Installing Snow Leopard on early Macbook Air to run Final Cut 7

[Enrico_C]

Hello all.

I'll jump straight to the issue: my goal is to run Final Cut 7 on a Macbook Air. I have a 2007 iMac devoted to this purpose but finding myself travelling a lot, I would like to edit on the move using the lightest and most economical solution (small screen size is not an issue as I would be doing the main editing on the iMac).

My reasoning was to buy the best specd refurbed Macbook Air for my budget (2014/2015 models seem suitable) then, as I own a retail CD copy of Snow Leopard (latest compatible version with FC7) and Final Cut Studio, do the following:
- Boot from SL disk through external disk drive
- Partion or reformat entire Macbook's SSD drive if necessary
- Install SL on the Macbook
- Install FC7
- Install a later OS onto a separate bootable partition for day-to-day light use (mainly internet browsing; the SL partition would never "see" the internet)

But after reading some threads it seems that this won't be possible as, even if effetively used as a bootable drive, the Macbook Air won't run Snow Leopard (something to do with drivers?). Some of the threads regarding SL installation on newer macs were quite old, so I wondered if new workarounds exist now.

Can someone suggest a solution considering the following?
- I'm not doing any particularly demanding editing. No HD footage or anything like that.
- I do now want to "upgrade" to a subscription-style video editing suite. I just don't use it enough to justify the cost and FC7 already exceeds my basic video editing needs.
- I would prefer not to get a Macbook Pro as I would like the smallest and lightest computer possible (i.e. SSD drive and no CD). I just saw that there is a late-2010 Macbook Air version that still supports SL however, its specs are not as good...
- I am not a computer expert so advanced coding, system hacks or anything requiring installation of dodgy software from random websites won't really work for me

Thanks in advance!

P.S. These are FC7 system requirements

 

[Freeangel1]

why not use FCPX? and a later macOS than Snow Leopard? you will be running an OS that is not compatible with alot of modern apps.

FCP 7 is also obsolete software.

FCPX is not that expensive when purchased as an educational software.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

AFAIK you will need an old Mac to run SL, that is an Air 2010 or a Pro 2011: Macs usually do not run OSes older than delivered with.

A computer that old will not be of much use when traveling IMO.

 

[Enrico_C]

Thanks for your replies. I was under the impression that subsequent versions of Final Cut (including X) could not be purchased outrights but required a monthly or yearly payment...
If it's a one-off cost then I guess that does change things a lot (although it would be yet another expense on top of a refurbished laptop...)
It would have been ideal to continue use FC7 as I already have many files created with it and I know my way around the software, but at the same time it would be handy to have laptop that can also be used for day-to-day browsing and not an old relic that devoted only to one purpose. Might have do do a bit of pondering on it...

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Yeah FCPX is a one-time cost, so that’s the best solution if you can use it.

If you find that something in FC7 is necessary, for a MacBook Air the newest Air that’ll run Snow Leopard is the Late 2010. You “Could” get a newer Mac and install Snow Leopard in Parallels/VMWare, though I think that requires getting a copy of “Snow Leopard Server” to run in VM.