How many people still use old MacBook Pro?

[OldMacPro2]

Very nice find! I had the 23" over twenty years ago. I purchased it new and sold it ten years later. These monitors don't come up very often for sale but when they do, they are super cheap because I think people either want the latest and greatest or don't know what these are. Not as sharp as the 5k but the colors are still very good. I also like the aspect ratio of the Cinema Display.

I've never owned an Apple Cinema Display until I found this one a couple years ago. It was listed for local pickup on Craigslist. The guy selling it had lost the power supply and was asking $70. Screen was in perfect shape, no scratches or bad pixels, from what he said. Picked it up and then got the power supply on eBay for $25. For $100 had it working and love it!

 

[poi ran]

1 old Macbook Pro 2008, and some newer 2009, 2012 (Retina) and 2015 (Retina obviously). All with SSD and more than standard RAM, all 15". My daughter will soon get the 2012 MBP, at the moment it has Monterey but I wonder if I should install a newer OS. Mainly for web browsing and school work (she's 11).

Will Sonoma have as good GPU support as Monterey? This MBP has Intel HD 4000 and Nvidia GT650m

MBP 2008 - Catalina
MBP 2009 - Catalina
MBP 2012 Retina - Monterey
MBP 2015 - Mojave (!) - yes, we want to run Iphoto and Aperture on this machine...

My desktop PC is on Monterey and Sonoma at the moment, but I prefer Monterey.

 

[Watson6601]

Based on the experience that I heard from somewhere, I decided to try Ventura on my Mac Pro 3,1. Wow...it's working great!

There are a lot of issues running Sonoma or Sequoia on a cMP 3,1 with dual CPUs, but they don't seem to be there with Ventura.

I know Ventura will probably get turned off for updates later this year, but in the meantime, it's a "sweet spot" for this old hardware.

For many older Macs, Ventura appears to be the sweet spot. It's wonderful to hear that your dual CPU cMP 3,1 is operating nicely.

 

[unblocktheplane]

Dude, I think you're a winner! Far too many users get sucked in by Apple's hype and buy a new machine long before they need to. I'm running a 2015 MBP with OCLP to Ventura, works like a charm. I really miss my 17", though. Size matters!

 

[unblocktheplane]

Frankly, I don't understand why Apple can't support Legacy hardware and software. Apple is supposed to stand out from the crowd of wannabes. I don't care much about security but, for many users, security patches should be available. Apple just wants your money!

 

[poi ran]

I'm writing this on 2015 MBP 15" with Mojave (use it for iPhoto and Aperture), and while it's still running ok (CPU and GPU is fine for light browsing and stuff), web browsers are a bit of a problem. Firefox ESR still has security support, but Safari is ancient. And I can't find a browser that can actually browse "everything", pages like Samsung Shop use too modern pictures or something, it just won't load properly. But I also run parallels Desktop and Linux Mint + Windows 10 ESR, so, can get around that.

My daughters Macbook Pro 2012 Retina 15" (mentioned earlier in thread) is dual booting Ventura and Windows 10 LTSC, she can play some games and run any browser, office package and watch films. OCLP.

Older 2008 MBP is half retired, core 2 duo struggle with web pages these days, even with 6GB RAM (max) and SSD. 2009 MBP a bit better, with 8GB, still used by my son (he also has gaming PC).

While Apple hardware is good, Apple don't really support legacy systems well, never has. Dropped PPC fast, first intel gen dropped fast, dropped optical drives, 32 bit support, and so on. And that is both good and bad, and very Apple.

 

[savagewatts]

I still use my 2014 MBP. Mainly just for documents and browsing the web but it still holds up great.

 

[Frankfurt]

Writing this on a 2017 MBP 15" with Intel i7. Just ordered the M5 MBP 14" to replace it. Typically hold on for MBP for 8 years. I wanted to wait for the redesign in 26/27 but outdated software and lagginess made me upgrade before. I'm sure the M5 will be a revelation compared to my current machine.

 

[loby]

Writing this on a 13" MacBook Pro 2010.

Upgrade the RAM to 16 GB; 1 TB SSD. New battery.

Use it for old programs now on occasion and testing out stuff, but decided to use if for a while again to see if I notice a difference for justifying why "NOT to" continue using it and just going back to my newer expensive Macs..

"Yes", there are benefits with having a newer mac, but..running Snow Leopard for awhile (again) and looking at a non-retina screen while using a decent updated browser (PowerFox) is not really a bad experience. I just like it.

It does not replace all of the advance and better Macbook Pro`s of course (keyboard is getting old), but I just like the mac.

This mac will probably outlast all of my macs. It is built to last. I have ripped it open a few times and have done a few major surgery's on it (like CPU & GPU paste replacements - which was a pain with this model) and it still running good. Fan barely goes on now for the general work I use it for. Doesn`t run hot if you get a good battery. Put a Blu-ray player in it, though it does not take advantage of the HD on the built-in screen, it is decent regardless.

It works good....STILL.

 

[Regular_John]

I've still got a 2014 15" MacBook Pro with Retina display running well overall, but I finally had to retire it from day to day use as the number of web apps firing "upgrade your browser" warnings was getting up there. I've got it running as a music server now, but it's still a fairly capable machine for the basics.

 

[sgage]

I've still got a 2014 15" MacBook Pro with Retina display running well overall, but I finally had to retire it from day to day use as the number of web apps firing "upgrade your browser" warnings was getting up there. I've got it running as a music server now, but it's still a fairly capable machine for the basics.

You can always use a different browser for those sites/apps. Firefox/Brave/Chrome all work well on older MBP's. I run with a 2017 15" updated over the years until Ventura (which is the end of the line for this machine0, and it works perfectly still. Well except for an occasional bouncing 'h' key.

 

[Regular_John]

You can always use a different browser for those sites/apps. Firefox/Brave/Chrome all work well on older MBP's. I run with a 2017 15" updated over the years until Ventura (which is the end of the line for this machine0, and it works perfectly still. Well except for an occasional bouncing 'h' key.

I did try a few other browsers (DuckDuckGo, Firefox) and found some of the sites I wanted to use (figma, substack, etc) just ran really poorly across the board.

 

[savagewatts]

I've still got a 2014 15" MacBook Pro with Retina display running well overall, but I finally had to retire it from day to day use as the number of web apps firing "upgrade your browser" warnings was getting up there. I've got it running as a music server now, but it's still a fairly capable machine for the basics.

I have the same one and it’s still running strong. I use it for casual browsing but wouldn’t do banking or anything important on it anymore. Too bad they don’t update it anymore because it still runs strong. My battery even lasts about an hour on its own still

 

[NorthernJetter]

Still using my 15" 2019 i9. Battery is not good - 3 hours of use as long as the dedicated graphics (radeon 560X) is not called up for duty - less than an hour when playing games when 560X is in use. Not worth replacing the battery now. I replaced the thermal compound on the GPU and CPU 2 years ago and the machine ran cooler after that.

Will be upgrading to M5 Max when Apple releases it. Undecided on whether or not to trade in the 2019 or keep it as a backup.

 

[MacInTO]

I've never owned an Apple Cinema Display until I found this one a couple years ago. It was listed for local pickup on Craigslist. The guy selling it had lost the power supply and was asking $70. Screen was in perfect shape, no scratches or bad pixels, from what he said. Picked it up and then got the power supply on eBay for $25. For $100 had it working and love it!

I just missed a free 23" on FB marketplace. I also saw another for $50. I'm tempted but don't need more monitors! 🙄😂