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Got a key I can borrow? There's a latch I need to open. :D
LOL


Going back to the OP ....
To be honest if you're making the jump, get something at least late-2009. Anything older is just as defunct as PPC, with the same web browser support issues on any pre-Mavericks OS X, and only marginally cheaper. Not that the OP will likely listen.
 
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LOL


Going back to the OP ....
To be honest if you're making the jump, get something at least late-2009. Anything older is just as defunct as PPC, with the same web browser support issues on any pre-Mavericks OS X, and only marginally cheaper. Not that the OP will likely listen.
Was that last sentence really necessary? I think others will tell you no. I respect your opinion as I do anyone else's.

The BlackBook I'm buying is from 2009 and could be hacked to run ML or Mavericks.
 
The last Blackbook is a 2008 model, has pathetic Intel graphics and isn't designed for anything past Lion. Best to jump a year and grab something with the nVidia MCP. Brings lots of useful stuff including H.264 support.
 
The BlackBook I'm buying is from 2009 and could be hacked to run ML or Mavericks.
BlackBooks were not made in the 2009 model year. The 2008 BlackBook is cut off by Apple at Lion, but you can hack Mountain Lion on it. In my experience, ML runs better than Lion. You can technically run Mavericks, but there is no GPU support, meaning you won't get graphics acceleration.

You can swap a early-2009 MacBook Logic Board into a 2008 BlackBook chassis, bearing in mind a fan replacement, heatsink replacement, and DVD drive replacement if you need it. The board won't fit into the bottom case by default, so some modification is needed. But, the early 2009 can run up to El Cap.
 
I've said this to the OP more than once...

The best value right now in Intel Macs is the 2010 unibody MacBook. These can take up to 16gb of RAM, pep up nicely with an SSD, and are still supported in High Sierra.

I have BlackBooks(both a late '07 and early '08, which are the same aside from the processor speed) and I love them. I also love Snow Leopard, but in the past year software support has become even worse for it than for Tiger and Leopard. Most developers dropped everything 10.6-10.8 pretty quickly, and we went from a good selection of SL-compatible software including the two major 3rd party and a LOT of apps to basically nothing being updated, older apps no longer working, and a single browser that will stop getting security updates in September.

As @MagicBoy said, BlackBooks quit being made in early 2008. The 2009 pre-Unibodies have somewhat better support, but the unibodies are even better.
 
As Ben said, if you're planning on switching to Intel, be sure to pick up something that can run High Sierra. All Macs from 2010/2011 are relatively affordable now, and from first hand experience I can tell you they run great to this day (well, except a handful).

To answer your question: AFAIK, there is no longer any mainstream browser that supports Snow Leopard, but Firefox ESR was only just discontinued for SL a couple months ago if you're looking for something that works well with the modern web. Apart from that, ironically, your best bet might be to run PPC TenFourFox under Rosetta, as it is still receiving security updates.
 
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The last Blackbook is a 2008 model, has pathetic Intel graphics and isn't designed for anything past Lion. Best to jump a year and grab something with the nVidia MCP. Brings lots of useful stuff including H.264 support.
Well, there's only one problem... Nothing newer is black! Which is one of the main reasons I wanted one! :D I just really like the look.
BlackBooks were not made in the 2009 model year. The 2008 BlackBook is cut off by Apple at Lion, but you can hack Mountain Lion on it. In my experience, ML runs better than Lion. You can technically run Mavericks, but there is no GPU support, meaning you won't get graphics acceleration.

You can swap a early-2009 MacBook Logic Board into a 2008 BlackBook chassis, bearing in mind a fan replacement, heatsink replacement, and DVD drive replacement if you need it. The board won't fit into the bottom case by default, so some modification is needed. But, the early 2009 can run up to El Cap.
Yeah, I could hack ML onto it, but @bunnspecial says there's no big difference in software support between 10.6 and 10.8, and as SL is my favorite OS ever, I'll be using that. As for that logic board stuff, I don't really get into that stuff, I just use the product as is. I'm not a real hardware guy. ;)
I've said this to the OP more than once...

The best value right now in Intel Macs is the 2010 unibody MacBook. These can take up to 16gb of RAM, pep up nicely with an SSD, and are still supported in High Sierra.

