Apple Officially Obsoletes First MacBook Pro With a Retina Display

[foo2]

Just a thought, but DOSDude historically has made patches so you can put the latest MacOSs on older Mac hardware. Catalina goes onto Macs from 2008 or so without issue; I'm sure Big Sur will be the same. The process is automated and requires no special technical knowledge. My 2010 Macbook 16/120SSD happily runs the latest MacOS, for example.

I don't see official Apple support going away as a big deal for home machines, as long as you have another hardware service provider for the replaceable basics (keyboard, drive, etc.) nearby and they're in fact replaceable. When the hardware isn't replaceable, yes, that's more of an issue.

For a work machine, sure, I wouldn't do it.

 

[boy-better-know]

I remember this launching like yesterday.

 

[iMi]

I personally find eight years of official support to be adequate. A couple of years ago, while cleaning out a basement before moving to a new house, I found an old white MacBook. I can’t remember the model, but it powered on and booted. Seemed to work fine. Slow, but fine. It had to be at least 10 years old by then, if not more. I kind of regret throwing it out.

 

[HVDynamo]

Eight years is a long time in the tech world, but it's a darn shame that perfectly functional machines are abandoned. In a few short years, 2020 machines are going to be abandoned. Current gen machine capabilities already exceed the needs of most users. I imagine the most prevalent use cases in 2028 are still going to be browsing, email, social media, and and casual games.

Maybe it's time for Apple to offer paid extended software support for elderly devices. You may not get Big Sur, but your platform will remain secure.

Yeah, honestly, this is the biggest reason why I dislike apps like safari and iTunes/music, etc being tied so heavily to which OS they run. It would be so much easier to stay on an older release if I knew it was going to get security updates, and I'd be able to upgrade to the latest apps for a few more years. At least I can still get alternate browser updates for a few years. But I also don't like Apples yearly OS release cycle. It's just too often.
[automerge]1593997219[/automerge]

✓ MagSafe adapters available for less than $10
✓ It's a company logo...
✓ Dongle - $5, hub - $20
✓ Dongle - $5, hub - $20
✓ Pros that require optical audio use a separate interface
✓ Magic Keyboard is great
✓ T2 Kernel Panics were fixed months ago
✓ You want a larger-but-removable component, then make the trade-off with something else...
✓ It's only 'hell' if you purchase individual dongles rather a cheap, small hub, and use all the particular I/O every day
✓ System Preferences > Keyboard > 'Press Fn key to Show App Controls', Touch Bar shows Expanded Control Strip.

Problems solved!

Magsafe adapters suck compared to a built in variant. Why do people keep suggesting BS bandaid solutions to things that had real solid solutions available?

 

[HVDynamo]

Well unfortunately Apple abandoning older computers and devices is nothing new. I had the last 13” MacBook Pro before the retina screens which has been abandoned for some time. They still sold this until mid 2012. Also the 2011 iMac ha sheen gone for some time. Both of these still work great, just no updates. The original iPad was worse, that lasted less than four years! With all the accessories it cost over $1,100! RIP iPad 1.

The last non-retina 13" macbook pro was discontinued on October 27th 2016. They kept selling that specific model for a long time after as I think they kept it around for educational markets.

 

[Lee Mikles]

Still my main computer, going strong.

For me still the best design and port selection of the last 10 years.

Hopefully it powers on for another two years before diving into ARM.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Do you think it will really be 2 years?

 

[calliex]

I was thinking the exact same thing. Do you think it will really be 2 years?

We should see a 1st gen later this year and beginning of next but I would wait till 2nd gen before I pull the trigger. There will bugs missed in 1st gen that get fixed in 2nd hopefully.

 

[nicho]

We should see a 1st gen later this year and beginning of next but I would wait till 2nd gen before I pull the trigger. There will bugs missed in 1st gen that get fixed in 2nd hopefully.

Kinks, issues and niggles - yes. Bugs - that would be for software to fix...

 

[Mac Rules]

I was thinking the exact same thing. Do you think it will really be 2 years?

I think the Macbook Pro will be one of the later models to change for sure as they will want to ensure a very high level of performance, my guess would be the second generation of the chip (A16?).

Secondly, I doubt I'll jump in on first gen just to avoid any major issues so 2 years seems a reasonable wait,

 

[shurcooL]

I got the joke, I was just sad the 2012-2015 trend of avoiding putting unnecessary and distracting front-facing text stopped with the 2016 MBPs. It was so nice while it lasted. It was a better product.

 

[j238]

I have one of these, and it still works great. The apple logo is cracked, and the battery lasts for not more than an hour, but otherwise it’s still solid. It’s interesting how they say that it’s obsolete, yet still allowing updates to the OS on it.

Support on your hardware ends five years after it leaves production. At the same time, Apple generally enables software updates to hardware that can handle it, regardless of "vintage" status. I see that as a good kind of inconsistency, unless your hardware get blown up by the update.

 

[Robert Schertzer]

I'm still using my 2012 15" MBP Retina...I've updated the SSD twice and it's still working great. I wish Apple would allow Big Sur to be installed as I understand it can easily handle it. As others said, amazingly solid product and now we live in a world of disposable phones.

 

[calliex]

I'm still using my 2012 15" MBP Retina to.

 

[Carles20vt]

I'm still using my 2012 15" MBP Retina...I've updated the SSD twice and it's still working great. I wish Apple would allow Big Sur to be installed as I understand it can easily handle it. As others said, amazingly solid product and now we live in a world of disposable phones.

I’m on a similar situation as you!!

I need to upload code with it, so I expect the community could bring to us an extra year with the new macOS 11 until ARM equivalent computer was released. 🤞

 

[wtzouris]

Mine still works great. MacBook Pro 10,1 Mine has 16 GB ram, an upgraded SSD - (OWC 1TB), and a battery I changed myself at the 5 year mark using an OEM battery replacement from iFixit. Using canned air (liquid - turned upside down - to freeze/crack the glue) and some edge trimmer cord - to pop out the old batteries. Battery Cycle Count 201! The only issue is that the fan works quite a bit when doing a lot of things. Not sure if I get a souped up 16" MacBook Pro with i9 processor next or wait for Apple Silicon.