Is my Macbook pro soon going to be obsolete?
Discussion
I run a mid 2010 Macbook Pro and have had it since new, love the thing and it's running well and fast still and doesn't get particularly intensive use.
However, it's on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and won't update anymore. Not been a problem but more and more programs will no longer update or be supported and the latest is Microsoft Office which I use a lot.
Does anyone know if it's a sign it'll eventually go like an old iPad and become unuseable? I've had a good run out of it and have only bought an SSD to speed it up and a new battery in it's ten years. I'm thinking of going for a new Mac but no keen on doing so if I can limp it along for another few years.
My only other concern is that of security, as the OS isn't being updated and programs like Microsoft suite aren't upgrading am I leaving myself open to any security risks?
However, it's on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and won't update anymore. Not been a problem but more and more programs will no longer update or be supported and the latest is Microsoft Office which I use a lot.
Does anyone know if it's a sign it'll eventually go like an old iPad and become unuseable? I've had a good run out of it and have only bought an SSD to speed it up and a new battery in it's ten years. I'm thinking of going for a new Mac but no keen on doing so if I can limp it along for another few years.
My only other concern is that of security, as the OS isn't being updated and programs like Microsoft suite aren't upgrading am I leaving myself open to any security risks?
I suspect High Sierra will be supported for a few years yet. But as you say some newer programs may not be supported.
What version of Office are you using? I'm still running Office 2011 which won't run on the later OS as it's 32bit. My 2009 iMac is on High Sierra and won't go any higher.
HOWEVER, you can run a patch and update to Catalina or even Big Sur on older, unsupported Macs. You need to check compatibility. I'm holding off for now as High Sierra does everything I need.
http://dosdude1.com/catalina/
What version of Office are you using? I'm still running Office 2011 which won't run on the later OS as it's 32bit. My 2009 iMac is on High Sierra and won't go any higher.
HOWEVER, you can run a patch and update to Catalina or even Big Sur on older, unsupported Macs. You need to check compatibility. I'm holding off for now as High Sierra does everything I need.
http://dosdude1.com/catalina/
Thanks megaphone, these are screenshots of what I have
I'd read in a few places that Mac OS High Sierra stopped being supported in Sep 2020 but I don't know if this is accurate or not. I've also stopped using Safari as it's so out of date now on this system.
Apart from Office and the OS not updating all the other stuff I use works ok for the most part, I just don't want to go use it one day and find something important no longer works.
Thanks for the link to the patch, I'd rather not use a 3rd party work around for my OS as I've no idea how flaky or safe it is.
Do you reckon I should just wait a while and see what happens? I do regular time machine backups so I guess I could always roll back if things go pear shaped at some point.
I'd read in a few places that Mac OS High Sierra stopped being supported in Sep 2020 but I don't know if this is accurate or not. I've also stopped using Safari as it's so out of date now on this system.
Apart from Office and the OS not updating all the other stuff I use works ok for the most part, I just don't want to go use it one day and find something important no longer works.
Thanks for the link to the patch, I'd rather not use a 3rd party work around for my OS as I've no idea how flaky or safe it is.
Do you reckon I should just wait a while and see what happens? I do regular time machine backups so I guess I could always roll back if things go pear shaped at some point.
The lastest OS version is 64 bit only which means quite a few older applications which run 32 bit have either been updated to 64 bit or discontinued.
I had to ditch my accounts package as it was 32 bIt so i would never have been able to update the OS to a later version and keep it.
So at a suitable time I had to ditch the accounts and moved to a cloud based package.
I would imagine that High Sierra will before long become obsolete and there will be no further security releases.
10 years is pretty good going for a computer so I would plan to upgrade a convenient time and now may be a good time as they are all being upgraded to ARM processors which are more likely to have long term support than the intel ones.
I had to ditch my accounts package as it was 32 bIt so i would never have been able to update the OS to a later version and keep it.
So at a suitable time I had to ditch the accounts and moved to a cloud based package.
I would imagine that High Sierra will before long become obsolete and there will be no further security releases.
10 years is pretty good going for a computer so I would plan to upgrade a convenient time and now may be a good time as they are all being upgraded to ARM processors which are more likely to have long term support than the intel ones.
Edited by springfan62 on Wednesday 30th December 12:14
Thanks for the advice, certainly given me some food for thought. I might just stop using it for the time being online as suggested. I do have a windows laptop as well so I'm not stuck without anything.
Seems a real shame as the old Mac is built like a tank and great to use.
I'll do some reading on the new M1 Macs, I'm quite happy to splash out as the old one has lasted so long and done me well.
