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Any way to use MBA 2011? Run Linux? Throw in garbage?
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Just use Mint or Ubuntu. Ubuntu tends to work best on older Macbook Airs, but both will be fine.
Ubuntu was surprisingly slow and clunky on my 2011 MacBook Pro. I’d go Mint XFCE.
It's Linux-based and can run Linux and Android applications depending on the platform you're on. It's immutable and very secure, all the applications are sandboxed and updates happen seamlessly and automatically.
IMO, if you had someone in your life who was vulnerable or not tech savvy, a Chromebook is 100% the way to go.
I'm also not a fan of Google so I understand your reluctance. If you were giving this to someone, I'd say ChromeOS is worth consideration; if it's for you to tinker with, go with a Linux distro of your choice. You've got some good suggestions to go with.
If it's your first time running Linux, I'd definitely have a look at Pop!_OS (I know, the name is hilarious) or Linux Mint or Fedora as I cheerleaded earlier in this thread. Linux Mint, while quite Windows-like, is actually a great experience and is filled with lots of smart defaults and thoughtful touches to make it a really seamless experience. They even include something akin to Time Machine right out of the box called TimeShift.
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Yes exactly, that's my question - why not just keep High Sierra if all I want is very very basic word processing, web surfing, email and non-streaming video and music? (apart from wanting to try Linux, but could be more hassle than it's worth.) Like I said I don't need to do anything computers couldn't do in 2000, never mind 2011 when mine was built. The only potential problem is security. I guess I could make it a policy to only do things involving money on another, newer computer. I don't know how bad a risk it would be for my email account. Google's disabled my account several times for days with no recourse because they "didn't recognize my login" even though I'm on the same computer in the same location I've been for ten years, so you can argue that's a bigger threat to me than hackers.
From what you've written in the thread, I think sticking to High Sierra makes more sense than installing Linux, with the understanding that you should stick to using it for things where the lack of security updates won't matter.
It's worth noting that both Firefox and Chromium have both announced that they will stop supporting Mojave and below for future updates. Support will end in 2024 for Firefox and this year for Chromium browsers.
I have an old iMac I got from a family member who passed away and use it in my kitchen on High Sierra. It's still totally usable and as of today the browser I use on it is bang up to date for the time being. It's great and I have no concerns about using it going forward.
[OT] Are you sure? We're led to believe they find vulnerabilities in common things such as browsers and OS and flood essentially the entire internet with malware that will infect everything that doesn't have the latest update, as opposed to people individually spending time hacking into one particular credit agency. I don't know. If that was true then wouldn't 95% of the world's computers would be bricked by now? Because I have a very hard time believing that every person with a computer from Bangladesh to Uruguay to Moldavia has every piece of software updated every week.
Thank you everyone for the suggestions. There's something of a consensus to stick with High Sierra given my modest needs (secondary computer, mainly for travel - not sure if I said that). In a Linux forum someone just said you can run real Linux from USB without installing, not just the "live" kind ((non-fully-functional trial, which I already knew about), which would be great but I'm not sure that's correct so I need to check on it.
The Linux USB installers will almost always pop you into a 'live' environment, running on the USB. This is helpful to test that the distro works and that all the drivers you need are available before you wipe the disk and install it.
I see no reason not to stick with High Sierra. As long as you are using a web browser that is still getting security updates (like Firefox), I think you are even fine using money stuff with this computer. Yes the OS in general will be more susceptible, but just be careful about what websites you visit (avoid illegal download sites for example) and you will be fine.
The thing you will probably notice most is that you might have some trouble playing YouTube videos, especially in higher quality settings, or visiting websites with a large number of ads, etc. The internet has changed since 2011 and many websites now assume you have a more powerful computer than a 2011 Air.
But for reading the news, logging into your bank, checking facebook, as long as you use a modern browser you should be fine.
Everything else you mentioned, should be no problem with High Sierra.
They still support it on their extended release channel. That means it won’t get new features, but it will still get securing updates.
Anything older than Seirra (10.12) though, and yes will have to look beyond Firefox/Chrome.
Firefox users on macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14 moving to Extended Support Release | Firefox Help
Firefox version 115 ESR will be the last supported release for macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14
support.mozilla.org
Here I see it says September 2024. I do find these Firefox support models a bit confusing, though.
Firefox users on macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14 moving to Extended Support Release | Firefox Help
Firefox version 115 ESR will be the last supported release for macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14
Here I see it says September 2024. I do find these Firefox support models a bit confusing, though.
Ah that is my bad. I misread your 2024 as 2023 in your original comment and thought you were talking about not the ESR.
Ya so the official Firefox will get you another year of support. After that you will have to move to one of the Firefox/Chrome forks for legacy hardware. Like Waterfox Classic or Chrome Legacy, or whatever seems to be working best a year from now.
Or install a friendly simple macOS like Linux distro and don’t worry about what you do on it. You may end up with a faster, more secure and more frequently updated machine.
Try Pop os (they have a live distro so you can use a usb stick) you may be surprised and it’s exciting to try something new.
Well thats what everybody says, but i agree that Mint xfce/mate is very good, probably the best option. Even Mint cinnamon is quick on older hardware. Then again, i have Ventura running on my mid 2010 mbp as well via oclp, but it is slower of course. I tried out Mint 21.2 Cinnamon on my mid 2010 mbp and it was great!
Then try Mint first. Its the best distro imo, though Pop os is also just as good. Ubuntu just looks too boring, but Mint is soo sleek and mint if you know what i mean lol. I like Mint more than macOS, but the unfortunately i cant switch to it because my laptop, a mid 2010 mbp, overheats a lot and in macOS i have a fan control app where is set a custom fan control and so it doesnt overheat but i cant do that in linux because a similar app doesnt exist in linux that doesnt require you to use the command line, and i dont want to use the command line for that. Also, beware that in linux overall most things are done in the terminal usually.
You could use Boot Camp and install Windows, take up most of the space on the Mac with Windows 10, and use it as a spare Windows machine.
It's going to be a lot easier than installing Linux because the computer natively supports installing Windows. And you're already very familiar with Windows so that shouldn't be an issue.
(If you have trouble installing directly to Windows 10, you could install Windows 7 or 8 first and then upgrade.)
It's a Linux distro that is using the same visual design philosophy as MacOS (that is, pretty icons, dock instead of start menu, a consistent visual interface, simplicity). Their website was probably built by someone who thinks that if you found it, then you know what it is.
In a nutshell, Elementary is lightweight, pretty, and probably less of an adjustment for someone used to Mac visual design. OTOH, I would strongly suggest Linux Mint as the first distro, it's more powerful (tools included, customizability etc) and very stable. Visually it's closer to Windows but you can easily tweak it to be more like Mac (install a dock, change icons if you want to).
Here's a screenshot of Elementary
And here's Mint