Anyone still using very old Macbooks successfully?

9 Stone Elvis

9 Stone Elvis

9 Stone Elvis

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128
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scotland
Hi folks. I have just returned to the office last December after a couple of years of WFH. I am now hybrid and can come and go as I please. My internet connection in the office is far better than at home so Ive been taking advantage of this for download and surfing in my lunchbreak. I have quite a bit of old Apple tech that still works flawlessly for my limited requirements and Im wondering if there is any good reason not to pick up and Old Macbook Air 11 inch for peanuts on Ebay that I can just chuck in my bag to use in the office. Not for anything complicated really just surfing, downloading etc. I could get a cheap chromebook or something but Id like to stick to Apple if I can.

My entire experience of Apple is that the tech is completely bullet proof, I have and old imac, and two 13 inch macbook airs that are still going strong at 10+ years old. Aside from maybe having to replace a battery is this a generally bad idea, is anyone else still using this old tech daily and successfully?
 
9 Stone Elvis said:
My internet connection in the office is far better than at home so Ive been taking advantage of this for download and surfing in my lunchbreak.
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9 Stone Elvis said:
Not for anything complicated really just surfing, downloading etc.
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Anyway no I sold my 2013 mba few years ago, stuff stopped working properly. i.e certain websites. I could have installed chrome e.t.c but didn't bother just got rid of it and got a personal work laptop purchased for home use. Ended up with a Asus Zenbook.
 
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I've got a 2013 MacBook Pro that I still use regularly. It's a bit clunky and doesn't run the latest version of MacOS but it works and the battery holds charge.
I mainly use it in the workshop for browsing and looking things up. It's good enough for that.
 
Rilot said:
I've got a 2013 MacBook Pro that I still use regularly. It's a bit clunky and doesn't run the latest version of MacOS but it works and the battery holds charge.
I mainly use it in the workshop for browsing and looking things up. It's good enough for that.
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Thats what I'm thinking. I'm not looking for it to do anything radical, just the most basic of tasks and be portable enough to chuck into a bag!
 
Are you talking about:

1: Bringing in your own personal macbook with a non company image on it and connecting to the corporate network unprotected
or
2: Bringing in your own personal macbook with a non company image on it and connecting to the staff wifi network which is for convenience and mostly used for mobile devices and such to have internet connectivity

If 1, obviously don't do this. There have been threads on here before about this. There are about 100 reasons why you should never attempt to even plug one in to the LAN.
If 2, I think you will have policies in place even with this network and there will also be unwritten rules essentially to not abuse it like that of which you are talking about potentially bordering on. You are utilizing your own companies internet because it is faster than yours to download stuff. That's a bit of a no no, since it sounds like you mean larger downloads. Think about how it would look if a manager came over and you have torrents running in the background for example.

I think you need to tread carefully here and the above questions are warranted. I've seen internet usage get people sacked.
If you literally mean to just browse the net and watch youtube and stuff.... why can't you do this on your work machine during said lunchbreak?
 
jaybee said:
Are you talking about:

1: Bringing in your own personal macbook with a non company image on it and connecting to the corporate network unprotected
or
2: Bringing in your own personal macbook with a non company image on it and connecting to the staff wifi network which is for convenience and mostly used for mobile devices and such to have internet connectivity

If 1, obviously don't do this. There have been threads on here before about this. There are about 100 reasons why you should never attempt to even plug one in to the LAN.
If 2, I think you will have policies in place even with this network and there will also be unwritten rules essentially to not abuse it like that of which you are talking about potentially bordering on. You are utilizing your own companies internet because it is faster than yours to download stuff. That's a bit of a no no, since it sounds like you mean larger downloads. Think about how it would look if a manager came over and you have torrents running in the background for example.

I think you need to tread carefully here and the above questions are warranted. I've seen internet usage get people sacked.
If you literally mean to just browse the net and watch youtube and stuff.... why can't you do this on your work machine during said lunchbreak?
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Honestly my question is regarding the tech itself not my usage. I'm treading very carefully and no one has an issue. Its a personal device on the buildings public wifi connection. Im not talking about downloads particularly actually, I was just using that as an example of the low level stuff involved for the age of the tech. My work computer is on a wired connection and my work laptop is on the staff wifi. Im not doing anything dodgy Im just asking the theoretically question about a wee 11 inch Macbook Airs capability to still perform basic tasks. On reflection I should probably have left out the backstory altogether!
 
jaybee said:
I think you need to tread carefully here and the above questions are warranted. I've seen internet usage get people sacked.
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Yes, the questions are warranted but he's already answered this.

