Have you met James (@jbarley) yet?Oh my God.
Old people and Generation X everywhere.
Absolutely rockin'.![]()
PS. Gen-X here. September 1970.
Have you met James (@jbarley) yet?Oh my God.
Old people and Generation X everywhere.
Absolutely rockin'.![]()
Got a key I can borrow? There's a latch I need to open.Ditto.
LOLGot a key I can borrow? There's a latch I need to open.![]()
Was that last sentence really necessary? I think others will tell you no. I respect your opinion as I do anyone else's.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.
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.The BlackBook I'm buying is from 2009 and could be hacked to run ML or Mavericks.
Well, there's only one problem... Nothing newer is black! Which is one of the main reasons I wanted one!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.
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.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.
But they're not black!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.
Thanks. I'll have to try Waterfox first and if that doesn't work well Firefox should be good for awhile.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.
See my previous post.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.
Nothing newer is black!
Surely this is what Henry is destined for... https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/Maybe not black, but you can get space gray in the current gen MacBook and MacBook Pros
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.
If you're wanting the 3D feel of mavericks, but need newer software, just use cdockA 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.
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.
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.
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.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.
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.Well, there's only one problem... Nothing newer is black! Which is one of the main reasons I wanted one!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.