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.)
You've got two different questions in there, I think. One of them is "what's so great about mac" and the other is "what to do with an old mac"?
It sounds like you're likely to be frustrated finding out the answers to the first one on that machine, though for some people a Catalina OS on a form factor or model they really like is sublime. If you're just trying out the os from the Windows side of things, it's not as fun because there's some learning curve stuff that's just annoying to get through at first. Command-key vs CTRL, but Command-key is the Windows key on some keyboards so -??? stuff like that.
As for the "what to do with it" question, I'd argue the form factor would answer it. for an iMac, I'd think about a music station, maybe find some good visualization programs (there was a milk plugin for VLC I found awhile ago that I liked). A browser / emailer / kbinner is good if you have the keyboard and mouse you like. Or, if you just want to put it on a shelf and look at it's coolness, a digital photo frame. The last iMac I saw my friends had in their kitchen for music, recipes, youtubes etc.
If none of those interest you, then yeah running Linux is always an option and a darned fine one. Make it the killer Kali seekrit station or whatever :D