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I'm brand new around here and I had a few questions for the community. Hopefully you all can point me in the right direction?

My situation is I've currently got a five year old MacBook Pro running OS 10.6. I've been reading lately that Apple is likely to drop support, specifically security support, for this OS once it releases 10.8 late this summer. My hardware is ineligible to upgrade any further but is otherwise running just fine. I don't want to buy a new computer so I did some searching an stumbled upon Ubuntu.

From what I've seen on this site and others it seems like a pretty slick OS, especially for the price. But would and Intel Core Duo with 2GB of ram be able to handle it?

Also, I went out an got one of those blasted Timecapsule router/wireless hard drives. I bought it specifically because I wanted to make my transition to my next mac seamless. But if I switch to Ubuntu would I even be able to use the thing? Would there be any automatic back up programs I could use with it in Ubuntu? Is there a Ubuntu equivalent to Time machine?

Any guidance would be most appreciated. Thank you,

Cybersurfer
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    Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Since this site has a Q&A format, it works best when you stick to one question per post. Could you please repost your Timecapsule question as a separate question? Thanks! – Knowledge Cube May 08 '12 at 22:03

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I think it would be no Problem to run Ubuntu on that hardware. On my pentium processor with 2 x 2,13 GHz, with two web browsers and a file manager opened it only takes 800 MB of my 4 GB RAM and runs flawlessy.

If you update from one release to another, you can keep your programs and settings. If you buy a new device, you can keep your settings (backup your home folder) but you'd have to reinstall your programs, even if there are many scripts in the web that make this a lot simpler.

jplatte
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Ubuntu would be pretty slick at any price! I can only answer 1/2 of your question. I have run Ubuntu on much more modest hardware. Like anything else, the faster the hardware the better the experience, that said, you should get at least the performance you get from OSX.

As for the timecapsule, I am not sure that the backup will work because I am not familiar with it.

I found this. It looks possible with Deja Dup (Ubuntu's default backup client) but not ideal. Sorry I cannot be more helpful.

Chris
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  • Your graphics hardware may be a little limiting. There are some reported problems with older nVidia Geforce 6 and 7 integrated chips with the nVidia driver that ships with 12.04 (295.40). The issues have been fixed by nVidia, but I don't believe the fix has made it downstream yet. – Chris May 08 '12 at 21:59
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You could try it, and if it turns out to be slow, try adding more RAM. You MBP should support at least 4GB (maybe up to 16GB depending on the exact model). Two 2GB modules should only about $60 these days.

TextGeek
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