I have BlackBooks(both a late '07 and early '08, which are the same aside from the processor speed) and I love them. I also love Snow Leopard, but in the past year software support has become even worse for it than for Tiger and Leopard. Most developers dropped everything 10.6-10.8 pretty quickly, and we went from a good selection of SL-compatible software including the two major 3rd party and a LOT of apps to basically nothing being updated, older apps no longer working, and a single browser that will stop getting security updates in September.

As @MagicBoy said, BlackBooks quit being made in early 2008. The 2009 pre-Unibodies have somewhat better support, but the unibodies are even better.
But they're not black! ;) Also, Snow Leopard is my favorite OS and I'm not a fan of anything newer. SL is the last good OS IMO. Yeah, I'll need to learn to like the newer ones someday, I won't until I have to. ;)
As Ben said, if you're planning on switching to Intel, be sure to pick up something that can run High Sierra. All Macs from 2010/2011 are relatively affordable now, and from first hand experience I can tell you they run great to this day (well, except a handful).

To answer your question: AFAIK, there is no longer any mainstream browser that supports Snow Leopard, but Firefox LTS was only just discontinued for SL a couple months ago if you're looking for something that works well with the modern web. Apart from that, ironically, your best bet might be to run PPC TenFourFox under Rosetta, as it is still receiving security updates.
Thanks. I'll have to try Waterfox first and if that doesn't work well Firefox should be good for awhile.
 
I concur. If you are looking for a laptop, I would recommend the Non-Retina Mid 2012 MacBook Pro.

It's served me very well so far.
 
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How ironic. I'm leaving the intel mac side for ppc, and you're doing the exact opposite.

As people have said above, I'd at least swap out the logic board for a 2009 one. Then, get an iMac wifi card or something newer than the 2009. Then you can run high sierra thanks to dosdude1. You'll want a Magic Mouse but at least the OS is more supported.

If however you won't be swayed, I'd recommend Roccat. It's the only one still supported. Or you know, break down and update the OS.
 
Based upon what you have said, I think the early 2011 13" MacBook Pro would work really well for you. It has much more modern specs than a 2008/09 MacBook, and it can run from 10.6-10.13, I have mine dual booting 10.6 and 10.13, and it runs great. The only downside is that support is probably going to be dropped within the next year or two, but as you like the older OSes, that's not a huge issue.
 
Based upon what you have said, I think the early 2011 13" MacBook Pro would work really well for you. It has much more modern specs than a 2008/09 MacBook, and it can run from 10.6-10.13, I have mine dual booting 10.6 and 10.13, and it runs great. The only downside is that support is probably going to be dropped within the next year or two, but as you like the older OSes, that's not a huge issue.

A late 2011 13" was my first Mac. I still remember the elation I felt when I carried it out of the Apple store, got home, and powered it on. Even though that's the only Mac I've bought new, I still think everyone should experience getting to open a new Apple laptop at least once-the packaging is all part of the experience.

In any case, the 2011 13" computers are solid machines, and it wasn't too long ago that the 2012 was discontinued. I would still be using mine as my main computer if the 15" 2012 I'm using now hadn't come along at the right time.

I'm still running the 500gb 5400rpm spinner. It's not the original, but was an Applecare replacement. With 8gb RAM, it's doing okay now with High Sierra DP2(DP1 was rough).

You do get Thunderbolt with the 2011s. When i got my computer, I thought it was great, but have never actually used a TB device since even the cables remain expensive. With that said, I think it's a technology that is on the upswing although I don't know how much the TB1 interface will be able to do.

BTW, although the late 2011 MBPs shipped with Lion, it's trivially easy to hack SL onto them. Basically, what you need to do is clone a fully updated version of 10.6.8 onto them-the retail disks are 10.6.3 and won't work on the 2011s.

With respect to OSs, there's a lot of good to be said about Mavericks. It's a nice, stable OS that still has the 3D look introduced in Leopard but also is much better supported now software wise. I am still running it on my MP at work(I haven't had the time or inclination to get El Capitan on it) and it's the main OS I use on my MBA 2,1. The only real issues I've run into are that it can't run Office 2016 and I quit being able to use mail when they "upgraded" us from Exchange to Office 365 a few weeks ago. iMessage/Messages is one of those things that I didn't appreciate until I used it, although it came out with ML. Yosemite adds a whole new dimension since it works with both SMS and iMessage.
 
