Late 2008 Unibody aluminum MacBook runs High Sierra decently

[DeltaMac]

That would be a MacBookAir1,1 - - and the 80GB drive is not likely an SSD, but a 1.8-inch PATA hard drive.
Even at the time, the 4200 rpm drive was really slow, and if it is the original drive, not worth doing anything. It's the only Mac that used that 1.8" drive, so replacements (or SSD upgrades for that footprint) are tough to find.
Nice collectors model now, I suppose, but not much good to actually use.
It is limited to Lion (OS X 10.7.5) (sorry, El Capitan is not supported by that first-gen MBAir)
BTW, the RAM is soldered to the logic board, so no upgrades there, either. (There was only the 2GB of RAM, no other options on that model. The first MBAir with more RAM is the 2010 model, which had a 4GB option

 

[EugW]

Sadly not much can be done with Mac OS. However it should run Linux well with a lightweight window manager, if OP is up for it. Not recommending this, but I run FVWM on my Unix-y machines and the entire memory footprint of the OS after the GUI has started is around 200 MB(!) leaving the precious remaining RAM available to run the latest Firefox decently.

I upgraded my MacBook4,1 to SSD and 4 GB RAM, but like the MacBookAir1,1 it too was limited to OS X 10.7.5. So, I put Ubuntu Linux on it, but I couldn't find much use for that either. So, now it just sits on the shelf unused.

 

[MarkDR]

What is the model number? Is it MacBookAir1,1? Cuz if so, it’s basically worthless. Latest supported OS X version is 10.7.5 (which has no mainstream web browser support), and the RAM is not upgradable. Also, the drive is an odd size.

DeltaMac was/is right. I stand corrected. It's a MacBook Air 1,1. Looks like I'll have a really nice paperweight.

I have an older friend who's a disabled Vietnam vet. He doesn't have much (except for lots of nightmares). Doesn't even have a computer. I'll give it to him but will first see if I can possibly upgrade the existing 1.8" 4200 "glue-moving-uphill" HD to one of the difficult to find SSD's in that FF. We'll see. But for now it runs chrome (and older version) and all he'll need it for is to order groceries online and occasionally check email.

Any other sage advice? I'm ready to be schooled....

 

[LegacyUser12]

For the old white early 2008 MacBook4,1, I switched to Ubuntu Linux instead. There were too many limitations to using Chrome OS. Fine for surfing and light Office though.


You mean patched Mojave? Yosemite is fully supported on the 2.0 GHz aluminum MacBook5,1. I'm not sure I'll run Mojave because it doesn't work 100% right on these machines. There are some minor UI glitches which granted aren't a big deal but nonetheless reinforce that the machine isn't running a supported OS. Dark mode looks cool and mitigates some of the glitches, but I find on a non-Retina screen, dark mode text can be a bit annoying to read. High Sierra doesn't have dark mode, but it runs on the MacBook5,1 as if it's a fully supported machine. Almost nobody would know it's not officially supported just using the OS... which isn't a surprise, since it's basically the same hardware as the fully supported white 2009 MacBook6,1. Anyhow, here's a screengrab of my MacBook5,1 running Mojave.

View attachment 772373

I'll reassess Mojave after it's officially out and after a few point updates. The good news though is Mojave performance is just fine on the MacBook5,1 2.0 GHz, and the rare h.264 video bug (eg. on the iPhone X page) is fixed, as you can see from my screen grab. In High Sierra, that X in the background would have a stair-step appearance in the colours, not the nice gradient in colours you can see in the screengrab.

As for "stress" playing HD h.264 video, yeah I've noticed the MacBook5,1 2.0 GHz can have a little trouble gettings video started, stuttering initially. It's most noticeable with YouTube. However, once it's playing, it's fine. Multitasking would be problematic though. Note though that this has nothing to do with High Sierra. More to do with the slow CPU.

OTOH, my 2.26 GHz MacBookPro5,5 does noticeably better in this regard. Even though h.264 playback is mostly hardware accelerated on the GPU, I guess that extra 13% CPU speed helps enough to get it over that performance threshold, cuz the GPU and memory are identical between MacBook5,1 and MacBookPro5,5. The CPUs themselves are identical too, besides the clock speed. Same feature set and same generation, with same cache amount. The stuttering getting started playing a video is much less pronounced on the MacBookPro5,5 2.26 GHz.

I've long admired your posts & advice <3
Tell me something on the 5,1 is Mojave still your favorite?

 

[LegacyUser12]

Even running 5,1 macbook unibody with 2Ghz and 8 GB @1067 MHz DDR3. Love this one, makes after 10 years still a good view with it's connected 27" aplle cinema display. Love it, it never leaves me alone - working hard; 8-10hours a days for about 10 years! ATM running @ High Sierra and as far as i saw, @dosdude1 patched it already for Yosemite. Maybe we'll get another few years. Almost using just the terminal, mail app, safari - that's all - 95% of my work is done with terminal. This book was probably my life's best deal. Only problem - h.264 with 720p will make it stress; mostly even 480p @youtube is enough for it.

