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.

It’s buggy and flaky and wonderful. I can’t believe A) how quickly it’s grown over the past two weeks, and B) how great the communities seem to be. I’ve only asked one question so far but I got more and better answers than I would have on Reddit. I was feeling pretty down about the internet during the last week of June, but now I’m feeling hopeful.