Seems a real shame as the old Mac is built like a tank and great to use.
I'll do some reading on the new M1 Macs, I'm quite happy to splash out as the old one has lasted so long and done me well.
Smiljan said:
I run a mid 2010 Macbook Pro and have had it since new, love the thing and it's running well and fast still and doesn't get particularly intensive use.
However, it's on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and won't update anymore. Not been a problem but more and more programs will no longer update or be supported and the latest is Microsoft Office which I use a lot.
Does anyone know if it's a sign it'll eventually go like an old iPad and become unuseable? I've had a good run out of it and have only bought an SSD to speed it up and a new battery in it's ten years. I'm thinking of going for a new Mac but no keen on doing so if I can limp it along for another few years.
My only other concern is that of security, as the OS isn't being updated and programs like Microsoft suite aren't upgrading am I leaving myself open to any security risks?
High Sierra has just dropped out of support on the 14th December with the release of Big Sur. Apple actively support the latest three MacOS versions - so that's Big Sur, Catalina and Mojave (HS was supported at the start of this month but overlapped with the release of Big Sur).However, it's on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and won't update anymore. Not been a problem but more and more programs will no longer update or be supported and the latest is Microsoft Office which I use a lot.
Does anyone know if it's a sign it'll eventually go like an old iPad and become unuseable? I've had a good run out of it and have only bought an SSD to speed it up and a new battery in it's ten years. I'm thinking of going for a new Mac but no keen on doing so if I can limp it along for another few years.
My only other concern is that of security, as the OS isn't being updated and programs like Microsoft suite aren't upgrading am I leaving myself open to any security risks?
Infosec is my job and running an operating system/applications that are no longer supported by vendors is highly unadvisable. If you're in the position to upgrade to an M1, then you will absolutely not regret it.
Further information on Apple's security updates can be found below.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201222
Thanks Burton, I'm probably going to love the upgrade if I go for it. Built like a tank really means very heavy and bulky and mine is pre retina so I should notice a massive difference.
I'm just reading through the details on the cheaper Apple refurb 2020 Pros vs the new M1 Pros. or maybe even the new M1 Air would be better.
I'd like to think I could squeeze ten years out of the next one I get.
I'm just reading through the details on the cheaper Apple refurb 2020 Pros vs the new M1 Pros. or maybe even the new M1 Air would be better.
I'd like to think I could squeeze ten years out of the next one I get.
My Safari is on v13.1.2, it was updated a month ago IIRC?
That patch I linked to is meant to be good, do a search. Lots of stuff online on how to update older Macs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxFzZWqoCng
Better than throwing it away.
That patch I linked to is meant to be good, do a search. Lots of stuff online on how to update older Macs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxFzZWqoCng
Better than throwing it away.
Smiljan said:
Thanks Burton, I'm probably going to love the upgrade if I go for it. Built like a tank really means very heavy and bulky and mine is pre retina so I should notice a massive difference.
I'm just reading through the details on the cheaper Apple refurb 2020 Pros vs the new M1 Pros. or maybe even the new M1 Air would be better.
I'd like to think I could squeeze ten years out of the next one I get.
No reason why you shouldn’t. I’ve not noticed any obvious decline in build quality from Apple - it’s one of their main selling points. My MBA will be 10 in March and is still going strong (although will be retired soon due unsupportable OS), and my MBP is now over 7 years old. Big Sur is the last update my MBP will get, but I’m going to hold out for a more powerful ‘M’ series emplacement. I’m pretty sure the next generations of Apple Silicon are going to be more than just a slightly faster M1. I'm just reading through the details on the cheaper Apple refurb 2020 Pros vs the new M1 Pros. or maybe even the new M1 Air would be better.
I'd like to think I could squeeze ten years out of the next one I get.
There are also rumours of optional graphics & ML co-processors as add-ons for future Macs, that will work with & extend the base SoC capabilities. If you can wait a short while, I think we’re going to be able to get some incredibly powerful hardware in the new gen Macs.
I've taken a bit of a different slant on MacBook Pro from a year earlier than yours.
I've stuck on El Capitan (patched to as far as it would go) and ditched Safari and now running Firefox (kept up-to-date).
I'm working on the basis that if I can survive a few more years then most viruses will not longer be compatible and hopefully I'll dive under the radar again until it eventually has a hardware fault.
I've got some old versions of Adobe CS on it that I don't want to lose (before all that Adobe CS creative cloud nonsense) that are perfect for the limited stuff I use it for. Plus I use if for basic music stuff and audio editiing.