A late 2011 13" was my first Mac. I still remember the elation I felt when I carried it out of the Apple store, got home, and powered it on. Even though that's the only Mac I've bought new, I still think everyone should experience getting to open a new Apple laptop at least once-the packaging is all part of the experience.

In any case, the 2011 13" computers are solid machines, and it wasn't too long ago that the 2012 was discontinued. I would still be using mine as my main computer if the 15" 2012 I'm using now hadn't come along at the right time.

I'm still running the 500gb 5400rpm spinner. It's not the original, but was an Applecare replacement. With 8gb RAM, it's doing okay now with High Sierra DP2(DP1 was rough).

You do get Thunderbolt with the 2011s. When i got my computer, I thought it was great, but have never actually used a TB device since even the cables remain expensive. With that said, I think it's a technology that is on the upswing although I don't know how much the TB1 interface will be able to do.

BTW, although the late 2011 MBPs shipped with Lion, it's trivially easy to hack SL onto them. Basically, what you need to do is clone a fully updated version of 10.6.8 onto them-the retail disks are 10.6.3 and won't work on the 2011s.

With respect to OSs, there's a lot of good to be said about Mavericks. It's a nice, stable OS that still has the 3D look introduced in Leopard but also is much better supported now software wise. I am still running it on my MP at work(I haven't had the time or inclination to get El Capitan on it) and it's the main OS I use on my MBA 2,1. The only real issues I've run into are that it can't run Office 2016 and I quit being able to use mail when they "upgraded" us from Exchange to Office 365 a few weeks ago. iMessage/Messages is one of those things that I didn't appreciate until I used it, although it came out with ML. Yosemite adds a whole new dimension since it works with both SMS and iMessage.
If you're wanting the 3D feel of mavericks, but need newer software, just use cdock
 
My First MacBook was a MacBook 3,1 2007 unit. Dude, I'd rather use a PPC machine then this. I was just as stubborn as you and ran this machine as long as I thought, even dropped the Cash on a new battery and learned the hard way it wasn't worth it. I had it since 2007, and it finally retired in December 2015. It was my School machine that essentially ran office, dropbox, the schools webpages, and some web browsing. Although Firefox was and still is the fastest browser on it, it would always kick up the fans as the Core 2 Duo and that Crap X3100 heats up FAST.

Upon retiring it it had Snow Leopard on it and at that point I barely logged into OSX, as windows was not only faster, but more up to date thanks to windows 7 still being supported and with a few tricks being able to run 8 and 10. HOWEVER again, the thing heated up badly in both OS's thus really killing battery life.

Was that last sentence really necessary? I think others will tell you no. I respect your opinion as I do anyone else's.

The BlackBook I'm buying is from 2009 and could be hacked to run ML or Mavericks.


Finally. You want to hack Mavericks on that thing? Dude. Mine currently has Mountain Lion hacked onto it. And despite it running, anything that uses GPU (just like in SL and Loin) is horrible. And I genuinely mean horrible. That Intel X3100 has only 144mb Vram or something like that. Only in Windows it appears to have 384mb but that still blows. Many Power PC machines exceed that and its not going to be very usable. Right now sadly my 3,1 sits on my shelf in almost perfect condition as I loved that machine, and occasionally fire it up as I've actually installed Leopard back on it again with Snow Leopard Dual boot as they are the fastest. PERIOD. Hacking Mavericks, you should expect a slide show for graphics.

Side note. If you respected the opinion, you wouldn't make a fuss you'd just take it into great consideration. You posted what you're doing on a forum to get replies/suggestions/comments. What did you expect? We're trying to help.

So as the following post suggests. GET something 2009/2010 and upwards pre retina. You won't regret it. If you really want to get a Core 2 Duo machine, get the last era MacBook or a late Core 2 Duo Macbook pro that has the 9400M GPU. That way it will most likely run anything from Leopard/SL up to el Cap Sierra. Get an i5 series machine and you still have Lion through to Sierra and HiSi support.

I concur. If you are looking for a laptop, I would recommend the Non-Retina Mid 2012 MacBook Pro.

