When you start getting into Hackintoshes or running non-OSX operating systems on Macs (aside from Windows and Boot Camp), things can get iffy in some situations. That list is pretty nasty, though I'm fairly surprised someone got the damned Touch Bar working for Linux.
But if there's one good thing at play, it's that there's a fairly active community that tries to tackle these problems.
I've had very good luck with my conversion on my old MBP so far. I have a late 2009 kicking around the house, basically a web browsing computer or backup machine if I leave my newer model in the office, etc.
Since I couldn't get the latest macOS on it I figured I'd just wipe it and install a Linux distro- all told I was maybe an hour into the process and had Ubuntu 16.10 running like a champ. The built in Ethernet was a life saver because I had to replace the WiFi drivers and there were a few power settings I tweaked.
A few weeks post install I've tweaked touchpad settings and various other things, except for the WiFi, it worked nearly straight out of the gate, and it was certainly functional immediately post-install.
Known limitations that affect me are pretty much limited to Thunderbolt hotswap (you've got to boot with the TB hardware plugged in), lid close/sleep is pretty finicky (I feel like this has always been the case with every Linux laptop I've ever run), and the iSight drivers for the built in web cam have some issues therefor preventing some smart screen dimming functionality. If I actually took the time to patch the drivers this sounds like it's resolvable but I really just don't care.
Battery life is tough to gauge because it's so old and I didn't benchmark it pre-Linux but I'm getting about 2-2.5 hours out of it while writing code. Obviously not great, but I doubt I was getting that much more w/ OS X. This machine was my daily workhorse for a couple of years, it's got plenty of cycles on the battery. With auto screen dimming or GPU optimizations, this could likely get improved.
Really, the only thing I'm finding now is that I'm not a huge fan of the default Ubuntu 16.10 desktop and I'll probably start hopping distros since it's been a while since I was running a Linux desktop as a main OS.
I would say that from a completely subjective standpoint it feels every bit as snappy in standard use as OS X did and it will likely keep this machine quite useful for as long as it holds together.
For Mac users switching to Linux, I would highly recommend using Ubuntu Studio, since it comes preconfigured for Multimedia production and has a ton of applications onboard that would make your average MacOS user double-take and re-think the position that "there is no creative software on Linux", because my friends, there is a huge plethora of creative apps for Linux, and Ubuntu Studio demonstrates that in spades...
They tend to run worse than equivalent ThinkPads though, mostly due to prioprietary nature of power saving APIs and thus you lose battery life (and quiet).
Transaction costs (both the explicit "we take a percentage" kind, and the hidden ones like the risk of being ripped off) are pretty significant, so no, not really.
That's an essential insight for anybody that ever wants to run a business, and it is why sales people get paid the big bucks and purchasers are only as good as the discounts they get.
That's included in the spread I mentioned as "reduced price". Unless you're saying that the expected value of selling it is literally lower than throwing it in the trash, my point stands.
I'm confused about the reduced price. Everything isn't about money when we are talking about non-large sums. Selling something like an electronic can be a huge hassle for some people.
On second thought, I guess if you can just sell it to some service. Or say, Best Buy, then there's a point there for reduced price (at a high degree :p).
