I have a 2011 17" Mac Book Pro (2.5 GHz Sandybridge i7, 16 GB RAM) with a dead AMD GPU. I disabled the dead GPU and am running on the integrated graphics.
It is no longer supported by macOS, so I installed linux (Mint 19) on it. Some things work well, some things not so well. I was pleasantly surprised that the hardware seems to be fairly well supported. However, when I run into a problem, researching for a fix seems to frequently show a large number of partial and contradictory 'fixes'. Sometimes it feels like a half-baked hodge podge, where there are a multitude of different packages/tools that may work or may not play well together.
Since the BSDs are packaged as a complete os rather than a hodge podge of disjoint utilities and packages, I'm wondering if it might work better.
I tried researching supported hardware, but the lists I've found talk more about motherboards/chipsets, not complete machines. I'm unsure if it will work on my Mac, or if it will only sort of run in a crippled mode.
I am looking for a desktop replacement (not a server) with some sort of GUI, which I think FreeBSD includes. I don't really care if it isn't the prettiest desktop in the world, at this point I am just looking for something that will work without a lot of endless tweaking.
It is no longer supported by macOS, so I installed linux (Mint 19) on it. Some things work well, some things not so well. I was pleasantly surprised that the hardware seems to be fairly well supported. However, when I run into a problem, researching for a fix seems to frequently show a large number of partial and contradictory 'fixes'. Sometimes it feels like a half-baked hodge podge, where there are a multitude of different packages/tools that may work or may not play well together.
Since the BSDs are packaged as a complete os rather than a hodge podge of disjoint utilities and packages, I'm wondering if it might work better.
I tried researching supported hardware, but the lists I've found talk more about motherboards/chipsets, not complete machines. I'm unsure if it will work on my Mac, or if it will only sort of run in a crippled mode.
I am looking for a desktop replacement (not a server) with some sort of GUI, which I think FreeBSD includes. I don't really care if it isn't the prettiest desktop in the world, at this point I am just looking for something that will work without a lot of endless tweaking.