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I've been using a 2007 17" MacBook Pro as my main machine at my desk for the last couple weeks. Honestly it's great. The 17" screen is still bright and high e

I've been using a 2007 17" MacBook Pro as my main machine at my desk for the last couple weeks. Honestly it's great. The 17" screen is still bright and high enough resolution for me (1920x1200), the CPU is perfectly fine for web browsing and some light VS Code (2.5GHZ Core 2 Duo). I have Mac OS 10.13 on it which is still supported and receiving updates by every App I use. The keyboard on these old MacBook Pros is fantastic as well. I even loaded up Final Cut and dropped in some 1080p h.264 footage and it edits it just fine. I think the one good thing about Intel's CPU monopoly for all those years is that these old machines are still powerful enough today. That is likely going to change now that CPUs are getting significant performance boost every year again. A dual core CPU that is usable today I suspect will be unbearably slow for the web in ~5 years.

incanus77 4y ago
Same here, but with a 2009 17”. And I run Zorin OS (Linux) on it just out of simplicity and overhead since I’m not really using it graphically. It was my main work machine for years and still plugs along just fine.
jason0597 4y ago
> A dual core CPU that is usable today I suspect will be unbearably slow for the web in ~5 years. I will go out and say that it's not CPUs which are ageing poorly, it's the web that is getting too bloated for everyone. Hacker news is the signature example of how much utility you can get out of simple HTML/CSS. I really see little need for the behemoths that are Facebook's and Twitter's modern interfaces (which in turn make old laptops feel slow, even when they're not).
- digitallyfree 4y ago
  Most of those web devs have fast workstations and fiber, so the sites feel responsive to them in testing. It's easy (but incorrect) to assume that your site will run well for everyone if it runs well in your environment.
extra88 4y ago
> 2007 17" MacBook Pro >I have Mac OS 10.13 How? Apple officially supports macOS High Sierra (10.13) on Mid 2010 or newer MacBook Pros. Even this patcher [0] to install it on older machines only supports 2008 and newer Macs. [0] http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/ http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/
- windowsrookie 4y ago
  http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/ http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/ With that patch. Runs fantastic just like it would had Apple allowed it. oops, my MacBook Pro is an early 2008. I listed a 2007 model for sale on eBay this morning and just mixed them up. Sometimes my brain is on autopilot. [Edit] I will add that 2007 models support Mac OS 10.11 and every app I use except for Firefox still supports 10.11. (chrome still supports 10.11 tho)

incanus77 4y ago

Same here, but with a 2009 17”. And I run Zorin OS (Linux) on it just out of simplicity and overhead since I’m not really using it graphically. It was my main work machine for years and still plugs along just fine.

jason0597 4y ago

> A dual core CPU that is usable today I suspect will be unbearably slow for the web in ~5 years. I will go out and say that it's not CPUs which are ageing poorly, it's the web that is getting too bloated for everyone. Hacker news is the signature example of how much utility you can get out of simple HTML/CSS. I really see little need for the behemoths that are Facebook's and Twitter's modern interfaces (which in turn make old laptops feel slow, even when they're not).

digitallyfree 4y ago
Most of those web devs have fast workstations and fiber, so the sites feel responsive to them in testing. It's easy (but incorrect) to assume that your site will run well for everyone if it runs well in your environment.

extra88 4y ago

> 2007 17" MacBook Pro >I have Mac OS 10.13 How? Apple officially supports macOS High Sierra (10.13) on Mid 2010 or newer MacBook Pros. Even this patcher [0] to install it on older machines only supports 2008 and newer Macs. [0] http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/ http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/

windowsrookie 4y ago
http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/ http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/ With that patch. Runs fantastic just like it would had Apple allowed it. oops, my MacBook Pro is an early 2008. I listed a 2007 model for sale on eBay this morning and just mixed them up. Sometimes my brain is on autopilot. [Edit] I will add that 2007 models support Mac OS 10.11 and every app I use except for Firefox still supports 10.11. (chrome still supports 10.11 tho)