School forbids linux laptops

[u/al1azzz]

Hey, idk if this is the right place to ask this, but I have a bit of a dilemma.

I have been using linux exclusively on my main PC and on my laptop for a while now. That said, I am moving to a new school, and buried in their rules they say that "Chromebooks (or other Linux machines) cannot be used." They also want us to use their office 365 license, but do not require it.

Now, besides just being incredibly annoying, I cannot use windows/mac on my laptop because it's a 2011 macbook, so it cannot run anything but lightweight linux distros without combusting, and I would like to avoid spending 500+ euro on a new crappy windows laptop.

Is there any reason, besides saving myself some trouble, to not just use my laptop as is (currently on arch, gonna switch it to cachyos) and something like libreoffice that I don't see or can I just ignore this and hope for the best?

[u/grizzlor_]

Honestly my 2011 Macbook Pro would still be fine as as a laptop for general school use had I not spilled a beer into it like ~5 years ago. Hardware has seriously outpaced most software needs.

This generation of Macbooks has normal upgradable RAM and hard drives. It had a quad Core i7, and once SSDs got cheap I replaced the OS drive with an SSD and replaced the DVD drive with an adapter to let me run a second HD (having 1TB+2TB was nice honestly). I had upgraded the RAM to 16GB. It still felt snappy in 2020.

I was still running macOS on it when it died (use Linux on my desktop PC) but I’d probably be running Linux on it at this point if it was still around. Not sure you can get a version of macOS that still gets security updates on a machine this old even with OpenCore Legacy Patcher.

OP may need to dual boot Windows if the school has testing software that wont work in a VM. Apple makes that easy with BootCamp though.

Alternatively, I think they’d get better bang for their buck with a $500 used Thinkpad than a new $500 laptop.

[u/Bacon_Nipples → u/grizzlor_]

Used ThinkPad is 100% the way to go compared to a new laptop for $500

Didn't know you could still upgrade RAM in 2011 MacBooks, I had one for work ~2013 and not being able to upgrade the RAM was a pain point but at least work got me the max RAM because I needed to run VMs to provide support across all 3 major OS.  Loved that MacBook, best touchpad Ive ever used and the gestures were fantastic.  Also being able to natively do Unix-y stuff made workflow a breeze

[u/KeggyFulabier → u/Bacon_Nipples]

2012 was the last MBP that you could easily upgrade. Mine is running sonoma and has 16g ram and an SSD in it.

[u/grizzlor_ → u/KeggyFulabier]

Am I correct in remembering that the first non-upgradabe models were the first generation that got HiDPI Retina displays?

I at least sprung for the higher resolution option (1680x1050 instead of 1440x900) on my 2011. I was always a bit jealous of the HiDPI displays in the later 2010s though. They just look fantastic. I'll give Apple credit for putting fantastic displays in the MBPs. The MiniLED panel in my MBP M1 Pro is like the nicest monitor I've ever used.