Do I need a new iMac

[boppin]

If an older printer supports PostScript and/or PCL,

I think it depends on you define "old printer". Our last printer supported Air print and older Mac OS X versions, but no 5 GHz frequency nor mesh network like the Intel based Macs.

 

[RUGERMAN]

Your router should have the ability to have dual channels. That's what I do for mine.

Dual Channels? I think I have that but I still have to choose from the menu bar and elect the one I want/need at the moment.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

You do not need a new iMac. I am typing this on a 2009 24" imac running MX25 Linux + xfce which installs just as painless and actually faster than macos does lol. What is done on this Mac?

Internet browsing
YT Video watching
Music Streaming
Email
Chat
retro console gaming
Online reading
Print

So all the things most people do on their macs. This particular mac is for my kids so I have additional parental controls over the top of all of this and it still works perfectly fine. I was able to find and connect to my older network printer without a fuss as well. If you are up for some fun, give it a shot. << Here's a video showing the install process on an early intel Mac, what it looks like etc. 🙂

TL;DR For the record, I dont think you need a new mac OR a new printer 🙂

 

[josehill]

I think it depends on you define "old printer". Our last printer supported Air print and older Mac OS X versions, but no 5 GHz frequency nor mesh network like the Intel based Macs.

I'm sorry. I don't think I understand your comment. Do you mind elaborating? What kind of printer was it?

 

[MacBH928]

What you describe is driverless printing, which they call Airprint. Apple is slowly moving this direction. Most modern printers support this, so drivers are unneeded...and unless Apple changes something in a future OS, these printers will continue to just work.

Older and specialty printers that don't support Airprint, typically require drivers. Sometimes old printers need new drivers to play nice with the latest OS. When that happens we are dependent on vendors to update drivers for old printers. Sometimes they choose not to.

At this point Airprint only supports very basic functions, so specialty printers still require drivers to utilize and control all of their features and options.

To further complicate things...Apple also used to preload the most common drivers (so they just work). So while we did not actively have to install drivers...they were still required. Most of this has changed in the last few years, unless one has a legacy printer with no Airprint, and no drivers that work with the latest OSes. To see if a printer supports AirPrint, one can search here.

As for AirPrint I thought Airprint was technology that made iOS devices print directly to printers. No wifi, and not for macos.

That is ludicrous list. There is 1100 entries for Epson alone. Who keeps updating these to support all devices and all platforms. I heard there is a new technology that works like middle ground between software and printers called CUPS.

If an older printer supports PostScript and/or PCL, but not AirPrint, it usually will work fine with Apple's "Generic" PostScript and PCL drivers, though it's possible that some printer-specific features won't be available. It's more common for laser printers to support PostScript/PCL than for inkjets to do so, but if you're running into issues, it's worth looking up your printer's specs to see if it does.

There may also be some hacks that allow non-PostScript/PCL printers to run on unsupported versions of macOS by manually installing individual components of Catalina-era drivers on current machines, but that can be tricky and is left as an exercise for advanced users. There's also the possibility of using AI to generate custom Mac drivers for unsupported printers, but it's pretty early days.

I think my mac does the PCL thing because a dotmatrix printer worked via plug and play.

What is done on this Mac?

YT Video watching

I have MBP 2015 and if you turn 1080P on the fans start going crazy

 

[boppin]

I'm sorry. I don't think I understand your comment. Do you mind elaborating? What kind of printer was it?

Yes, that's right. That was phrased a bit imprecisely.

Anyway, it's a Brother printer—something starting with a "D." It offers software support for versions 10.5 through 10.15, but it doesn't support the 5 GHz frequency band used by modern routers, nor does it support "mesh networks." Or mesh Wi-Fi.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

I have MBP 2015 and if you turn 1080P on the fans start going crazy

I use Freetube to view YT on MX25. Freetube uses a dash feature by default which selects the highest resolution as defined by your connection speed. We play 1080p readily on this old imac without crazy fans - at least I dont recall the fans spinning up much past normal operational rpms. It doesnt really struggle with the light resource needs of xfce desktop which speaks to the light and nimble nature of MX+xfce. I attribute this in part to the lighter desktop environment which doesnt push the cpu/gpu as hard as macos would thus creating less heat and stress on the system. Anyways, if I have alot of network congestion with all the kids on their devices + Mom and Dad watching the YTs, the app downgrades the quality to something the connection can handle, so playback is not interrupted.

I imagine your mbp being as small and tight as it is in that thin case probably is generating alot of heat and has the added problem of getting it out of that small form factor, so your fans go berzerk trying to push that hot air/heat out. I know those 2015 broadwell and skylake cpus run darn hot as Intel built these to keep on pushing when underload all the way up to their thermal ceiling. I dont know if I would fight that since Intel pretty much baked that into the cake. I think I would look at lower resolution like 360p (my preference actually as I rarely watch/listen to anything fullscreen) and pop the hood for a good cleanout & repaste/thermal tape.

I loves me some macos but there is a time and place with these old macs where a lighter, more nimble os can help breath life into them and is a solid next step.

Good luck 🙂

 

[hobowankenobi]

As for AirPrint I thought Airprint was technology that made iOS devices print directly to printers. No wifi, and not for macos.

That is ludicrous list. There is 1100 entries for Epson alone. Who keeps updating these to support all devices and all platforms. I heard there is a new technology that works like middle ground between software and printers called CUPS.

I already linked to Apple's AirPrint info. Yes, their naming is confusing. Yes, AirPrint started out for mobile devices about 20 years back, but it morphed into a mult-platform driverless printing protocol years ago. If you want to read more, here.

1100 entries just for Epson reinforces the desire for driverless printing, and that printer manufacturers don't want to maintain hundreds or thousands of drivers.

LOL...CUPS is new, if you consider it being adopted in OS X 10.2 about 2002 to be a recent event. 😛

CUPS existed for Unix and Linux before Apple took control of it, going back to about 1999.

 

[josehill]

I think my mac does the PCL thing because a dotmatrix printer worked via plug and play.

All Macs support generic PCL emulation and PostScript emulation, but if you had a dot matrix printer, it used something different. Apple still includes built-in drivers for a few very old dot matrix printers (Epson, Oki). Many current dot matrix printers will work with one of these older drivers.

 

[josehill]

Anyway, it's a Brother printer—something starting with a "D." It offers software support for versions 10.5 through 10.15, but it doesn't support the 5 GHz frequency band used by modern routers, nor does it support "mesh networks." Or mesh Wi-Fi.

It's hard to say anything specific without the actual model number. If it's a laser printer, it almost certainly would have supported at least generic PCL printing, so any Mac would be able to work with it, whether an Intel Mac or an Apple Silicon Mac, as long as it had a way of connecting to it, via USB or network.

The situation may be a little more complicated if it was an inkjet. Since you say it was supported from 10.5 to 10.15, there is a good chance that those old drivers will continue to work on newer Intel Macs and possibly on Apple Silicon Macs, though time definitely will run out on the 10.5-10.15 non-PCL, non-PostScript drivers once macOS 28 comes out.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

i have this one. its a little oven. how is your battery even surviving? i am afraid to turn it on, i always imagine it will explode

I do have a new aftermarket battery in it, as the original battery failed. But since it was over 15 years old, that wasn't surprising. Mine doesn't run too hot - but I also replaced the thermal paste for the CPU and chipset/GPU, which helps.