Installing Linux on an older laptop

Linux:

Linux would be a good choice for such an old laptop since Linux usually requires using a lot less memory than macOS. Of course certain workloads will require lots of memory regardless of the OS being used.

Linux Mint is a good choice if you are not familiar with Linux since it is easy to install on a Mac and should just work. Linux Mint will give you a current up to date operating system with access to lots of free & open source apps found within the Linux distribution's software repository (kind of like an App Store, but it is not....basically just optional software that can installed through official channels). You will have access to the popular third party web browsers such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Vivaldi, and others as well as access to LibreOffice which is an open source app for accessing Microsoft Office files. Unfortunately most popular third party paid software like MS Office, Adobe products, etc. are not available on Linux....although cloud versions accessed through a web browser do work as long as a separate app doesn't need installed.

There are lots of different Linux distributions out there, but most of the main ones are similar. The most common ones usually have access to the same software, the difference usually just comes down to how the distribution manages their software installation, and the default apps which are installed. There are a myriad of specialty distributions which should be avoided unless you know what you are doing. Many distributions may not be compatible with Apple hardware out of the box (most can probably be made to work though). One of my co-workers has been installing Linux Mint onto old Apple laptops for years without any problems in order to give our organization's older working Macs to those less fortunate in our community.

Linux is not for everyone and it does require learning a new operating system. Linux is definitely a great way to extend the useful life of an older computer. I'm still using computers from 2006 with Linux (depends on the tasks you want to perform whether such an old computer will work well though).

You can easily test out Linux Mint by using the "Live" mode option on the Linux Mint installer which boots into a Linux Mint desktop so you can get a basic feel for how it looks & operates. "Live" mode by default won't touch anything on your internal macOS drive (you can override this though). Linux Mint will be extremely slow when testing it in "Live" mode from the USB installer since USB sticks are extremely slow in performance and your laptop only has USB2 ports which are also very slow.

You can also test Linux by installing it to an external drive first which will give you a bit better idea how Linux Mint will perform although the USB2 port will still be a performance hindrance, but not quite as bad as when running it from a USB stick.

Before doing anything:

Just make sure you have a good backup of any important files from your macOS installation and make sure at least one of those backups is to external media which can be read/accessed from any device or OS since Linux won't be able to access any data stored in a macOS backup created by Time Machine or other third party backup app.

Also make sure to create & test a bootable macOS 10.13 USB installer before you erase the internal drive on your laptop so if you decide you don't like Linux, then you can wipe the drive & reinstall macOS 10.13 again. Unfortunately Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R) cannot be relied upon anymore for reinstalling macOS since there have been numerous reports for the past month that the older online installers available through Internet Recovery Mode are no longer working to allow the download of the older OS (users can boot to Internet Recovery Mode, but not able to download an OS for installation). I haven't been able to test to confirm whether this is still an issue...I've seen recent posts where it seems like some may be able to install older macOS versions through Internet Recovery Mode. Always best to plan ahead so you have multiple options available if you need to revert. If you still have your old original Apple hard drive and it still boots, then that is also good to keep handy if you decide to reinstall macOS.

Linux is an excellent choice for keeping old Mac hardware in service. I have a version running natively on a 2008 model year iMac, although I don't use it very often and am far from an expert with it.

To my knowledge Firefox still supports many if not most recent Linux distros, whereas even their support for older macOS versions is becoming limited.

There are plenty of enthusiastic Linux volunteers willing to help.

What are the benefits?

You will become very adept at rebuilding your system when it crashes 😄

Some websites are just resource hogs. If your browser has an option to disable Trackers, then try that. If that does not help, then try disabling ads for that site to see if it makes a difference. I only use Vivaldi as my browser which has these features built-in, but I'm not sure about any other browsers. I definitely don't like or trust using any browser extensions since so many of them have been found to be bad & untrustworthy. Even if they are good today, it doesn't mean that tomorrow they will be the same especially if the developer sells it to another company. Usually I will try to avoid websites which have an over abundance of trackers & ads or which negatively impact my computer's performance.

Have you tried using another web browser? Safari is too outdated to work properly with some websites, so it is possible the issue is due to an outdated browser. Even most third party browsers are barely supporting macOS 10.13 these days. Last time I checked, I think many third party browsers do still support macOS 10.13 with the current versions of their browsers.

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode to see if you have the same issue?

What is the make & model of the SSD you installed? Not all SSDs are compatible with older computers. Plus many SSDs today are just low end budget economy models that can be just as slow as a hard drive.....it can be very difficult to tell which SSDs are actually higher end models with decent performance. SSD reviews today can no longer be trusted since the SSD manufacturers have taken to using different internal components within their SSDs....sometimes only after some time due to changing availability of parts, or sometimes they have different builds of the SSD simultaneously which can perform completely differently....none of which is reflected in their model number or identification of the SSD. Unfortunately today....do not assume an SSD is faster than a hard drive.

Should you buy a newer laptop? That all depends on how you will be using the laptop. A 2010 laptop is very old and definitely is not able to properly handle many workloads today....sometimes even web browsing even if you have a current third party web browser since the site may be using features which require newer hardware to display properly (usually newer CPU features, otherwise the task must be performed through software which will be much slower....especially for video decoding).

You do need to be extremely careful buying a used Mac from an unknown seller. These forums are full of posts where the used Mac is locked with a firmware password lock, and activation lock, or the device is still being managed by a previous owner through their AppleID or MDM. Only buy a used Mac from a well respected & trusted vendor. Apple is the best option, or OWC.

Buying a used Mac from anyone but Apple is still a risk even if the vendor is trusted & well respected. Why? Because if you accidentally enable a firmware password lock, or activation lock, then there may be no way for you to have Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to disable it since you won't have the necessary & adequate proof of purchase Apple requires to deactivate these security features.