I'm not impressed with Apples long term MacOS support on older hardware.

[aioraito]

Is the experience the same to when you install/use Windows Vista on Intel 3rd gen? There are no Vista graphics drivers for 3rd gen and graphics acceleration is not available for the patched macOS on unsupported hardware...

[NinjaGinger]

Am I wrong when I say, Microsoft seems to be doing it now as well.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

The Intel HD 4000 supports Metal, so Mid 2012 Mac Air's / Pro's still get GPU acceleration on an unofficial Big Sur install's, so in general work great.

 

Anything earlier than a 2012 Mac is out of luck in that regard, unless its a model where the GPU could be upgraded.

 

I don't think you'd want to use Big Sur on anything without Metal support now.

For example the time for minimizing a Safari window as per the patcher read me:

• Late 2012 13" MacBook Pro: <1 second
• Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro: 13 seconds
• Late 2009 13" MacBook: 23 seconds

@NinjaGinger yup Microsoft are doing this now also, at least for now anything that runs Windows 10 should also run Windows 11 perfectly fine with a modified installer. That's not to say some future update is going to give you issues though, its a bit of a gamble.

 

It does make me think about giving Linux a go on my Mac Air at some point, historically I've never really been a fan of the desktop environments. Although I do think they have improved a lot in more recent times, distros like Pop!_OS intrigue me.

[macoman]

On 24/10/2021 at 04:04, InsaneNutter said:

Does make me think about giving Linux a go on my Mac Air at some point, historically I've never really been a fan of the desktop environments. Although I do think they have improved a lot in more recent times, distros like Pop!_OS intrigue me.

My 2012 MacBook pro, my 2012 iMac and 2010 Mac pro works perfectly fine with big sur and have GPU acceleration so I will not be thinking in upgrade to Linux or any other OS for a long time.

[sysadminafterdark]

Hey @Warwagon look into OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Everything is working wonderfully for me - I have Ventura on a 2013 Mac Air, 2013 Mac Pro and 2014 Mini. The setup couldn’t be easier - pop a USB in, let it download the OS and write the USB, patch the USB, install it, then run the patch on the boot drive. I haven’t had an OTA break it yet but I certainly wouldn’t run it in a production business. I’ll let the corporate overlords buy them a new Mac so I can “scrap” the old one by taking it home with my boss’s permission. I thought it would be slow and buggy but it’s the opposite - the patched version generally runs smoother than the officially supported kit. 

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 27/01/2023 at 10:17, crankysysadmin said:

Hey @Warwagon look into OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Everything is working wonderfully for me - I have Ventura on a 2013 Mac Air, 2013 Mac Pro and 2014 Mini. The setup couldn’t be easier - pop a USB in, let it download the OS and write the USB, patch the USB, install it, then run the patch on the boot drive. I haven’t had an OTA break it yet but I certainly wouldn’t run it in a production business. I’ll let the corporate overlords buy them a new Mac so I can “scrap” the old one by taking it home with my boss’s permission. I thought it would be slow and buggy but it’s the opposite - the patched version generally runs smoother than the officially supported kit. 

Ya, I looked into that, but part of the problem is this AIO has a s*** AMD Radeon graphics that's unsupported. A newer version of Mac OS would run, but without graphics acceleration. I got the newest version of Mac OS running in a 2012 but it had intel graphics.

[cork1958]

On 24/04/2021 at 14:12, Warwagon said:

This is what all the computers do. This doesn't count all the spare laptops I have downstairs  probably 20+ most are old and given from customers. I also have 2 all in one PC's unused downstairs not on my list. I think I hoard laptops from a child hood experience. Was at radio shack late 80's early  90's and wanted a laptop to program basic in the basement. Obviously they were prohibitively expensive at the time. I Think that's why I hold on to these! To have what i Never had as a child  I still fire some of the old ones up and play some old games.

 

This is my office .. or at least part of it.  The two systems on the counters are my cloning workstations and workstations I plug hard drives into them and get files off them and or clone them and scan them for bad sectors. Those computers in the corner, some are just the case, some are the entire computer.

 

 

Theater PC
laptop which displays the security camera above my TV
Brix Pro -old couch computer, use for video chatting on my TV 
Couch computer - Main upstaris workstation on the couch.
Security Cam PC
Macbook Pro - Not used much
iMac - Not used much
HP Prodesk at sara's house- Emby server
Server - file server / emby server
Basement ProDesk workstation - my main workstation downstaris
Laptop at sara's house to work from her house.
Spare laptop in car. - in case my laptop at sara's house fails on me
Celeron NUC PC as my voice mail server

P5 133 - old gateway computer to mess with dos games and other stuff.

Chromebook I got for $5 at the it's $5 store. I never use it but I have it.

Don't take this wrong, but I have seen on msn.com where they post stories about things from the past that people hope never to return, and that checkerboard flooring is one of them! LOL

Have to admit, you do have a rather organized looking cluster mess there though!

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 27/01/2023 at 13:26, cork1958 said:

Don't take this wrong, but I have seen on msn.com where they post stories about things from the past that people hope never to return, and that checkerboard flooring is one of them! LOL

Have to admit, you do have a rather organized looking cluster mess there though!

organized chaos

[allannyholm]

Open Core Legacy Patcher for perhaps installing macOS Ventura on an unsupported Mac isn't all that if you're using or like to use Chromium based browsers.. first launch takes forever and a minute to load.. Vivaldi loads up a little bit faster than Google Chrome does, for whatever odd reason.

