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i2usskovOG

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 26, 2023
1
0
Hello, I am new to these forums. It is probably going to be my only post since I do not own any apple products anymore. (Not by choice.)

I wanted to know what distro of linux would be the best for this version of iMac. I've tried Ubuntu, however it was incredibly glitchy and borderline unusable, and I am currently on Mint. I like it. But I know I can pull more out of this hardware.

I understand that this machine is "obsolete" I know planned obsolescence and such. But I thought it would be a great afternoon project for the weekend to make this machine run similar to how it would run if this machine was running high sierra.
 

coffeemilktea

macrumors 65816
Nov 25, 2022
1,382
6,118
I am currently on Mint. I like it. But I know I can pull more out of this hardware

Have you tried installing Arch Linux on your 2009 iMac? It's a great exercise in needless, self-inflicted suffering, but if you really want to wring every last bit of performance from the hardware, there's realistically no better choice than Arch. ✌️
 

Yael-S.

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2022
70
82
Have you tried installing Arch Linux on your 2009 iMac? It's a great exercise in needless, self-inflicted suffering, but if you really want to wring every last bit of performance from the hardware, there's realistically no better choice than Arch. ✌️
That's something many Linux users seem to think. But as with all things, what most people think is not always a reality. Think of Islam, billions of people who believe in something for which there is not the slightest evidence. Or think of current science, where the most highly educated people in existence often have opposing opinions in large groups on basic matters.

Arch Linux is on average not really faster than eg Debian: https://www.phoronix.com/benchmark/result/cachyos_linux_benchmarks/f3dce626644e.svgz

In specific benchmarks you often see very large differences and for things like browsers, newer versions often have higher performance. But on average they are close together and you see that Clear Linux is the only one that can make a big performance gap. Sometimes the gap Clear Linux cuts is much bigger than what you see here. But Clear Linux is probably not going to be supported by the old CPU in your devices, but you can try it just to be sure.

So what are methods that do work to make older hardware snappier?
A first method is to install FreeBSD instead of Linux. FreeBSD often outperforms Linux on old hardware. For example, in the comprehensive Jetstream 2 as well as the WebXPRT 4 benchmark, FreeBSD scores 25% higher than the average Linux distro and on average similar to Clear Linux.
I first tried different distributions of Linux, but I had trouble getting them to install or they did not perform on older hardware well at all. From my use of FreeBSD I have come to really really like it, I appreciate it's robustness and performance and I also like that I am using a direct descendant of UNIX.

A second method is to use a window manager instead of a full desktop environment. bspwm is possibly the fastest window manager currently in existence, just slightly faster than dwm.

A third method, if you're using a Linux distro, is not to choose a system that uses systemd. Devuan, MX Linux and Void Linux boot much faster than the typical systemd systems like Ubuntu, Mint, Arch, Fedora etc.

And a last obvious tactic is to use lightning fast apps like Thunar, Viewnior, mpv media player, Claws Mail, zathura document viewer, Atril document viewer, Evince, mate-terminal, Geany, Emacs, etc.
 

bogdanw

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2009
6,102
3,016
Xubuntu recommended system resources " it is recommended to have a 1.5Ghz Dual Core processor with at least 2 GB of memory."
Latest LTS release: 22.04, Jammy Jellyfish https://xubuntu.org/download/

Lubuntu no longer provides minimum system requirements, but it's just as light as ever
22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) Recommended for most users https://lubuntu.me/downloads/
 

Yael-S.

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2022
70
82
Xubuntu recommended system resources " it is recommended to have a 1.5Ghz Dual Core processor with at least 2 GB of memory."
Latest LTS release: 22.04, Jammy Jellyfish https://xubuntu.org/download/

Lubuntu no longer provides minimum system requirements, but it's just as light as ever
22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) Recommended for most users https://lubuntu.me/downloads/
I don't know if Lubuntu is ever as light and fast as it is always claimed. Some 7 years ago I used it to 'revive' old Pentium 4 systems. But Lubuntu was slow to start up, login and exit and opening/using apps was also slow.

That Lubuntu is no longer lightweight in 2023 is beyond dispute. It uses the same amount of RAM as Xubuntu, or more than 500 MB of RAM.

