You can't update to Mojave on your Mac, and can't run softwares that designed to Mojave. You can't be run Xcode 10.3 on High Sierra, and because current Pages/Numbers only running on HS, maybe the next version will only run on Mojave. Apple periodically updates file formats for thier apps, prehaps older version of Pages can't open files that are created with newer version. Security updates lasting for two years (maybe).
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Average Life Span of a Macbook Pro
- Thread starter Terror-Inferno
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You can't update to Mojave on your Mac, and can't run softwares that designed to Mojave. You can't be run Xcode 10.3 on High Sierra, and because current Pages/Numbers only running on HS, maybe the next version will only run on Mojave. Apple periodically updates file formats for thier apps, prehaps older version of Pages can't open files that are created with newer version. Security updates lasting for two years (maybe).
Wow. That sucks. I guess I'm stuck on HS then. That's pretty rotten of them to not support the older MBP's, as they are plenty powerful for anything that most people are doing these days. Granted, HS does everything that I need it to do, so it's not like I'm losing anything by staying on it.
Almost no one uses Pages/Numbers, so who cares. Microsoft Office and Google Docs are the standards, since most people don't have Macs anyway. The lack of security updates in two years does really suck though, I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Honestly, it’s no surprise that they are phasing our softwares for that gen of laptops. As an industry, most people, especially pros are likely to replace their laptop after 3-5 years, so it doesn’t surprise me. It just sucks for those of us on a limited budget who can’t afford to upgrade every 3-5 years to a new $2,500-3,000 machine.
Unfortunately your gen of MacBook are considered “vintage” and you won’t be able to get repairs at an Apple store for the machine, so there isn’t a huge incentive for them to continue software update support on those old gen models.
Having said that, you can usually install the next MacOS on machines that aren’t “officially” supported. I believe there is already a work around to install Mojave on older MacBooks that aren’t “officially” supported.
Just managed to put a new genuine battery in my early-2011 MBP, may be the end of an era as its life was certainly extended by swapping out the HDD for SSD and more RAM. Now it looks like it may not be able to update to 10.14 but tbh it runs perfectly on HS and I'll be happy to continue to use it. 7yrs in continual personal and corporate usage in enterprise environments is simply outstanding ROI 
The last organization I worked for still had a number of 2008/9/10/11 machines that will eventually be stuck on either El Capitan or High Sierra, and we had no plans to retire them. In fact I still have a 2007 iMac and 2009 MBP running El Cap just fine. Sure you don't get the newest software but they can still run modern versions of Office, iTunes, Safari/Chrome, etc and will continue to do so for at least a couple more years. For the 2011's on High Sierra, I'd expect at least 2-3 more macOS releases before things start dropping support. So keep on keeping on everyone! Until the budget says otherwise.
Got a 6-year old rmbp from 2012. Still going strong and will go strong for at least another 2 years. To be honest at the rate that I am using this laptop, I'm confident that I can get another 4 years out of it. This thing is built to last. Have had no issues of any kind for 6 years and I only paid 2k CAD in 2012 for the cheapest model. 192 charges at 92% battery capacity after 6 years and I don't carry around too often.
I am not sure if I can get the same kind of quality and reliability from windows laptops. I've heard very good things about Lenovo laptops; people claiming that their laptops are built like tanks but their designs and W10 steer me away from buying theirs. I briefly considered buying their Yoga laptops after reading plethora of mbp keyboard problems and also having tried faulty keyboards myself at a local apple store. But at the end of the day I still think macbooks have the best design in the industry and I know they will eventually fix it.
I am not sure if I can get the same kind of quality and reliability from windows laptops. I've heard very good things about Lenovo laptops; people claiming that their laptops are built like tanks but their designs and W10 steer me away from buying theirs. I briefly considered buying their Yoga laptops after reading plethora of mbp keyboard problems and also having tried faulty keyboards myself at a local apple store. But at the end of the day I still think macbooks have the best design in the industry and I know they will eventually fix it.
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My current driver is the 2016 MBP, but my wife uses my old unibody mid-2012 daily. I also have a mid-2009 that's still going, but it's been relgated to a mostly retired status. The 2012 needed repairs to get to this point though. No matter how well built a machine is, nothing can get around the fact that heat is not your friend when it comes to electronics. Everything is slowly degrading everytime you power your computer on.
There are a lot of components that can go and you just never know which one is going to reach its limits first. For me it seems to be something different everytime. Over the years, I've lost a CPU, a logic board, wireless modem, graphics card, memory sticks, an external monitor, a laptop screen, and a power supply.
