Older Macbook?

[supton]

I've had PC's all my life, but I don't see myself giving up my iPhone nor iPad. I tried to like the Amazon Fire, as about the only stuff I do is email and web on portable devices: just never liked it for some reason.

Is there value in picking up an older Macbook so as to have better support for my devices? I don't back up my iDevices although I did give in and get "the cloud" to start using. My home laptop is kinda junky and I wouldn't mind a backup to it.

 

[csandste]

Plenty of Chromebooks out there dirt cheap. That's what I use to go along with my Ubuntu Mate box.

 

[pandus13]

Buy a 14" Lenovo Thinkpad or a Dell business refurbished, max the memory and add an SSD/M2 card.

Those should hold you for a long time, including cat/kids dropping it form the couch.

My wifey's is a refurbished HP on duty for 6 years (kids, travel, moves)

If you want to get a Mac, users bunnspecial and JHRZ2 knows a thing or two (what and speed upgrades/good components)

 

[OVERKILL]

If the idea is to get a common platform in place then yes, it makes perfect sense. Pick up one new enough to run Mojave and slap an SSD in it.

 

[spavel6]

I have always had a 3-4 year old macbook with great results. I sell my older ones online, and pick up another used unit. The total cost of ownership is low, but not as low as an entry-level PC.

I am currently running a 2012 Macbook Pro with 32GB or RAM and a SSD. Works very well for everyday activities.

MAC is a very love it or hate it type of platform. If you are into it, it's great. But there are always good PC options (new) out there. Just don't get the base model. Even for browsing, RAM is very important.

 

[E150GT]

We have a 2010? MacBook air still kickin' and works well. My 2011 MacBook pro crapped out after 6 years.

 

[Alfred_B]

While I like the phablets or tablets from Apple, I absolutely loathe my MacBook Air interface.

Get a cheap MacBook and see if you like it. To me they are nearly unusable.

 

[supton]

Thanks all. My needs are pretty minimal, and it's just to standardize on that set of hardware, so it supports itself. I plan on keeping a PC around all the same, maybe more than one ('tis the new era and all).

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
While I like the phablets or tablets from Apple, I absolutely loathe my MacBook Air interface.

Get a cheap MacBook and see if you like it. To me they are nearly unusable.

I don't think I've ever used one TBH, but this is kinda the plan. Go dirt cheap, if I hate it, then that's that. Can always get a better machine in the future.

 

[Hall]

I never used a Mac before my current job. Macs are used here.... I adapted to it in 3-4 days.... I then ended up buying a Macbook Air for personal use. Well, actually what happened is a co-worker of my wife's went back to college and Macs are "hip" in schools so this lady bought one. She couldn't "get it" and bought a Windows laptop so my wife offered to buy it, knowing I was interested in one.

You can find really old Macbooks out there but I wouldn't go older than 2013 models. Apple is odd with these numbers, by the way. Well, what they do is maintain the hardware spec for up to 2 years it seems so you could buy a 2013 model in 2015 still. Make sense ? Anyway, if you go too old, you will reach the cut-off of OS updates. Macs can get virii and malware. If anyone tells you different, well, don't take technical advice from them !

 

[Alfred_B]

I hate the tiny window control buttons on the left side, the launcher, the ribbon on the bottom, the menu options upon right click, the finder, the app store, that it goes to sleep when you shut the lid, and that you don't easily know what applications are running.

I like the scroll up/down.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
I hate the tiny window control buttons on the left side,

I prefer the Windows ones as well, but I ran many themes on Linux that used similar ones, so they don't bother me.
Originally Posted by Alfred_B
the launcher, the ribbon on the bottom,

These are essentially the same thing unless you are specifically referencing "launchpad" which I never use.
Originally Posted by Alfred_B
the menu options upon right click,

Such as? They are pretty similar to Windows for the most part.
Originally Posted by Alfred_B
the finder,

I prefer Windows Explorer to finder, but I don't find it "awful"

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
the app store,

Yet now Microsoft has gone to an app store with Windows 10, lol

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
that it goes to sleep when you shut the lid,

This is the default behaviour for Windows laptops too. I assume you can probably turn it off, but I've never bothered to try with my old MBP.

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
and that you don't easily know what applications are running.

Apple icon -> Force Quit will yield a list of what's running beyond what has a dot beside it in the dock
Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor is essentially the same as Windows Task Manager. It can also be accessed through Launchpad -> Other

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
I like the scroll up/down.

That's the first thing I change

I dislike the inverted scroll feature, unless you were referencing 2-finger scroll?

 

[Skippy722]

Apple/MacOS search>Windows 10 Search as well... unless they have fixed it. Maybe it was just user error, but whenever I used the search on windows 10 it would always default to a web search, not the application I was looking for.

 

[bunnspecial]

If you specifically mean a "MacBook", I would avoid it.

There are, broadly, two different types of MacBook.

The first was made from 2006-2010, and was more or less a continuation of the concept of the iBook from earlier. Most were cased in white plastic, but up until 2008 or so they were available in black plastic(which has a really nice feel) and in late 2008 an aluminum model was introduced that was the high end model. It was the first "Unibody" type laptop from Apple and had a buttonless trackpad(entire surface clicks) plus a glass-covered display. The plastic one was refreshed in 2009 to also get the buttonless trackpad and lose the user-replaceable battery.

A few years ago, the plastic models were my go-to suggestion for a budget laptop. They're nice to use in general, and the pre-unibody ones have lots of useful ports. The very first ones(2006 with a CoreDuo processor) can't run anything newer than 10.6. The 07 and 08 models can officially run 10.7, and can be hacked to run 10.11, but the graphics are less than great in them and they get really choked running anything much newer. Mid-09 can run 10.11, which is still reasonably well supported. The unibody models I think stop at 10.13, which is also reasonably current, but will probably roll off support by the end of the year. Even though they can be hacked to run 10.15, I don't recommend it as, once again, the graphics will limit them.

The other MacBook was an ultra portable that was introduced in 2015 or so, I think. They are super thin and light, but are pretty cramped from my perspective. They have the fairly polarizing butterfly keyboard that Apple has finally mercifully ditched. It was entirely passively cooled(no fan) which means that it used a super low clocked processor that could throttle even more if needed. They're also cramped by only having a single USB-C port for everything. I'll buy one to add to my Apple collection one of these days, but they're still too pricey used.

As for other well supported models-my main laptop is a 2012 15" MacBook Pro. The 2012 non-Retina models in both 13 and 15" are nice in that they have all kinds of ports, USB 3.0, no widespread issues like the GPUs on the 2011 15 and 17" models, and still support the current OS(although I don't run 10.15). I also use a 2015 13" Retina as my travel laptop. The 2015 predates the touchbar nonsense and still has handy stuff like USB-A and MagSafe(plus an HDMI port so it's a handy media system when traveling also). The battery life is fantastic. I bought it back last fall and payed around $500. I did put a larger drive in it, which can be done on those models but not on the Touchbar models(the drive itself was $120 for 512gb).

The 2015 or so MacBook Airs are also a great value and generally great computers.

 

[supton]

Thanks, I am rather clueless about computers, as I don't follow them. IT at work just gives me one, and I periodically bring it back when it has problems.

Sounds like 2012 and newer, give or take.