KDE is genuinely incredibly flexible - you can make it into pretty much any GUI that exists. The default windows like set up is fine, but there are so many easy tweaks and changes you can make to get it however you want. I have a floating dock-like set up instead of a window-like taskbar, with application launcher, icon-only view, system tray, clock and power button.

For simple tweaks yoy can right click on most component of your KDE panels and select “Show alternatives…” to see different official versions of the same component. For example, the Application Launcher offers an alternative Application Menu with cascading menus like an old-school windows start menu, or a full screen gnome-like Application Dashboard. And there are also loads more user made tools if you right click and select “Add or Manage widgets”. Every component of the desktop is a widget and can be moved, swapped out, duplicated or replaced.

KDE can be set up such that a ex-mac-user barely has to re-learn anything.

The difference is that while gnome looks a lot like MacOS, it isn’t exactly like it in terms of layout. An ex-mac-user will look for certain things in certain places, and won’t always find them. (such as power off/restart being up in the left corner)

Meanwhile, the customizability of the KDE desktop means you can manually put the same things in the same places as on MacOS. You can put a krunner search button in the same spot as the spotlight search button. You can make a panel that behaves like the dock, floating and shrinking to fit the number of icons in it. You can have a top panel with a power menu on the left end, and you can display a global menu to the right of it. Even the krunner keybind is the same, and spotlight people tend to pickup krunner like nothing.

Finally, the KDE settings application seems to be the most similar to the modern MacOS settings application.

The big caveat being that the user will need someone who can instruct them with setting this up, or who can set it up for them.

If that’s a concern Ventura runs reasonably well via OCLP.

I haven’t had to go that route yet because they’re still doing security updates for the last os that’s officially supported on it.

@data1701d@startrek.website @SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world can confirm, also own an 2015 MacBook Air.

I dual boot Linux mint on it now but I should try oclp because I love getting iMessages on it for work.

I still run Monterey on my MBP 2015 and haven’t found anything that doesn’t work for me.

I tried using newer OSs via OCLP but they were notably less performant and I seem to dislike most of the design changes Apple is making of late (they keep hiding shit I use all the time)

First one

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail


URL="https://updates.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/041-88431-20191011-e7ee7d98-2878-4cd9-bc0a-d98b3a1e24b1/OSXUpd10.11.5.dmg"
RANGE=204909802-207733123
OSX_DRV="AppleCameraInterface"
OSX_DRV_DIR="System/Library/Extensions/AppleCameraInterface.kext/Contents/MacOS"
FILE="$OSX_DRV_DIR/$OSX_DRV"

DRV_HASH="f56e68a880b65767335071531a1c75f3cfd4958adc6d871adf8dbf3b788e8ee1"
FW_HASH="e3e6034a67dfdaa27672dd547698bbc5b33f47f1fc7f5572a2fb68ea09d32d3d"

OFFSET=81920
SIZE=603715


WORKDIR=$(mktemp -d)
cd "$WORKDIR"

echo "Downloading macOS driver..."
curl -k -L -r "$RANGE" "$URL" | xzcat -qq -Q | cpio --format odc -i -d "./$FILE" &> /dev/null || true

mv "$FILE" .

echo "Extracting firmware..."
dd bs=1 skip=$OFFSET count=$SIZE if=./$OSX_DRV of=./firmware.bin.gz &> /dev/null
gunzip ./firmware.bin.gz


echo "$DRV_HASH  $OSX_DRV" > firmware.sha256
echo "$FW_HASH  firmware.bin" >> firmware.sha256

sha256sum -c firmware.sha256


TARGET_DIR="/lib/firmware/facetimehd"
echo "Installing firmware to $TARGET_DIR (requires sudo)..."
sudo mkdir -p "$TARGET_DIR"
sudo cp firmware.bin "$TARGET_DIR/"

echo "Done. Firmware installed."

and second

#!/bin/bash

set -e

BOOTCAMP_ZIP_URL="https://download.info.apple.com/Mac_OS_X/031-30890-20150812-ea191174-4130-11e5-a125-930911ba098f/bootcamp5.1.5769.zip"
TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
FIRMWARE_DIR="/lib/firmware/facetimehd"
DAT_FILES=(
    "9112_01XX.dat:1663920:33060:479ae9b2b7ab018d63843d777a3886d1"
    "1771_01XX.dat:1644880:19040:a1831db76ebd83e45a016f8c94039406"
    "1871_01XX.dat:1606800:19040:017996a51c95c6e11bc62683ad1f356b"
    "1874_01XX.dat:1625840:19040:3c3cdc590e628fe3d472472ca4d74357"
)


for cmd in unzip unrar dd md5sum curl; do
    if ! command -v $cmd &> /dev/null; then
        echo "Missing required command: $cmd"
        exit 1
    fi
done


cd "$TMPDIR"
echo "Downloading Boot Camp Support Software..."
curl -L -o bootcamp.zip "$BOOTCAMP_ZIP_URL"


echo "Extracting Boot Camp package..."
unzip bootcamp.zip


cd BootCamp/Drivers/Apple/


echo "Extracting AppleCamera64.exe..."
unrar x AppleCamera64.exe


if [[ ! -f "AppleCamera.sys" ]]; then
    echo "AppleCamera.sys not found!"
    exit 1
fi


cd "$TMPDIR"


echo "Extracting calibration data..."
for entry in "${DAT_FILES[@]}"; do
    IFS=":" read -r filename skip count expected_md5 <<< "$entry"
    echo "Creating $filename..."
    dd bs=1 skip="$skip" count="$count" if=BootCamp/Drivers/Apple/AppleCamera.sys of="$filename" status=none
    actual_md5=$(md5sum "$filename" | awk '{print $1}')
    if [[ "$actual_md5" != "$expected_md5" ]]; then
        echo "Checksum mismatch for $filename (expected $expected_md5, got $actual_md5)"
        exit 1
    fi
done


echo "Copying .dat files to firmware directory..."
sudo mkdir -p "$FIRMWARE_DIR"
sudo cp *.dat "$FIRMWARE_DIR"


echo "Reloading facetimehd module..."
sudo modprobe -r facetimehd || true
sudo modprobe facetimehd

echo "Done. Please Reboot ."

You can also just hook your phone up via usb and enable usb tethering, allowing the PC to use wifi or mobile broadband via the phone.