To Downgrade or not to Downgrade

[SimonTT]

I recently disabled the dGPU on my 2011 17" MBP, which was dormant for some years now.

It is at its maximum of 16GB Ram.

It is still using a HDD although I have an unused 512GB SSD which I could easily swap into it.

I might even buy another one and replaced the optical drive and then create a Raid setup.


My main question is what OS is best.

This won't be a workhorse (I have my 2021 16" for that), it will probably just be used for browsing.

My first thought was to downgrade it to snow leopard (its starting OS), but then I saw that there were patchers available for it, which means they must be at least somewhat usable with a modern OS.

Now I am torn: would downgrading needlessly withhold nice quality of life features like handoff and universal control, or is it the only way to get a stable and fast experience?

 

[Svetlin]

If it`s going to be used for web browsing i suggest a newer OS. High Sierra has some browsers that are still updated and work really well.

 

[SimonTT]

Can't I just use safari on any MacOS version?
I don't really use other browsers.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you still want to keep using the old 17", put an SSD into it.
That will make a big difference in performance.