Actually mageia + XFCE is more lightweight than Lubuntu & Xubuntu because I'm often around 445MB RAM after logging into mageia. Furthermore, it is also the case that mageia starts up and shuts down faster than these Ubuntu variants. And it is more user-friendly than the above options in several areas, so mageia can now always be recommended instead of Lubuntu and Xubuntu.

The best option for people who want to get more out of their hardware, but don't want to lose time in hours of configuring the operating system, is MX Linux with fluxbox. It starts very quickly and after login it is also super light:

GhostBSD is also fast after login but not really on boot. GhostBSD's package manger is one of the fastest around, the shell is also much faster than Bash, apps open faster in general than on Linux systems, and so on.

Clear Linux, Devuan and Void Linux are much faster than Lubuntu/Xubuntu as well but this is possible above beginner level.
 
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apostolosdt

macrumors 6502
Dec 29, 2021
317
284
Fast Linux and GUI software, even the lightest one, sounds a bit contradictory. For serious use of Linux, I would've thought of Mini Ubuntu or FreeBSD without configuring any graphical environment.
 

Yael-S.

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2022
70
82
Linux Mint 21 is really solid and great.
I don't think the OP's question was related to what constitutes a solid and great OS. He literally says the following:
I am currently on Mint. I like it. But I know I can pull more out of this hardware.

It seems that he wants to achieve higher performance than what he sees in Mint.
As I said, FreeBSD is a good recommendation, as it outperforms all Linux systems in WebXPRT, the most realistic browser benchmark.

But also in other benchmarks I sometimes see that emulating Linux on FreeBSD via a jail environment can yield higher performance than running the same app natively on Linux. Here's an example.

FreeBSD + Brave (via FreeBSD jail environment)
Screenshot_2022-09-07_09-07-55.png


FreeBSD + Chromium (native)
download.png


mageia + Brave (native)
Screenshot_2023-04-22_12-38-38.png


What these tests show is that emulating Brave on FreeBSD through a Linux jail gives higher performance than how Brave will perform on a typical Linux distro like mageia.
 

bogdanw

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2009
6,102
3,016
I don’t think the OP noticed the small text at the end of the email “You will not receive any further emails about this thread until you have read the new messages.” :)
 

DCBassman

macrumors 6502a
Oct 28, 2021
762
586
West Devon, UK
As a "new" owner of this particular iMac, my intention is to use Mint 21 1. With upgraded RAM and an SSD, I seriously doubt any average user would notice differences between most distros.
I also appreciate that I'm talking on a forum of non-average users!
On the stock machine, Mint performed as well as High Sierra. No benchmarks, just my view. Plainly both would gain from proposed upgrades. But what was very good about Mint was that it just worked. No part of the hardware fazed it, and install time is much quicker than macos.
My plan is to use this as my daily driver machine, so MacOS is a not a reasonable option, even if using Catalina. Mint will run on this, fully updated, for at least several years, making good use of a very nice piece of hardware.
 

DCBassman

macrumors 6502a
Oct 28, 2021
762
586
West Devon, UK
I have a caveat: on mine, the Bluetooth, although visible and detected, does not play ball. Blowing away Mint and reinstalling High Sierra: all good. So I withdraw my recommendation.
 

SPJones

macrumors member
Sep 3, 2022
77
26
I have a caveat: on mine, the Bluetooth, although visible and detected, does not play ball. Blowing away Mint and reinstalling High Sierra: all good. So I withdraw my recommendation.
I was considering installing Mint (had previous good usage from it on an old Windows machine for several years until the start of the pandemic when I needed a more powerful computer for Zoom) on my 2013 iMac. What kind of BT problems were you having?
 
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DCBassman

macrumors 6502a
Oct 28, 2021
762
586
West Devon, UK
Simple: no mouse and keyboard detection at all. Tried LMDE, wouldn't install. Pop_OS! has just finished installing, and works fine, although boot times are longer than Mint. Core 2 Duo 3.06GHz 27" iMac 10,1.
 
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SPJones

macrumors member
Sep 3, 2022
77
26
Simple: no mouse and keyboard detection at all. Tried LMDE, wouldn't install. Pop_OS! has just finished installing, and works fine, although boot times are longer than Mint. Core 2 Duo 3.06GHz 27" iMac 10,1.
Thanks. I use a crappy HP wired mouse, but wouldn't give up my Apple keyboard for anything, not even the otherwise wonderful Linux Mint distro.
 
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