Okay, so you know that iMac (mid-2011 model) I rescued from a thrift store for fifteen dollars? After some struggling and a little panic about the screen not working (it was just a cable that disconnected, no biggie), I got it back up on its feet. Hooray for me!
There's just one problem, though. What the heck do I do with this thing? I gave some thought to turning it into an emulation station, but I'm not sure that a machine this old would be much good for 21st century console emulation (ie PS2, GameCube). I tried installing Dolphin for testing purposes, only to be told that the OS (El Capitan) was too old and that I'd need to download a legacy version instead; one that's likely less optimized and slower than the latest ones.
I've been doing some research and have discovered that this iMac can run a more modern OS, Catalina, with a patch. Would that newer operating system even be feasible on such an old system, though? Years ago, I bought a netbook that someone foolishly installed Windows 10 on, and it was dreadfully slow. (The previous owners put Windows 10 on a damn netbook. What were they thinking?!)
Also, I'm quickly discovering that Mac OS doesn't work the same way as Windows. When I downloaded and installed the Dolphin software, it just plopped it on the desktop, rather than letting me specify a folder and then creating a desktop shortcut to it. Is there a guide somewhere that would help guide me through the differences? Windows is intuitive for me after using it for a quarter of a century, but Mac OS, not so much. I think I'm going to need a Mac for Dummies book to really feel comfortable using this thing.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
EDIT: This wasn't mentioned in the original post, but I wanted to clarify that I've already put an SSD into this system. It's the reason I had to open it up in the first place... and then put in the terrible, terrible screen screws. (Ugh, I'm still having flashbacks.)
I’ve got two 27” 2011 iMacs and I still use them for the kids as browsers/media players/old games. The mobile GPU isn’t amazing, but the i7 version I’ve got plays half-life 2-era games decently. Would definitely recommend sticking an SSD in it if you’re going to use it regularly. Just be aware that the spinning drives have a temp sensor on them that won’t be on an SSD but there are some easy workarounds for it. It’s a great machine for learning (a slightly older) version of Mac OS, or you can install Linux or Windows on it.
For $15, might as well just have some fun with it! If you know linux/unix at all you’ll find the terminal very comfortable, and many of us find that once we’re used to osx it’s hard to go back to windows.