9 Stone Elvis said:
I am aware of what I am doing, ta, that really wasnt my question.
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So please just assume that he is allowed to do what he's asking and concentrate on the specific questions about the hardware.
 
Lunch break? Just use your phone. :p

My experience of Apple tech is that it's bulletproof, until they decide it's time for you to upgrade and then it mysteriously starts to slow down.
 
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My 'main' computer is a Mid-2014 MacBook Pro I got second hand from these forums. It's great and has years still in it yet as it's got 16GB RAM and an i7, although to get on to OS after Big Sur, I've had to patch it and that can introduce some software niggles so I'd probably just stay on whatever the last OS supported was. If you want to be on the latest Ventura OS, then you're looking at 2017/2018 MacBooks most likely. Not sure how far back things like safari and other browser support go, but I would certainly aim for a machine that supports Catalina or later at a minimum.

EDIT: So Safari 16 no longer supports Catalina, so you'd need to aim for Big Sur or later, which is:
  • MacBook models from early 2015 or later
  • MacBook Air models from 2013 or later
  • MacBook Pro models from 2013 or later
 
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Tbh I was gonna buy the 14inch pro last year but then decided to wait for the M2 upgrade which ended up being 6/12 late, so now is time to make the jump I think.
 
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I gave my late 2013 13” MacBook Pro to my wife a few years back. I bought it in January 2014 so it’s exactly 9 years old now and still going strong.

Granted, she doesn’t do much with it but it’s fine for light tasks and web browsing etc. It can’t run latest macOS, at least not officially but I’m sure it can do better with open core patcher, I just haven’t looked at it yet.

Battery is knackered as you’d expect - I think it has something like 1200 charge cycles on it and they’re intended to keep good capacity for around 500 charge cycles so it’s impressive it even does as well as it does. I will likely swap it out at some point if I can find somewhere that sells MacBook batteries that won’t end up burning my house down.
 
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There a group called lowendmac on Facebook that is all about keeping old macs working.

I've sometimes had my own laptop or netbook with me at work. But my plan to go sit in cafe doing my own bits and bobs at lunchtime never works out. So I almost never use it.

The problem with older machines is generally browsing and media becomes unusable. Especially on dual cores. If you're happy with the performance then the old machine is usually still useable.
 
9 Stone Elvis said:
Hi folks. I have just returned to the office last December after a couple of years of WFH. I am now hybrid and can come and go as I please. My internet connection in the office is far better than at home so Ive been taking advantage of this for download and surfing in my lunchbreak. I have quite a bit of old Apple tech that still works flawlessly for my limited requirements and Im wondering if there is any good reason not to pick up and Old Macbook Air 11 inch for peanuts on Ebay that I can just chuck in my bag to use in the office. Not for anything complicated really just surfing, downloading etc. I could get a cheap chromebook or something but Id like to stick to Apple if I can.

My entire experience of Apple is that the tech is completely bullet proof, I have and old imac, and two 13 inch macbook airs that are still going strong at 10+ years old. Aside from maybe having to replace a battery is this a generally bad idea, is anyone else still using this old tech daily and successfully?
Click to expand...
Have a look at this, you can patch your old Mac to run the latest version of OSX.

I have a 2010 Mac Mini that I did patch but it didn't really like it and I just needed to use it as a streaming device so I returned it to the native OSX version.

It does work, it just works better on certain devices, especially when that device has a GPU that fully supports Metal.
 
Stuck Monterey on my macbook from late 2010 (white one) and its pretty useable for pottering around on safari and using it to control parental settings for iphone but I wouldn't exactly want to try anything demanding on it. I think these days with latest versions of osx you ideally want to be on a minimum 2016 onwards machine.
 
is no-one going to mention the fact you can use any of the new macos with multiple custom usb installer patchers such as opencore patcher etc? been using the older patchers and now opencore patcher on a 2008 mid unibody mbp, 2012 mid unibody mbp and a mid 2012 mac mini - all work perfect and you can obviously install the latest software on any of them apps/updates wise! all machines have ssd's and their ram maxed - but hardly breaks the bank upgrading them!
If you don't want to do this, both firefox and chrome currently still work fine on my 4th machine another mid 2012 mbp on catalina.
 
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