Which Linux Distro installs on a MacBook (13-inch Early 2008) [closed]

I have a MacBook (13-inch Early 2008) and need to stick with it for some more time, but Apple doesn't give support anymore to it, so I'd like to install an operating system to keep it alive and kicking with low memory usage.

What is your suggestion for a lightweight and compatible operational system for my old MacBook?

How to Test Multiple Linux Distributions

I recommend making a multi-boot USB stick. I used YUMI to create it, and put a number of Linux distros for testing on new machines. You just pick the one to test at boot time, and then you can run it from the USB memory for a while until you decide if it works well on the target machine.

Been a while, but my recollection is that all of the live images were ready to do an install, too. Also can't remember the cost, but I think I paid less than $10 for a large enough memory to hold half a dozen distros, plus state storage.

Recommendation: Ubuntu

My own preference has been Ubuntu these years, though I don't like some of the design decisions they've been making and some versions have been too heavy for my taste. I used one of the Puppy Linux versions for a while, and it was cute and surprisingly robust. Haven't really used Lubuntu that much, but some people recommend it for older and weaker machines.

Probably not relevant to your Mac situation, but I did find one machine that had a weird problem in booting from the USB stick. It was an old ThinkPad, and even though it said it supported USB booting, it didn't work as expected. The trick was to edit the device list to add the USB stick with the hard disk and then move the USB entry to the top of the list before starting. (Unfortunately, that machine was so old and flaky that no Linux was able to cure its WiFi problems... I found a weird WiFi workaround, but too far out of scope here.)

Have you considered Windows 10. I am currently entering this answer using a mid 2007 iMac with 4 GB of memory running Windows 10 Pro 64 bit.

I do agree with shanen's answer. I have also once had Ubuntu Linux installed on my Mac. You should be able to create a bootable USB flash drive containing a Live version of Ubuntu. This will allow you to test to see if your hardware is compatible before installing to your internal drive. The Live version boots Ubuntu directly from the flash drive without altering your internal disk. Note, the Live version will be very sluggish. You will experience improved performance once installed directly to your internal drive. BTW, is used Unetbootin to create the Ubuntu USB flash drive.

The key to your question was your statement:

What is your suggestion for a lightweight and compatible operational system for my old MacBook?

I suggest you take a look at FreeBSD. BSD is the core of what OS X. I also had a very good experience installing FreeBSD 10-2 (latest version) on an XServe G4 (PowerPC). So, your Intel based MacBook should be no problem.

You should avoid Linux on a Mac

Not because it is a bad OS - on the contrary, they are some very good distros out there. The problem that I have run into is consistency across distributions.

For example, if you are doing some web development and you deploy your LAMP stack (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) you will at some point have to modify your Apache config file. In RedHat it is called httpd.conf and in Mint, it uses apache2.conf. Keeping things straight as to how one distro does things and how another does things can become very confusing. This is one of the reasons that when people were opting for Linux, I was hanging on for dear life to Solaris

Some distros use RPM package management, some use IPS. apt-get, yum, pkg-install so the way you install MySQL in RedHat will be completely different from the way you install MySQL on Mint, or Ubuntu, or SuSE.

That's just one facet...firewall? IPCHAINS or PF? (OS X now uses PF that was developed on BSD).

I am not saying this is a bad thing, it's just if you are not a seasoned user, this is a bag of headaches nobody really talks about.

Another problem with Linux and it has nothing to do with Linux itself, is the community. When I run into an issue and turn to the community for assistance (as everyone does from time to time) you will find it can be both hostile and a place where everyone has an opinion on what distro you are using or should be using.

Why you should look at BSD

I mentioned earlier that BSD is the core of what OS X is. The biggest difference between Linux and BSD is that Linux is a common open source kernel with open source versions of different components added to create a distro; whereas BSD is a kernel and components developed in tandem specifically to create an operating system. There's a good presentation that explains this on YouTube; the presenter addresses this within the first 2 mins.

The documentation is fantastic. The FreeBSD Handbook is quite literally a text on how to install, administer and maintain your BSD installation. It is one of the best "books" you can get on an BSD and you don't have to spend a cent.

The 27,000+ BSD Ports

Going back to your request of getting something lightweight, this is by it's very definition, BSD.

On FreeBSD specifically, when you install it, you get pretty much nothing but the core OS and the SSH server turned on. You make BSD your own by installing Ports

What are Ports? They are the "make files" and configuration files to the source code of the application you want to install (they have to be downloaded).

Is it quicker than installing a package? No, it will take a bit of time. But it is specific to your install. The problem with a preinstalled package is that it depends on what the person who originally compiled it wanted and usually they will include everything so as to be functional across a wide range of installations. That means "stuff" you may never, ever, use.

With Ports, you can specify exactly what you want compiled. You want LDAP? No problem. You want Postgres support but no MySQL? No problem either. Change your mind later on? No problem, re-run the Ports installation and recompile. It's super easy.

The benefit here is you get what you want, and nothing more.

For example, I have a development server on an XServe G4 (PowerPC). I don't run a GUI desktop so that didn't get installed. But on this G4 processor, which according to Apple should have been either recycled or put into a museum somewhere, I am running :

1. PHP 5.6
2. MySQL 5.5
3. Apache 2.4
4. Native iSCSI initiator that allows me to connect to new modern disk arrays like an HP 3PAR (enterprise storage) or something like a Synology Diskstaion (SOHO NAS) and everything bigger and smaller. OS X El Capitan still cannot do this .

And we do Drupal 7/8 development on it. Not bad for a machine that relegated to the trash heap by Apple in 2004. Here's the phpinfo() page if you want to see the results.

BSD is strong, lightweight and stable. If you are looking for something that will work really well on your Mac, then BSD is (IMO) the strongest choice.