Apple Adds Last MacBook Pro With CD Drive to Obsolete Products List

[picpicmac]

Show us a computer from that era that can do something as basic for todays standards as sending an email.

No computer of that era did email in its own day, so why would I expect such a computer to do it now?

I have a Casio programmable calculator from 1980, and an HP41C from two years later, both of which can still do their functions.

But both are obsolete. Neither are repairable, and the original Hewlett Packard company doesn't even exist anymore (the current HP being more a rebranded Compaq.)

The continuation of functionality does not define obsolete.

 

[picpicmac]

and minimal power consumption is not there.

That's not where the world is going.

We need to be more energy efficient.

Desktop computer boxes with kilowatt power supplies are going the way of the Dodo bird.

Desktop computers are slowly fading away regardless of DIMMs.

And more and more people are wanting silent computers, now that they have gotten used to smartphones and tablets that make no noise.

Noisy, hot boxes should just die off.

 

[picpicmac]

Tim Cook doesn't care about consumers. He cares about shareholders.

Soldered RAM and soldered SSDs are very anti-consumer.

Executives at public companies are required by law to have the shareholders' interests in mind.

And your claim about RAM and SSD are just misplaced.

First off, the majority of computer users never upgrade the inside of their computer even if said computer is capable of internal upgrades.

Secondly, SSDs are not a concern for desktops as said computers come with expandability externally.

As for primary storage: why not just buy a computer with the RAM you need at the time of purchase?

Do not get me wrong: I wish buyers of computers would use said devices for at least a decade, if not two decades.

But in reality, people want to buy the latest and greatest anyway. People want to buy new things.

I am in the market for a new computer. I expect it to be the last computer I buy, even if I live to be very old, because as I get older I realize that the day will come when the most I'll want is some hand-held device, the content of which I watching can be AirPlay (or whatever) to a larger screen on a wall.

So I'll just buy a computer with enough RAM to begin with.

 

[boing]

Oh, it's more than that. 2012 is roughly the point when computers became fast enough for most people. A 2012 MacBook Pro with a SSD and 16GB RAM (or, really, even 8GB RAM) is perfectly capable of running current macOS 14 and handling day to day use for most people.

It's not obsolete at all.

Sure, a 2023 MBP is a little faster. But it's not really all that noticeably faster doing most things that most people do day to day. I mean, I'm typing this on a 2015 MBP running macOS 14, and it's absolutely fine, it's my daily driver right now, I do almost everything on it, and I've got a 2012 MBP running 10.14 sitting right beside it that I still use pretty regularly when I need to run 32-bit apps that's almost as fast. I've touched brand new Macs, set them up for clients, and they're not that much faster than this 2015.

The power and speed increases over the last decade... haven't been that much. Compare a 2012 to a 2002, and you'll see a huge jump in capabilities, 2012 to 2022 looks nothing like that. And 1992 to 2002 - wow, that's a PowerBook 140 (I have one of those) to a TiBook G4 (got a few of those too) - the change is unreal.

Technology advances have slowed down. macOS releases have become change for the sake of change, not anything that really improves our lives, and in many cases making things worse. After all, did your life somehow get better when 32-bit app support was dropped? When PowerPC apps stopped working? When the UI went from "lickable" to flat and ugly? When scroll arrows disappeared? (Yeah, I still want my scroll arrows back.) When System Preferences became System Settings and everything moved around yet again?

The reality is that computers just aren't getting better any more. Every tiny incremental speed increase comes with software changes that make our lives just a little bit worse.

I agree and will add, in many instances people get faster hardware now in days due to software getting more un-optimized and bloated. When you usually buy a new computer, you get something that runs your workload quickly. What happens over time is updates to the OS and the software you use are pushed out, sometimes quickly with the whole rolling updates now in days, which means you end up with bloated unoptimized software with unnecessary features. Some of this is due to the bloated frameworks programmers use to get software out faster and easier, rather then using highly optimized low-level coding techniques. Other times it is new features being added to the software for the sake of change or to make the subscription model more acceptable (who wants to pay for a subscription model when updates are far and few between).

So I agree that modern day systems (the last 10 years) could run fine without needing replacement if the software itself stayed highly optimized. I found I could extend the life of my systems by picking software that prioritizes optimization over pushing out unnecessary bloat that only requires more hardware to run. I see in many instances that users will deal with issues with software by just throwing more hardware at it, rather then actually trying to optimize the software itself to run more efficiently on the hardware they have.

 

[RealE]

My first MacBook. Still using it as a secondary machine with 8GB RAM and SSD.

8GB of RAM and an SSD, so just like today's MacBooks 😝

 

[MacBH928]

More likely your health care facility wants to enjoy the savings associated with obsolete & low-end hardware.

Is your org Windows or Mac-based? I still see cheapest laptops with optical drives.

If there is no legal reason to replace decade(s) old systems and is air gap from the public web then...

see this

 

[aj_niner]

see this

Then it's a cost concern.

 

[justperry]

I have one too, this Mac rocks.
One of the longest supported Macs ever.

 

[rb2112]

I have the 15” version and still going strong... A more versatile machine than what they offer now.

Tonight, I actually am using this (2012 MBP 15) to play a Blu Ray disc that I ordered before I realized we did not have a Blu Ray player in the house. Years ago I had replaced the internal superdrive with a Panasonic UJ267, so it paid off tonight.