It's served me very well so far.

The last 2012 non retina 13" and 15" machines are pretty bullet proof. (Insert pun for those who know my luck). Im currently using the 15" model and it doesn't skip a beat. They are going rather cheap on eBay as of lately and both will offer some great horsepower for dirt cheap with an excellent battery, the ability to upgrade parts still within, a optical drive a fantastic keyboard and best of all, proper cooling. The 13" model was sold New from apple up until last year and they're everywhere. I see them for sale often with Cases included as well as adapters for dirt cheap.

Finally I just want to state. This is a forum that has a lot of patience, and a lot of "veterans" ( I say that in the most respectable way possible) because many of the folks helped me with my machines when I was just a little older then you. They know what they are talking about and have managed to get me where I am. Just take that in consideration. Best of Luck.
 
I just want to mention that I have a late 2006 white Macbook, 2.0 ghz Core2Duo, hacked to run Mountain Lion. With 4 gb of ram, it runs quite well. I even get 720p video playback on Youtube with no stuttering. Avoid 720p60 though- those videos drag with the audio out of sync. It runs Waterfox as the main browser. I get some graphics weirdness when I pull down a bookmarks folder from my bookmarks bar, but it's not that big of a deal- just some dark lines that appear between each bookmark. It doesn't affect anything and is only slightly annoying. I guess it depends on your needs, but it is a quite usable machine for me.

My main desktop is a (formerly) 1st generation Mac Pro that has been upgraded with two quad-core 3.0 ghz processors and had the firmware flashed so it identifies as a Mac Pro 2,1. It also has 32 gb of ram and a Radeon HD 5770 video card, and it runs El Capitan on the boot SSD. It is quite a beast even for its age, but it's slowly going to become completely obsolete since it can't run anything beyond El Capitan. I guess it'll make a good Windows machine in the future.
 
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Most developers dropped everything 10.6-10.8 pretty quickly, and we went from a good selection of SL-compatible software including the two major 3rd party and a LOT of apps to basically nothing being updated, older apps no longer working, and a single browser that will stop getting security updates in September.
That's true for the most part, but as the owner of a high-end Late 2006 iMac there are certain apps that will run on 10.8.5 and not 10.6.8. When I installed an SSD into the iMac, I transferred over 10.8.5 but didn't bother with 10.6.8, and the latest Firefox will run perfectly fine with a very easy modification (see link in my signature). Don't think the same modification allows it to work in 10.6.8.

Mountain Lion was the first OS X version I ever used on a brand new state-of-the-art Retina MacBook Pro, and it's sad to see just how quickly it has been obsoleted by Apple and third-party developers. At least the hardware has aged a lot better, almost impossible to tell it's now 5 years old when given the latest MacOS!
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Well, there's only one problem... Nothing newer is black! Which is one of the main reasons I wanted one! :D I just really like the look.

Yeah, I could hack ML onto it, but @bunnspecial says there's no big difference in software support between 10.6 and 10.8, and as SL is my favorite OS ever, I'll be using that. As for that logic board stuff, I don't really get into that stuff, I just use the product as is. I'm not a real hardware guy. ;)

But they're not black! ;) Also, Snow Leopard is my favorite OS and I'm not a fan of anything newer. SL is the last good OS IMO. Yeah, I'll need to learn to like the newer ones someday, I won't until I have to. ;)

Thanks. I'll have to try Waterfox first and if that doesn't work well Firefox should be good for awhile.
I have done so already; Waterfox doesn't run on 10.6.8, but does work in 10.8.5 (as does the official Firefox, see the thread linked in my signature). On 10.6.8, you're stuck with Firefox ESR 45 (which as far as I know is out of support since last April) or Firefox 49 which is out of support even longer.

I really advise going with something newer than 10.6.8, and a Mac that will run newer versions (which graphics acceleration) should you choose to install them. My Late 2006 iMac running 10.8.5 is almost limited more so by incompatible, outdated, and not well optimized software than hardware at this point, and I have even installed Linux Mint to try and improve things (although that comes with its own set of issues, ended up staying with 10.8.5 for now - no perfect solution sadly).
 
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"'Dude'? What do they mean? Dude ranch?

Dude?.jpg
 
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