I’ve got some old machines lying around (Intel mini and Intel air). I tried to go Linux today on the air. Tried Rocky, then Fedora, then Mint Cinnamon, then Mint Xfce. Couldn’t get the trackpad and kbd working. Plugging in external devices worked, but that meant juggling a kbd and mouse with the flash drive installer (only two USB-C). Then I had to juggle them with a USB-C power cable when the battery faded.
I know there are steps to make it all work with Apple’s T2 chip, but it just wasn’t worth it to me. I have two docks that I could use, but they’re driving two displays and a bunch of peripherals on my main machine, a MacBook Pro. I don’t expect I’ll run Linux on a Mac laptop until I retire my M1 air and install Asahi. It was so seamless when I tested it out that the rest just feels like burning valuable time.
I’ll prolly still convert the old mini, since all that noise won’t apply. Just WiFi drivers and such, which is much easier with four usb ports and ethernet.
If I really wanted a dedicated full-time Linux laptop, I’d probably buy a Framework since I find their hardware interesting. But as it stands, this was more of a fun project that turned out not so fun. I’ll stick with R-Pi’s and hypervisor VMs for my Linux needs for anything serious. Just ordered a new NUC today to replace one that was getting long in the tooth.