I know that's not technically the right thing but it is a Mac/Unix after all and it's only on for a hour or two a day not hosting a public website on the Internet or running an SSH server. I try to be careful and have ditched office for LibreOffice which does everything I need and I bask in the ignorance that Unix will protect me.
Guess you could say I've taken my inspiration from the Joy of Running an old Shed thread!
I've stuck on El Capitan (patched to as far as it would go) and ditched Safari and now running Firefox (kept up-to-date).
I'm working on the basis that if I can survive a few more years then most viruses will not longer be compatible and hopefully I'll dive under the radar again until it eventually has a hardware fault.
I've got some old versions of Adobe CS on it that I don't want to lose (before all that Adobe CS creative cloud nonsense) that are perfect for the limited stuff I use it for. Plus I use if for basic music stuff and audio editiing.
I know that's not technically the right thing but it is a Mac/Unix after all and it's only on for a hour or two a day not hosting a public website on the Internet or running an SSH server. I try to be careful and have ditched office for LibreOffice which does everything I need and I bask in the ignorance that Unix will protect me.
Guess you could say I've taken my inspiration from the Joy of Running an old Shed thread!
pistonheadforum said:
I've taken a bit of a different slant on MacBook Pro from a year earlier than yours.
I've stuck on El Capitan (patched to as far as it would go) and ditched Safari and now running Firefox (kept up-to-date).
I've got some old versions of Adobe CS on it that I don't want to lose (before all that Adobe CS creative cloud nonsense) that are perfect for the limited stuff I use it for. Plus I use if for basic music stuff and audio editiing.
I know that's not technically the right thing but it is a Mac/Unix after all and it's only on for a hour or two a day not hosting a public website on the Internet or running an SSH server. I try to be careful and have ditched office for LibreOffice which does everything I need and I bask in the ignorance that Unix will protect me.
Guess you could say I've taken my inspiration from the Joy of Running an old Shed thread!
I have a similar approach for now.I've stuck on El Capitan (patched to as far as it would go) and ditched Safari and now running Firefox (kept up-to-date).
I've got some old versions of Adobe CS on it that I don't want to lose (before all that Adobe CS creative cloud nonsense) that are perfect for the limited stuff I use it for. Plus I use if for basic music stuff and audio editiing.
I know that's not technically the right thing but it is a Mac/Unix after all and it's only on for a hour or two a day not hosting a public website on the Internet or running an SSH server. I try to be careful and have ditched office for LibreOffice which does everything I need and I bask in the ignorance that Unix will protect me.
Guess you could say I've taken my inspiration from the Joy of Running an old Shed thread!
Macbook Pro (2014) 8Gb RAM 500Gb SSD running El Capitan
Mac Pro (2009) 2 x 3.06GHz 6-core Xeon processors, 32Gb RAM, 2 x 500Gb SSD + 2Tb HDD running High Sierra (and dual boot to Windows 8.1)
I really do not want to upgrade either O/S even if patches are available as I'm running Adobe CS6 on both machines (last version before cloud subscription model came in and still a very powerful tool).
I do not use Safari, instead using Firefox and/or Chrome and kept patched. Also Sophos A/V and UBlock Origin for advert removal and dodgy site warnings.
For MS Office, still running Office 2011 on the Macbook, but also for many docs Apple Numbers/Pages/Keynote does a reasonable job, and LibreOffice is also an effective alternative. Even for basic project management, ProjectLibre does a decent job.
In case of issues, I take regular time machine backups, and separately backup the data to a NAS and further offline USB hard drive.
I'm keeping an eye on the new Macs with the ARM processors and it will be interesting to see how these develop, but for now, I'm sticking to my old faithful machines and hope to get a few more years out of them yet.
As the above poster suggested re Apple Pages etc, I ditched all Microsoft products 6 years ago and have ran a business on Apple Pages and numbers no problem. Nobody has ever noticed the difference.
Most people who use Office only do the odd letter or report and Pages is more than capable for most people’s needs, with or without graphics etc.
If you really don’t NEED MS office you could just use the Apple equivalent and ignore what Office is saying to you.
With the reviews of the new M1 chipset saying what they do I really think the future is going to be very bright for Apple hardware, I’m looking forward t9 the iMac 27” replacment and hope my current iMac lasts until then.
Most people who use Office only do the odd letter or report and Pages is more than capable for most people’s needs, with or without graphics etc.
If you really don’t NEED MS office you could just use the Apple equivalent and ignore what Office is saying to you.
With the reviews of the new M1 chipset saying what they do I really think the future is going to be very bright for Apple hardware, I’m looking forward t9 the iMac 27” replacment and hope my current iMac lasts until then.
