Your Old Computer Is Enough. Install Linux

You don't need a new MacBook Pro to be a developer.

Your old computer may be enough -- just install Linux. Not just for tinkering and experimentation (see Tip 128). Use it as your daily dev machine.

Linux is what powers the whole Internet! Nearly every server you'll ever touch runs Linux (the rest mostly run flavors of BSD).

So. If Linux runs most systems. And you learn how to build those systems. Why should you, the developer, run something else?

My laptop is running Fedora Linux, and I'm loving it. The development experience is fantastic. And when it comes to user experience -- it's also an absolute beauty (especially now that Wayland has replaced X11).

Okay. But what if your computer is really old?

Linux still rocks for dev! Just disable the GUI and keep the native terminal -- and it will fly! Fedora Server would work perfectly -- it ships without any graphics. I just installed it on a 15-year-old laptop with a spinner HDD; it runs my family Immich server (an open-source, self-hosted Google Photos replacement) and is very happy under this load.

Unless you do front-end design, a terminal is really all you need. Neovim is a fully functional IDE. Agentic AI tools are terminal-first. Anything you would click on usually also has a CLI with the same (or even more advanced) functionality.

Don't let an old machine stop you from building. Install Linux, and enjoy developing!