Interesting. Looks like the MacBook Pro doesn't get longer support compared to the "consumer" line.
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Are old Macs still protected as long as we update to the latest security patch whenever available?
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Interesting. Looks like the MacBook Pro doesn't get longer support compared to the "consumer" line.
From a security perspective, this is a best practice. You can easily squeeze out an extra year or two depending on the support cycle for that Mac. I would encourage you to consider some of the early tier upgrades too, as they can often be a lot of bang for your buck if you utilize them over that 3-5 year period.
They acquired Adware Medic, which was free. You can also use their software for free for all eternity without the real-time scanning. So you can manually scan without ever paying for it.
I use MacTracker.
It is very informative, especially for older Macs that have fragmented or wrong information on sources elsewhere.
I used to depend heavily on MacBook Pros for the past 20 years as they could triple boots and I used all three OSs for work so I just bought the top of the line model all the time. However, for the past year I found that I can live without MacOS but not without Windows. I downloaded and installed lots of free games for Windows via Steams so I don't know how secure my PC is. I still think that MacOS may be more secure than Windows.
From a security perspective, how secure is MacOS compared with iPad OS? I tried to use my iPad Pro 12.9" to do some work but for me, it is more a media consumption device. I cannot get any work done using an iPad. So this means either I continue to use my less secure old MacBook Pro 17" 2010 for sensitive stuffs or buy the cheapest Apple Silicon Mac and then trade-in in about 3-5 years. Since we cannot replace internal components, I guess we cannot hope that Apple Silicon MacBook Pros would last longer than their older counterparts.
What do you mean by earlier tier upgrades?
iPad OS is technically more secure, but only in a sense that it is more locked down. There's less chance of a successful breach being able to move across the system. However in practice macOS and iPadOS are often vulnerable to the exact same vulnerabilities, and sometimes even the same exploits. So while it may be more difficult for an attacker to move around on the system in some cases, it won't always be. It is however more difficult for exploit to be persistent after a reboot due to some technical differences in the secure boot process for iPadOS, but I'd consider my device compromised even if the exploit wasn't persistent.
By earlier tier upgrades, I meant the first or second level of upgrading a component. I.e. going from a small 512 GB SSD to a 1 TB for a mere $200 more is definitely worth it if you store anything at all on your system locally, or upgrading the RAM if you utilize that resource more with your workflow. That kind of thing.
I use a mid 2012 13" MacBook Pro running macOS Sierra 10.12.6 and use Safari 12.1.2 as my main browser.
I also have FireFox installed and it's up to date with latest version.
I'm thinking that at the very least I need to make FireFox my main browser. would this be OK?
Also, I've been watching Mr Macintosh's Youtube tutorials on installing Big Sur and Monterey on unsupported Macs and this has got me thinking maybe I should give this a go???
My MacBook Pro also has 8GB RAM and Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB
Any thoughts / opinions will be greatly appreciated!
I also have FireFox installed and it's up to date with latest version.
I'm thinking that at the very least I need to make FireFox my main browser. would this be OK?
Also, I've been watching Mr Macintosh's Youtube tutorials on installing Big Sur and Monterey on unsupported Macs and this has got me thinking maybe I should give this a go???
My MacBook Pro also has 8GB RAM and Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB
Any thoughts / opinions will be greatly appreciated!
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I have one of these machines in a unibody form factor and they are great. As far as macOS goes you still have plenty of natively supported versions to go through from macOS Sierra.
It is considered a good practice to squeeze out all the updates(including EFI) from the supported versions before going unsupported.
If I’m just misunderstanding the context, ignore this, but you are aware that Bootcamp isn‘t possible with Apple Silicon anymore? Only a special ARM version of Windows via virtual machine.
iPadOS is slightly more secure since it's locked down, however both MacOS and iPadOS share the same operating system.
> So this means either I continue to use my less secure old MacBook Pro 17" 2010 for sensitive stuffs
What is "sensitive stuffs", and who's saying it's sensitive? Is this the business you work for, or for your own private use? Also, is your stuff based on the internet, or do you use the machine for local use? If it's web based, you can get away using a modern, up to date web browser like Google Chrome, assuming you're using other security best practices.
> So this means either I continue to use my less secure old MacBook Pro 17" 2010 for sensitive stuffs
What is "sensitive stuffs", and who's saying it's sensitive? Is this the business you work for, or for your own private use? Also, is your stuff based on the internet, or do you use the machine for local use? If it's web based, you can get away using a modern, up to date web browser like Google Chrome, assuming you're using other security best practices.