By some random fluke of fate, I've never lost the same component twice (hard drives and batteries don't count). I could build a FrankenComputer out of the replacement parts I've needed. The 4th or 5th year I own a Mac is usually when something fries out on me, but I work my machines pretty hard so maybe someone on a more normal usage pattern doesn't need to start feeling so paranoid once their computer has three birthday candles.
You're playing with house money right now and hopefully you can keep the ride going until there's a rock solid replacement ready.
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Jumping in to add to the data.
Still running a 2008 non-unibody MacBook pro.
Fixed (under warranty):
Have been waiting for the 2018 model to upgrade, hoping for a fixed keyboard and a rethought TouchBar. Or let me purchase a high-end model without it.
Still running a 2008 non-unibody MacBook pro.
Fixed (under warranty):
- Logic Board
- Screen
- Top case x2 (one broken in repair, the other marked noticeably in repair)
- 4GB RAM
- First series OCZ SSD running alongside original HDD
Have been waiting for the 2018 model to upgrade, hoping for a fixed keyboard and a rethought TouchBar. Or let me purchase a high-end model without it.
I'm not on a particularly limited budget, I just see no reason to upgrade a machine that works perfectly fine for now. With the way technology has gone, the earlier generation Core i7 processors are still perfectly usable and fast enough for everyday stuff. An early 2011 MBP with an HDD would be painful at this point, but I have a Samsung SSD in mine, so it's pretty darn fast.
I'm hoping that my logic board holds on for a couple of years, as it's on it's third due to the manufacturing defect issues on those logic boards.
No I completely agree with you there, this is part of the reason I buy Mac products, they last significantly longer than any other computer I’ve had (and I’ve had my fair share). They aren’t without issue, but on a broad scale they age better than comparably specced Windows machines. My current 2017 MBP should last me for at least 6-8 years.
I was just speaking to the view from Apple that by industry standards there isn’t a large incentive to be designing the new MacOS software for computers that are 7 years or older.
Like I said though, you may want to try whatever workarounds there are to install Mojave on your machine. With Apple supposedly focusing on cleaning up the bugs it might run better on your machine than High Sierra does.
Kids have 2010 white Macbooks. Upgraded the memory to 8gb and replaced the hard drives with SSDs on both and they are still very useable for most things even today.
Pretty impressive in my opinion.
Pretty impressive in my opinion.
I might, but I also may just leave it, as HS seems to work fine. The only performance upgrade I have left on the MBP is going from 8GB to 16GB of RAM, but I decided a while back it wasn't worth it. The biggest reason that I had to retire the MBP as my daily driver is it's limited I/O. My entire storage system of external drives was chained off of a single USB 2.0 port, along with keyboard, mouse, my USB DAC, headset, and whatever else I plugged into it. That just wasn't cutting it. I love having it as a truly portable system that isn't "docked" most of the time.
I also have an almost brand new Coffee Lake Windows 10 desktop that I built for longevity, so the MBP is a travel/portable machine that doesn't do a whole lot intensive, but I still like having a full OS, filesystem, and UNIX terminal available, unlike a Chromebook. So far so good on my desktop, which I built to last 10 years. I've run into a bit of a snag with RAM, my 16GB isn't enough with PS Elements, LR, and usual desktop stuff running at the same time, so I'm going to put another 32GB in there for a total of 48GB, which should get me to it's potential retirement date at EOY 2027.
Sad to say, but I think my next laptop will also be a Wintel machine, as I want to have a very light machine to travel with, probably a Lenovo X1 Carbon, but we'll see. I'll probably buy a new to me Mac when the 2011 MBP dies, just to have a UNIX machine to play with, but I might buy a refurb 2015 at that point.
The falling price of SSDs were the game changer. I couldn't believe how usable my 2009 MBP became once I replaced the HDD with an SSD. When I replaced my 2012 unibody with a 2016 MBP, it wasn't because I needed a faster machine. I got the 2016 MBP so I could have a 5K monitor to give my eyes a break from the long days of staring at the screen.
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Yeah, it's incredible. I knew as soon as I played with the first MBA in the Apple Store that SSDs were the future. When I got the MBP in 2011, I put a 160GB SSD in it, that later died, and I put the 500GB SSD in there. I can't stand using machines with HDDs anymore, they are just so slow and unresponsive. I have a much faster SSD in my desktop, since the 2011 MBP is limited by the 3gbps SATA connection.