I'm assuming your using the mDP port on the 5,1 --> external Cinema Display? had any problems with it particularly on 10.13.6?

 

[EugW]

I've long admired your posts & advice <3

Tell me something on the 5,1 is Mojave still your favorite?

That post you quoted was from 2018 and at that time on my aluminum MacBook5,1, Mojave was just a test. I am currently on High Sierra on MacBook5,1, and same with my MacBookPro5,5. I didn't want to deal with the bugs that Mojave had on these machines at the time. However, from what I gather lately, it's better than before, so thanks for reminding me to try installing Catalina (not Mojave) on it. However, I had been happy with High Sierra since Chrome and Firefox are still fully supported on this OS.

For my white MacBook4,1, after trying ChromeOS and various flavours of Linux, I have gone back to 10.7 Lion. ChromeOS and Linux just have too many issues on these machines, and I don't like them anyway. The main reason Lion is viable is because there is a port of Firefox called Firefox Legacy that works great as a modern browser on Lion. (There are other browsers too, but I'm sticking with Firefox Legacy.) It's an older version of Firefox at version 67, but it is well supported even in 2020. Firefox 67 only came out in mid 2019, so there is a fair bit of life left in it. With the low overhead of Lion, it actually runs quite well with 4 GB RAM too.

Firefox Legacy

A modern version of Firefox modified to work on older Mac OS X versions, including 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion.

parrotgeek.com

BTW, my latest project is a 2006 Mac Pro 1,1, which is the first Intel Mac Pro. I have added RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a Radeon 5770 to it (all proper Apple-specific / OEM parts), and have flashed it to version 2,1 in preparation for an 8-core upgrade. (The CPUs are on their way from overseas already. ) It was also stuck on 10.7 Lion, but runs well with no bugs on 10.11 El Capitan with modern browser support. It also runs Windows 10 well too.

For obvious reasons, the Mac Pro as is feels way faster than MacBook4,1, MacBook5,1, and MacBookPro5,5, but I'm upgrading it anyway to give it that extra oomph... enough to make it almost as fast as an entry level 2020 MacBook Air, and faster than my 2017 MacBook10,1.

 

[EugW]

I've long admired your posts & advice <3
Tell me something on the 5,1 is Mojave still your favorite?

That post you quoted was from 2018 and at that time on my aluminum MacBook5,1, Mojave was just a test. I am currently on High Sierra on MacBook5,1, and same with my MacBookPro5,5. I didn't want to deal with the bugs that Mojave had on these machines at the time. However, from what I gather lately, it's better than before, so thanks for reminding me to try installing Catalina (not Mojave) on it.

I have Catalina installed now, and it's great. It's installed on both my MacBook5,1 and my MacBookPro5,5. It's my new favourite.

I think the OS overhead is a bit more, but if you have 8 GB RAM, it's fine once it's finished indexing, etc. I have not tried it with 4 GB RAM.

My Mac Office 2011 no longer is compatible, but that's OK since I have the more recent version Office 2016 on my MacBook10,1 and iMac18,3 anyway.

I will stay away from Big Sur for the time being, since it's early in the beta process.

 

[LegacyUser12]

I have Catalina installed now, and it's great. It's installed on both my MacBook5,1 and my MacBookPro5,5. It's my new favourite.

View attachment 944506

I think the OS overhead is a bit more, but if you have 8 GB RAM, it's fine once it's finished indexing, etc. I have not tried it with 4 GB RAM.

My Mac Office 2011 no longer is compatible, but that's OK since I have the more recent version Office 2016 on my MacBook10,1 and iMac18,3 anyway.

I will stay away from Big Sur for the time being, since it's early in the beta process.

Have you posted your steps through putting Catalina on the 5,1? I’m coming from Dosdude1’s High Sierra patcher.
I’m having some issues that I believe necessitate a fresh install of whatever I go to next

 

[DeltaMac]

Dosdude1 also has a Catalina patcher.

 

[EugW]

Dosdude1 also has a Catalina patcher.

Yes, I used dosdude1's Catalina installer.

 

[LegacyUser12]

Yes, I used dosdude1's Catalina installer.

I'm looking at your posts in another thread...you did a clean install on the 5,1---didn't install over 10.13 or 10.14?
I'm certain I'd rather do a clean install myself but I am cerebrally curious how the patches play out when upgraded over a previous patch install

 

[EugW]

I'm looking at your posts in another thread...you did a clean install on the 5,1---didn't install over 10.13 or 10.14?
I'm certain I'd rather do a clean install myself but I am cerebrally curious how the patches play out when upgraded over a previous patch install

The install over the old High Sierra installation worked fine but Catalina kills a lot of old software and I also had a bunch of stuff I didn’t need anymore so instead of cleaning it all out, I decided to do a clean install.

I do get one occasional strange bug where the internal LCD gets listed as a projector, but it doesn’t actually affect the image or the use of the machine so I’m not going to worry about it. I don’t know if it could affect things if you attach an external monitor but I don’t use external monitors with these laptops so that’s moot for me. Plus a logout and re-login will clear the bug.