Pro tip even a heavyweight Linux distro will work.

If it ran win 10 it will run Ubuntu 26

Funny enough, some of the "obsolete" Intel Macs are still useful for embedded Linux work.

I still use one for Yocto builds because a lot of older tooling and workflows remain much easier on x86 than on Apple Silicon.

Nobody really wants those machines anymore, which ironically makes them cheap and practical for this kind of work.

Of course, that old Intel Mac has long been abandoned by the latest macOS releases, and Windows 11 won't run on it through Bootcamp either.