For those *NIX peeps, what's everybody's favorite *NIX for reviving old hardware?

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I just found my old Mac Mini 2012 laying there, neglected, under my computer shelf. I’d like to putter around with *NIX stuff a bit more for home. Looking for a *NIX OS that’s fast on old hardware, and shouldn’t have any thorny driver issues.

I realize the 2012 isn’t a fantastic machine by modern standards, but it’s the high-end (for 2012 :slight_smile: ) i7 with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD (not Fusion - I upgraded it) drive, which was actually a pretty decent computer back in the day.

And for clarification, I don’t need this to be a quick install or super-user-friendly. Ultimately I want to get an X desktop environment on it, but in the process of getting there I’m more than fine with a detailed command-line install (I’ve installed Arch multiple times on various computers). Just as long as the process is documented. :smiley:

I just know there are tons of *NIX operating systems, including tons of flavors of Linux. Looking to expand my knowledge and see if there’s something new and fun to tinker with. :slight_smile:

Anybody have suggestions for the OS, the desktop environment, or anything else?

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I don’t know if it actually meets your requirements but I’d be remiss to not suggest https://nixos.org/ since it’s only off by one * :smile:

It is cool though if you’re willing to learn the nix language

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+1 for nixos.
It’s declarative approach should be familiar to anyone who uses Arch by the way…

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I’m actually a CentOS/AlmaLinux server admin, so it is not as much about learning the language as it is about realizing that the things that drive me to choose an operating system for server work should probably not be the same things that drive me to choose an operating system for my home use. :slight_smile:

I figure I am probably not the only person who has repurposed and old Mac with some flavor of *NIX.

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That actually looks pretty cool. I like the idea of the package management system.

I was on some flavor of Ubuntu many years ago, where, no joke, if you uninstalled Firefox the unInstaller had a dependency that installed Chromium. And vice versa.

Before then I didn’t even know that it was possible to have a package dependency for uninstalling another package.

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Im really interested in VanillaOS with Waydroid support to get “mainstream” android Apps. I just dont have the funds for a “fun” computer at the moment.

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Gosh, it is a long time since I repurposed hardware to run Unix. All the boxes were second-hand Windows machines on to which I installed the then current Red Hat distribution although the very first one was a VESA-bus box on which I installed an early Yggdrasil distribution from floppy disks.

These days I satisfy myself with using Homebrew to install GNU/FSF versions of macOS (i.e. BSD) versions of software onto my current Macs.

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There’s some people who even use it on macOS to manage system dependencies Home Manager - NixOS Wiki

And there was/is(?) a whole trend around using it for building easily cacheable layers in docker and stuff.

It’s one of those tech thingies I have in a list to explore some day.

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OpenBSD will run nicely on that mini.

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I recently installed Debian on a machine just like yours, it was a breeze.

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Do you find it has good availability of stuff in the package repos?

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For my uses, yes, but I’m a bit of a minimalist & don’t really install much beyond i3wm, emacs, firefox, and a handful of small utilities. Desktops like Gnome & KDE are available though.

You can search the repository here:

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Not UNIX as such but I recently installed Linux Mint on an old laptop and - having never used Linux before - had great fun. In an odd way it reminded me of the fun I had learning about Macs in the mid 90s. Mint was great, and with no problems.

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I taught Linux for years.

Ubuntu and Fedora are big players in the arena so you will be able to find tons of info and support for them.

Like @DaveyGravy, I like Linux Mint.

You should at least look at PearOS because the theory behind it is to visually replicate macOS:

For my beginning students, I did not recommend Slackware or BSDs. They are more like Unix, but a bit more complicated to configure unless you’re really eager to learn the command line.

There is a sub-category of “lightweight” distros for lower-end hardware. Look at ArchBang and Bodhi (Ubuntu variant). Puppy Linux used to be one of the popular lightweights, but I haven’t looked at it in a few years.

Lastly, in my opinion, you should give serious consideration to Debian because of it’s stability and support.

https://www.debian.org/intro/why_debian

Whichever distro you select, you’ll need the ability to easily find and install drivers for Apple’s proprietary hardware.

Good luck; enjoy; have fun;

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Well now that’s just cool. And this (along with NixOS) is exactly why I asked the question. :smiley: Thanks!

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