Well thanks all for the really helpful and thought provoking replies, I went down the patch and upgrade route to update to Mac OS Catalina on the Mid 2010 machine I have rather than splurge on a new on in the end.
I took most of the afternoon to slowly update itself and there were a few hurdles which google helped with, MS Office stopped working as suggested it might but as I get it through work I just went onto my works account and re-installed and now I'm all up to date with version 16.44
I am beholden to MS Office and although I have a works laptop I do use the provided suite happily on my Mac more often than not.
Thanks again everyone, much appreciated. Hopefully I'll get a year or two more out of the old girl before buying a nice new one.
Thanks megaphone for the link to the patch so I could upgrade the OS. All worked out fine.
I took most of the afternoon to slowly update itself and there were a few hurdles which google helped with, MS Office stopped working as suggested it might but as I get it through work I just went onto my works account and re-installed and now I'm all up to date with version 16.44
I am beholden to MS Office and although I have a works laptop I do use the provided suite happily on my Mac more often than not.
Thanks again everyone, much appreciated. Hopefully I'll get a year or two more out of the old girl before buying a nice new one.
Thanks megaphone for the link to the patch so I could upgrade the OS. All worked out fine.
steveatesh said:
As the above poster suggested re Apple Pages etc, I ditched all Microsoft products 6 years ago and have ran a business on Apple Pages and numbers no problem. Nobody has ever noticed the difference.
Most people who use Office only do the odd letter or report and Pages is more than capable for most people’s needs, with or without graphics etc.
If you really don’t NEED MS office you could just use the Apple equivalent and ignore what Office is saying to you.
I think you mean most 'Mac' people who use Office would be happy with Pages or Number (or Keynote)...but Windows users can use one of the open source Libre/Open/Sun/Java Office alternatives.Most people who use Office only do the odd letter or report and Pages is more than capable for most people’s needs, with or without graphics etc.
If you really don’t NEED MS office you could just use the Apple equivalent and ignore what Office is saying to you.
Most business don't run Macs, and most Windows-using businesses don't bother.
Well done!
I’m more like pistonheadforum - on a 2014 MBPr with ½TB SSD + another 400TB SD card, running El Capitan, & using VMware Fusion that stops me upgrading without buying a new Fusion for a Win7 image I use!
I still believe the 2014 models were “peak Apple” - solid, fast, great screens and as many ports as you want. I generally run 2 x 1080p monitors as well as the laptop display with no problems. Intense zooming and/or video can now get the fans whirring a bit, but the beauty still keeps on rolling!
I have Office Mac 2016, but might look to make more use of google docs or the Apple equivalents in the future. There is also Libre Office available.
It is peripheral things that start to look like going obsolete....I have 50GB free box.com cloud storage, & recently this has been badgering me that it is going out of support soon.
Browser-wise I don’t see any big issues: I use Chrome, Firefox, Safari and more often these days, Brave.
Might have to look into paying for some proper cloud storage....or perhaps getting a NAS device. Might start a thread on that soon....
I’m more like pistonheadforum - on a 2014 MBPr with ½TB SSD + another 400TB SD card, running El Capitan, & using VMware Fusion that stops me upgrading without buying a new Fusion for a Win7 image I use!
I still believe the 2014 models were “peak Apple” - solid, fast, great screens and as many ports as you want. I generally run 2 x 1080p monitors as well as the laptop display with no problems. Intense zooming and/or video can now get the fans whirring a bit, but the beauty still keeps on rolling!
I have Office Mac 2016, but might look to make more use of google docs or the Apple equivalents in the future. There is also Libre Office available.
It is peripheral things that start to look like going obsolete....I have 50GB free box.com cloud storage, & recently this has been badgering me that it is going out of support soon.
Browser-wise I don’t see any big issues: I use Chrome, Firefox, Safari and more often these days, Brave.
Might have to look into paying for some proper cloud storage....or perhaps getting a NAS device. Might start a thread on that soon....
I run a Mid 2014 i7 Pro most of the time. Obviously running Big Sur. I probably should have gone for a late 2014, but these machines were a fair bit cheaper on the refurb market.
But I also have a 2011 i7 on my office desk to relive work boredom. I don't bother upgrading the OS on that - but I've also had to hack it to only use onboard graphics. I nearly binned it until I found the hack.
But I also have a 2011 i7 on my office desk to relive work boredom. I don't bother upgrading the OS on that - but I've also had to hack it to only use onboard graphics. I nearly binned it until I found the hack.
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