[abyssin]

How easy is it to keep a version of MacOS alongside? How long could I expect a new battery to last on a charge? I was thinking of buying a new MacBook M1 but I can’t afford the crazy price, and it’s been a nightmare to manage the OS updates.

[quijoteuniv]

Super easy, just need to install rEFInd (http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/) . Some OS upgrades might hide partitions again but you can make it persist trough updates with a script. ALL hhe info is on the page.

[johnvaluk]

You can also hold down the Option key when booting to select bootable partitions or external devices. Different models may require extra steps to enable this, but I've never needed to use rEFInd.

[kreetx]

Re: battery; don't know for a new battery, but my original lasts 4-5 hours running linux - which is very good (IMO) given that it was bought at the start of 2016.

Don't know about having a MacOS alongside but if the disk is small, you might not want that anyway. And I presume you could always go back to MacOS later.

[wsc981]

I recently tried a dual-boot configuration with my iMac 27" with both macOS and Ubuntu and after a short while the boot system got messed up. Couldn't fix it.

I read this is also an experience many Windows users have had when setting up dual booting systems with Linux.

At this point I think it's generally a bad idea to setup a dual-boot system with Linux, better to use it exclusively.

[pbhjpbhj]

It's not the "with Linux" but that's the bad idea though, is it? It seems this is an area where Microsoft (I don't know about Apple) are getting away with anticompetitive practice in the guise of security.

[quijoteuniv]

I wonder what happen, in my experience updates sometimes make that OS take over booting from each other, you should check rEFInd and the info on the website. He is the guy dealing with this

[rtontic]

Hm, I disagree. I have two desktops that I dualboot with windows 10 and various linux distros, currently ubuntu lts. If you install windows first then linux, it should work ok.

[actionfromafar]

There are battery replacements, but some are sub-par and won't hold as much charge as they report. I returned a battery I bought from Amazon and bought another from a Duracell license holder, it worked better.

[qbasic_forever]

Be careful of planned obsolescence in the apple world, it sadly applies to their computers too. A MacBook from 2013-2015 almost certainly can't be upgraded to the latest Mac OS releases and stopped getting security updates long ago. IMHO just go full Linux on it.

But if you do need to dual boot I remember doing it a few times and the refind bootloader was very nice: https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/

[ecliptik]

Using OpenCore Legacy Patcher [1] older Macs can run newer versions of MacOS that no longer officially support the hardware.

I'm running MacOS Ventura on a Macbook Air 2013 and Macbook Pro 2015 with it. They work reasonably well and get patch updates via official updates when released.

1. https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/

[pridkett]

Ventura (current MacOS release as of April 2023) is the first major version of MacOS that does not run on a 2015 MacBook Pro.

Security updates are still happening.

[barbariangrunge]

I might be impressed except I ran Linux for a while and Linux gets updates even longer and the devs writing those patches often don’t get paid

[godzillabrennus]

Mac hardware is really good at booting MacOS from external devices. That’s how I would dual boot if I cared for such a set up.

[johnvaluk]

Note that some firmware upgrades will only be applied if MacOS is booted from the internal drive (NVME support was added this way to some models). I leave MacOS on the machine for as long as it's supported and dual boot other operating systems from external devices. Some can run completely in RAM if there's room, which is nice.

When the model is no longer supported with MacOS updates, I wipe the disk and install Linux. Sometimes I'll keep a copy of MacOS on an external drive if I need to access or troubleshoot specific features of that model (like digital optical audio before support matured on Linux).

[actionfromafar]

For now it works, with Opencore Legacy Patcher. Pretty easy, I reinstalled with their boot loader on USB.

[bilqis]

I don’t know, I never kept one. I believe there are some bootloaders that allow that.

At least the restore sector is kept, and if you decide to roll back/sell, you can restore macOS.

Although I used it for years, and also having about 14 years of GNU/Linux experience, I was very comfortable.