It's ok using FireFox as your main browser, since it's being updated.
For installing Big Sur and Monterey on unsupported Macs, I'd be very careful:
1. Anything that overrides Gatekeeper is dangerous, because it'll increase potential security vectors.
2. Big Sur and Monterey will not be as stable, since the drivers that control the wifi cards, display, etc will not be up to date.
3. You may have stability issues when you update
Remember, information security isn't just protecting information integrity, but it is also optimizing information availability. Information availability will decrease as you'll spend time troubleshooting any problems.
It mostly depends on what kind of websites you tend to visit. But yes, in general, the web browser is often the entry point for viruses, and using a web browser that still gets security updates would be the safest thing.
I have the 15” 2012 MacBook Pro and I am also sticking with macOS Sierra. If Sierra does everything you need it to do and you are happy with it, no reason to upgrade. On the other side though, if you want to try something new, enjoy tinkering around, etc. no reason not to upgrade. You can always revert back to Sierra at any time.
I would advise updating to the last officially supported version first though, and making sure that all runs well for you and you are happy with it before updating to an unsupported version.
The 2012 Unibody MacBooks are wonderful though. So glad I had one of those to tide me through the “butterfly keyboard” years.
Thanks for the replies, all very good info.
From what's being said, I think I'll use FireFox for my browser from now on and I'll look into maybe updating to the most recent natively supported OS for my machine. versions to go through from macOS Sierra.
Just one more quick question. Which are the natively supported versions from macOS Sierra onwards. I'm aware of HighSierra and Catalina, are there others?
Again, many thanks. Much appreciated!
From what's being said, I think I'll use FireFox for my browser from now on and I'll look into maybe updating to the most recent natively supported OS for my machine. versions to go through from macOS Sierra.
Just one more quick question. Which are the natively supported versions from macOS Sierra onwards. I'm aware of HighSierra and Catalina, are there others?
Again, many thanks. Much appreciated!
the last operating system your computer can run is MacOS 10.15. It can not run MacOS 11 (Big Sur) or MacOS 12 (Monterey)
About ”1.” above I do believe you must be referring to SIP, Gatekeeper isn’t affected, normally. SIP is lowered, though, in most cases.
There is also Mojave, which I have heard good things about.
You can get whatever version you like from Apple here: macOS
Thanks again again for the replies. I'm going do some more reading up on the various OS's, particularly Catalina. As Catalina is the last OS my machine can officially support, I'm assuming that will get security updates longer than the previous operating systems, that's why I'm leaning towards 10.15
Catalina is a great OS in my opinion. I never had a problem and it has the last of the traditional MacOS look and feel -- before iOS GUI infected the ethos. Unfortunately, it will likely be out of support after Ventura is officially released in the fall. That notwithstanding, I did just get the most recent Safari security patch this week.
I read that people can apply some kind of patch to allow their older Macs to use more recent MacOS. Is there any disadvantage in doing that from a security standpoint? Who made those patches?
Are Hackintoshs more secure than Macs running unsupported OS such as my MacBook Pro 17" 2010?
Are Hackintoshs more secure than Macs running unsupported OS such as my MacBook Pro 17" 2010?
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It is often written here that new versions of MacOS improve security and fix old bugs in the OS. That's certainly true, but it's important to note that new versions of MacOS also bring new bugs and vulnerabilities.
I wouldn't think so. For the most part, both are based on similar underlying software to get MacOS to boot.
OpenCore is a popular software method for getting MacOS to boot on unsupported hardware. It has to be booted first before the OS version. OpenCore Legacy Patcher is a Mac app that can install OpenCore and provide patches for many unsupported Macs.
I hope some progress is being made.
Regarding patching older Macs to run the most recent MacOS: I wouldn't recommend it because they won't get updated by Apple, and you may need to override security configurations like Gatekeeper. You *should* be able to run at least one generation behind safely, but the older the machine, the less secure.
Hacintoshes are not secure and I would recommend using them either. You'll have to override security configurations as well.
I am not sure if you saw a post #66 in this thread. You are talking about SIP which was introduced in El Capitan. So before El Capitan Mac OS X was insecure?
I believe the Gatekeeper can be overridden even on a supported systems by right-click and open.
Looks like time to disable internet connection from my speedy MacBook Pro 17" 2010 and buy a new one. I once had it next to a MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16". Except for the fan noise, everything of the older machine is better or equally good as the new one.
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