Elementary OS? Anyone else using it?

[Oldmopars]

So, for a while now I have been using Linux Mint. I know with some tweaking you can kind of make Mint have a Mac OS look. However, Elementary OS looks like Mac OS from the get go.
With the issues running current Mac OS on older hardware I wanted to give it a try. I know about OCLP and I am using it on my 2009 Mac Pro 5,1.
But for a computer that I just want to turn on and use, no need for multi-boot options, I think this is a great option.
So far I have it on my Mac Pro as an option, my wife's 2011 21.5in iMac, and I am about it install it on my 2011 27in iMac.
I would love to hear from others what you have done to tweak it to look better, work better, etc. What is your experience been with it? I am just getting started with it, so I would love some input.

 

[zayanhani]

I am thinking about trying out Elementary OS too, especially for older Macs. Curious how it is been running on your wife’s 2011 iMac? Any hiccups or did everything just work out of the box?


Also did you have to do anything special for WiFi or graphics support? I’ve read mixed things depending on the hardware so just wondering what your experience has been like so far.

 

[Oldmopars]

I am thinking about trying out Elementary OS too, especially for older Macs. Curious how it is been running on your wife’s 2011 iMac? Any hiccups or did everything just work out of the box?


Also did you have to do anything special for WiFi or graphics support? I’ve read mixed things depending on the hardware so just wondering what your experience has been like so far.

Well, I now have had it running on 3 older Macs and can tell you what I have found.
1. 2011 iMac 24.5in. Installed, no issues. You will need Gdebi installer to load things like Google Chrome, but once you have that, its no big deal. It has run flawlessly on it with no issue with the GPU, the sleep/wake, or anything else. It just works as it should. She is not a heavy user, but she does use it every day.
2. 2017 iMac 24.5in. Installed fine, same need for Gdebi, seems to work really good, except, the sleep/wake functions are not good. It will randomly chose to either shut down, work correctly, or refuse to respond and have to be restarted. To be fair, this is not an Elementary OS issue, I switched from Linux Mint and it was doing the same thing, so it is a problem with the 2017 iMac.
3. Mac Pro 5,1. Same here, installed just fine, needed Gdebi, works great. No issues with wake/sleep. This one is running an RX 580 8gb and the latest firmware 14.0.0......(whatever).

So far I really like it. Using Linux in any form takes a little getting used to. Some things require you to enter things in the command line, no GUI. But, most of the time I just Google what I need, then copy and paste. If you like Linux, and Mac OS, this will be great.
I have a bunch of other PCs running Mint because they are old Core2 or first Gen i3/i5/i7 serving in the place of a Raspberry Pi. The offer more power, storage and memory than a RPi and people just about give them away.

 

[DCBassman]

Glad this popped up. Sister's kids have a 2011 Macbook Pro 13" still running High Sierra. At some point, I'm going to be upgrading it hardware-wise, and, having one of my own, decided to try Elementary. Looks good, works well so far, doesn't look like it will confuse anybody too much. So I'm already recommending it gor when I do the upgrade.