If you only use Firefox and/or Safari or Orion browser-- then you're fine. But if you have your life set up with Google... you'll have to have patience for the browser content to show.. the window frame loads quickly enough. It's such a little thing that made me downgrade to Monterey from Ventura just yesterday

[Justin-Goldberg]

You can, your have to hack it though.

 

https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/START.html

 

As others have stated, test out different versions or read on their site about which version still runs well on your hardware.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Justin-Goldberg

[Dutchie64]

On 24/04/2021 at 20:12, Warwagon said:

This is what all the computers do. This doesn't count all the spare laptops I have downstairs  probably 20+ most are old and given from customers. I also have 2 all in one PC's unused downstairs not on my list. I think I hoard laptops from a child hood experience. Was at radio shack late 80's early  90's and wanted a laptop to program basic in the basement. Obviously they were prohibitively expensive at the time. I Think that's why I hold on to these! To have what i Never had as a child  I still fire some of the old ones up and play some old games.

 

This is my office .. or at least part of it.  The two systems on the counters are my cloning workstations and workstations I plug hard drives into them and get files off them and or clone them and scan them for bad sectors. Those computers in the corner, some are just the case, some are the entire computer.

 

 

Theater PC
laptop which displays the security camera above my TV
Brix Pro -old couch computer, use for video chatting on my TV 
Couch computer - Main upstaris workstation on the couch.
Security Cam PC
Macbook Pro - Not used much
iMac - Not used much
HP Prodesk at sara's house- Emby server
Server - file server / emby server
Basement ProDesk workstation - my main workstation downstaris
Laptop at sara's house to work from her house.
Spare laptop in car. - in case my laptop at sara's house fails on me
Celeron NUC PC as my voice mail server

P5 133 - old gateway computer to mess with dos games and other stuff.

Chromebook I got for $5 at the it's $5 store. I never use it but I have it.

I do hope you're running most of it from solar

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 08/08/2023 at 03:21, Dutchie64 said:

I do hope you're running most of it from solar

Actually, most of what runs 24/7 I have the lowest Watt stuff I could find that still does the job. So during the summer in those months where the heat nor the AC runs the electric bill is usually around $60 per month.

[FateTrap]

On 29/01/2023 at 20:18, allannyholm said:

Open Core Legacy Patcher for perhaps installing macOS Ventura on an unsupported Mac isn't all that if you're using or like to use Chromium based browsers..

 

On hardware older than 7 years, you can usually easily install Void Linux or GhostBSD.

GhostBSD with Rhythmbox is also very similar to macOS with iTunes:

For many things, GhostBSD is more user-friendly than macOS. It is also easy to install.

It has a lot of software and is more stable than macOS, and offers better integrity for your data than macOS.

[fn123]

On 24/04/2021 at 09:44, Steve B said:

That said, I bought my second Mac.  M1 Mac mini. 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD.  I hope this will last and be supported long enough. Lol. 

I think that was Apple's goal. 😉

I have a 27-inch iMac (2017) that can't officially upgrade past macOS 13 Ventura, but there are ways around it, such as using the OpenCore Legacy Patcher. I am sure Apple are ever so keen for me to upgrade to a new iMac, but since those bright sparks decided to discontinue the 27-inch iMac they have nothing to offer that doesn't cost an absurd amount of money. I don't know why I'd want to downgrade from a 27-inch display to a 24-inch display with no useful I/O. So, I passed on that option and replaced the Fusion Drive in my current iMac with a Samsung SSD that works with an M.2 to PCIe adapter. I went to an Apple Authorized Service Provider and they did the upgrade.

Tim Cook's Apple is too busy rehashing the same iPhone every year, and developing frivolous products like the Vision Pro, to care about the Mac anymore. 🙂

[JustGeorge]

On 24/04/2021 at 14:12, Warwagon said:

This is what all the computers do. This doesn't count all the spare laptops I have downstairs  probably 20+ most are old and given from customers. I also have 2 all in one PC's unused downstairs not on my list. I think I hoard laptops from a child hood experience. Was at radio shack late 80's early  90's and wanted a laptop to program basic in the basement. Obviously they were prohibitively expensive at the time. I Think that's why I hold on to these! To have what i Never had as a child  I still fire some of the old ones up and play some old games.

 

This is my office .. or at least part of it.  The two systems on the counters are my cloning workstations and workstations I plug hard drives into them and get files off them and or clone them and scan them for bad sectors. Those computers in the corner, some are just the case, some are the entire computer.

 

 

Theater PC
laptop which displays the security camera above my TV
Brix Pro -old couch computer, use for video chatting on my TV 
Couch computer - Main upstaris workstation on the couch.
Security Cam PC
Macbook Pro - Not used much
iMac - Not used much
HP Prodesk at sara's house- Emby server
Server - file server / emby server
Basement ProDesk workstation - my main workstation downstaris
Laptop at sara's house to work from her house.
Spare laptop in car. - in case my laptop at sara's house fails on me
Celeron NUC PC as my voice mail server

P5 133 - old gateway computer to mess with dos games and other stuff.

Chromebook I got for $5 at the it's $5 store. I never use it but I have it.

GF stumbles into Warwagon's kitchen @ 2:37a feening for a snack after a long, exhausting evening of binge watching ITProTV. "*Sighs*...I can work with this..." she mutters quietly, so as not to disturb the slumbering lord of the manor. Delicately she picks the capacitors off a loose PCB before spreading peanut butter on its glistening green surface...

Edited June 9 by JustGeorge