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
Yes, you can install Linux on Mac and run Windows games on it. May need to compile dkms drivers from github yourself.
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!
Yup. Got Ubuntu running on a 2008 imac and using it as a smart tv.
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.
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.
They can, but most mainstream distros started dropping support for them a few years ago so software support is getting pretty rough.
Honestly I’d just keep it on Mac OS and explore old Mac OS and its quirks. If you downgrade to 10.4 you can run classic Mac OS games/software in addition to osx software. Mac OS has no drm so just burn a disk and boot off it. 10.4 only needs a single layer dvd, 10.5 needs a dual layer. If it’s an early G5 then any 10.4 installer will work, if it’s one of the last then you’ll need the machine specific restore dvd. You can find all the software you can dream of on Macintosh garden.
USB boot is possible but a little finicky. If you’re going to try Linux use a DVD. Linux is “supported” but it’s not worth the pain of the quirks of USB boot and the quirks of Linux on Mac.
Oh that’s not a G5 that’s an Intel iMac. Yeah Linux will boot just fine on that machine USB or dvd. I’d still play with old Mac OS on it since as soon as you put modern Linux on it becomes just a boring PC that can’t run much to me.
One time I was trying to get video off of one of those mini DV tapes and the only way I managed to do it was through an old Mac, which was able to export it as a video that modern FFMPEG can handle.
Agreed! Keep it as is , as much as I hate it, that thing is “retro” to the kids now.
Oh wow nice, I was just about to ask if it could run any games! Thank you so much. I am loving exploring old OS’s. I think I’m going to keep it on MacOS. I was messing around with GarageBand and that was pretty fun.
The only issue is I think my “password workaround” may have messed up some things. Notice how in my screenshot that some of my icons like Safari are missing? They don’t launch either. I should probably add what I actually did to get around the password from a YT guide:
The old owners files are all still there despite me making a new account. I don’t think my workaround method did an actual factory reset, rather it just deleted the apple setup file and tricks it into thinking it’s a new install. I’m planning on copying all the old owners personal files to a flash drive and returning it to him before I try to install anything.
I don’t see why that would have broken anything. I’ve never done that before. I’m pretty sure on that old version of Mac OS you could’ve just run resetpassword in terminal to have reset it. But maybe that’s only on the dvd.
Well as long as disk utility works find an iso of whatever Mac OS you want to run and burn that to a USB drive. 10.6 is my favorite since it still has Rosetta to run old PPC OSX software, has the old look, but has the best software support.
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
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!
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.
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!
