, not G5. Also 1.5GB RAM.
Don’t waste your time with it. Clean it up and put it up on display. Other than all that dirt, it’s a nice looking piece of computing history.
Oh sorry about that, I’ll edit the post. I assumed G5 was the model and that Intel was the CPU. I’m very unfamiliar with Apple stuff lol but yeah I’m cleaning the keyboard and wiping it all down. So far it’s very neat and I’m nerding out over the aqua UI!
