Linux (Ubuntu) on a Mac

MacBook Air hardware running Ubuntu

I’ve been an Apple user since 2009, and my “main” computer is currently a 24 inch iMac, although I spend most of my time on an iPad Air. My first Apple computer was a mid 2009 13 inch MacBook Pro (which I still have, and still works well although it’s 10 versions behind the current Mac OS). I also have my daughter’s old MacBook Air from around 2014. As it too can’t be upgraded to the current Mac OS and is several iterations behind, I decided to install a Linux distribution on it just for fun and curiosity. 

Although I’m reasonably computer literate, I’m not a complete nerd (some might disagree) so this was a slightly nervous undertaking - Linux has a reputation for being a bit geeky, and even with today’s more user friendly interfaces can often require digging into the terminal and command line instructions. 

First though, you have to install it. 

Having chosen to go with Ubuntu as my chosen distribution, I found via its website a very helpful walkthrough on how to set up and install it on a Mac. I’m not going to repeat that in any depth here as the instructions are clear enough on the website, but essentially the steps are:

• Download your chosen distribution as an ISO file
• Flash that ISO to a bootable USB drive
• Boot the usb on your Mac and follow the instructions/prompts

It’s a little more detailed than that, and I had an issue creating the bootable USB drive on the MacBook Air, and ended up doing it on my iMac. Broadly speaking, the process went well and I had Ubuntu up and running reasonably quickly.

However….

One of the known issues with this is that the install process often fails to install WiFi drivers , and this happened to me. I spent some time faffing about how I could connect to the internet to download the correct drivers without being connected to the internet! In the end I connected my phone and used that as a WiFi hotspot.  A few command line instructions and hey presto, I had WiFi up and running. 

I’ll see how it goes, but first impressions of Ubuntu are positive, and seeing open source, there’s loads of good free software out there. 

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