I'm considering switching my 2013 27-inch iMac, which has an NVIDIA GeForce GT 755m and an Intel Core i5-4570 CPU, to a Linux distribution. I've already tried Fedora and Linux Mint, but I'm curious about CachyOS, EndeavorOS, and Arch. I've heard CachyOS is user-friendly, but is it really optimized for older hardware like mine? How do these options compare in terms of performance and ease of use?
5 Answers
If you're not gaming on this older PC, you might want to check out Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) with Cinnamon. Debian is well-supported on older hardware and should give you a good overall experience. But if gaming is your goal, CachyOS could work, although your hardware might limit your options significantly.
Just a heads-up about running Arch: it can definitely require some tinkering! If you’re not up for manual installations, CachyOS sounds like a better fit for you.
EndeavorOS is a solid choice because it simplifies most of the installation headaches you might face with Arch while still giving you the freedom to add or remove packages as you see fit.
As far as I know, the i5-4570 is part of the first generation of Intel's x86-64-v3 processors, which means it can still benefit from optimizations in newer distributions. That said, I'd recommend you try using the Archinstall script to ease the installation process for Vanilla Arch.
In my experience, Ubuntu LTS Pro and MX Linux run great on older Macs. Although, the Arch community can sometimes lean into the meme side of things! For stability on old hardware, something Debian-based like MX or Q4OS might be a better choice.
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