Using an old Macbook with a Linux OS

Dear fellow permies,

I haven't found any threads on upgrading or saving an "end of lifespan" MacBook by installing a Linux distribution. I don't know whether it's repairing or upcycling either. It's kind of upgrading I think.

I have done it about half a year ago with my partners retired MacBookPro (2015 model), installed Linux Mint and I am perfectly happy with it.
It needed a minimum amount of computer knowledge and some use of google. Totally doable.
I now have a working laptop with a great screen and good performance for everyday things (permies, internet, office, etc).

I'm writing this to encourage everyone to try. There's many planned obsolescence devices around. It's easier than it seems and Linux is super intuitive.

Nice. I plan to do the same with an iMac.

Is there anything you recommend me to focus on?

Hi Krisz.
Spend a bit of time researching which Linux distribution might be the best fit for you. As far as I know that kind of depends on what you’re planning to do with the machine and personal preferences.
Most importantly: Just go for it! It’s a rewarding feeling to make things work yourself.
There’s a lot of support and old threads in the respective forums of for example in my case Linux mint.

Oh, and I do admit I have some trouble with the bluetooth function. I haven't bothered finding a solution yet as I'm a cable-kind-of-guy.

I also had some trouble with drivers for the internal camera, but was able to sort them out with old posts of the same trouble in the forum.

The computer I use is an old Lenovo Thinkpad T420 that must be from around 2012, I changed the hard drive for an SSD and installed Linux Mint (although I have used other distributions before), it works perfectly, I can download any program I need from its repositories and it has no planned obsolescence, how nice not to depend on companies that decide what is old and no longer valid.