Donating an old iMac in the local community

I also think you will be giving someone a millstone tied around the neck when they try to find software.

If you do not have a a nearby Apple store, several office superstores offer free recycling. We have a Staples store 10 minute away, so I use it. They have a very liberal policy about what they will accept. See their lists here:

https://www.staples.com/stores/recycling

Make sure to perform the steps mentioned in the following Apple article to remove your personal data & information from the device:

What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support

Make sure to first enable Filevault & let the encryption process complete before actually erasing the internal drive. This is especially important if the computer uses a Hard Drive (or Fusion Drive). If it is just an SSD, then a simple erase is fine since SSDs work differently than a Hard Drive. Unfortunately Apple has forgotten many people still have older computers which still have a Hard Drive in them & need more than just a simple erase in order to overwrite & destroy all access to your old files stored on that drive.

If it is an Intel Mac, then I can recommend a third party bootable USB option (free) which can overwrite everything on the Hard Drive.if you don't want/need an OS on that system afterwards.

An 18 year Mac is really more of a liability than an asset. I am +1 on the recycling it recommendation, Apple does not charge for recycling. You can take it to your local Apple Store or you can use one of their on-line processes. To learn more about Apple's free recycling and to get the process started please click:

Apple Recycling Programs

An 18-year-old iMac would be from the PowerPC era. You might find someone who wanted one specifically for historical / hobby interest, but for the most part, such an old machine would not be useful for modern tasks. E.g., forget using it to browse the Web.

Is this one of the “Pixar iLamps”, or one of the iMacs that looked like white slabs?

Drop it off at your local Apple Store for recycling.

BTW: An iMac from 2007 soon may not even run recent Linux, as Linux 32-bit Intel support is being debated.

BTW: For comparison, a Raspberry Pi 5 model B is roughly twice the speed of the iMac 2007 Intel Core 2 Extreme model, and roughly four times the base Intel Core 2 performance.

And the hard disk in that iMac is likely very soon 💀 if not already 💀

You can try selling it of course, but then you also have to contend with shipping and scammers.

Or you can recycle it.

Servant of Cats wrote:

An 18-year-old iMac would be from the PowerPC era.

My bad. 2007 would be early Intel era.

Apple used 32-bit Intel processors in the Early and Mid 2006 iMacs, and switched to 64-bit Intel processors starting in Late 2006. The Mid 2007 iMacs have 64-bit Core 2 Duo processors with two cores.

I usually suggest LINUX, but maybe not worth it............................................