elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Jerry has sparked a question I've been wanting to ask, and my idea may be a bit 'out there'. Semi-retired here and still teaching, using my 2011 MacBookPro 13.3/2.3/2X2GB/320/SD. I use this 9 year old computer every teaching day with Power Point Slides. My students 'thrive' with those slides. I worry that my computer might not last forever.

So, especially since Apple announced this week that they are making their own chips for their newest computer, I know how we all like new things. Here's my quest. I would like to find another 9 year old MacBookPro. I would be happy to pay for it, or even better, I'd be very happy to swap it for as Lumix TZ80, which shoots RAW among many more things.

Most important, this adjunct professor, me, is looking for another 2011 MacBookPro. Anyone have sone who would like to sell/swap for it?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

It will take several years for Apple to transition away from Intel chips in favor of Apple SOCs. During that time, they will release several more Intel-based Macs and some Apple-based Macs. I would not be afraid to order an Intel Mac for a few more years. But I would avoid buying one of the first Apple powered Macs until the second or third generation is announced. Early adopters are generally not as happy with their purchases as late adopters!

Unfortunately, the 2011 MBP is now completely unsupported and parts for it can be hard to get. Apple generally drops MacOS support for hardware older than seven years, and drops parts support after five, although many aftermarket repairs and parts are available after that.

The 2011 MBP will not run MacOS 10.14.x, 10.15.x, or the forthcoming MacOS 11.0. So sooner or later, modern applications will not run under High Sierra. Although your MBP may run for a decade or more into the future, its usefulness may become questionable as software development moves on.

ALL THAT SAID, those are the reasons why 2011 MBPs are available at low cost on eBay or Craigslist, or similar marketplaces. I checked OWC... The oldest MBPs they sell are Mid-2012 models, which can run the current MacOS 10.15.x Catalina. My twins have identical Mid-2012 MBPs, fully stuffed with memory and SSD upgrades. These will not, however, run the forthcoming MacOS 11.0 and later.

From ComputerWorld:

"According to Apple, these Macs will run Big Sur:

MacBook 2015 and later
MacBook Air 2013 and later
MacBook Pro 2013 and later
iMac 2014 and later
iMac Pro 2017 and later
Mac Mini 2014 and later
Mac Pro 2013 and later
Macs that didn't make Big Sur's list but were on Catalina's included the mid- and late-year 2012 MacBook Pro, mid-2012 MacBook Air, mid-2012 and late-2013 iMac, and late-2012 Mac Mini machines. The now-abandoned systems will be supported with security-only updates to the last-chance Catalina through the summer of 2022, however."

Oh, well. Looks like I need a new Mac about 2022... By then, Apple's ARM SOCs should be mature enough...

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Yeah, I'd keep it too. They're pretty good systems.
Anybody ever find a real use for those firewire ports?
16gb ram and a SSD will make that puppy snappy.
The only problem will be the battery- it;s close to end-of-life. EZ-PZ
I wish I could help- the only affordable available ones I can find are "fixers".

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

OWC has new replacement batteries for older MacBook Pros, including the 2011 models.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/laptop-batteries/macbook-pro

FireWire was GREAT for video and hard drive connectivity. I had several old Hi8 and DV video cameras with FireWire interfaces. I have seven old archive hard drives that can connect via FireWire, although they also support eSATA or USB-2 or USB-3. Thunderbolt and USB-3/USB-C sort of kicked FireWire (IEEE 1394) to the curb, however. FireWire was most used on the Mac... PC makers never adopted it in a big way.

Eric Anderson, the guy who invented FireWire at Apple, first engineered audiovisual control systems for multi-image slide projection back in the 1970s and 1980s. I used a lot of his ClearLight hardware then. It was based on the Apple IIe. I first met Eric in 1973 at a teenage church retreat, where his production company (ClearLight Productions) presented a six projector slide show. That experience was one of the seminal inspirations for starting my career as a multi-image producer in 1979.

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Burk, Harry, I appreciate your responses. Burk, the concerns you expressed about my 2011 MBP not being able to run new software is actually to opposite of my concerns. The software I have on it, to include iWork with Keynote, and Office with Power Point are not the versions out there today. However, I have the CDs of all the software I've put on the machine. Soooo, if I had an identical or very similar machine, it would actually be TO my advantage. And, believe it or not, that machine has 10.7.5 OS on it. So I really do NOT want to update it, for fear that the 'newer' OS could prevent my current software from working on it.

Think of it as an auto mechanic who has all 'regular' tools, and then learns that he must switch over to metric tools. The loss of all those non-metric tools could really become a problem for him, as well as the cost of the new metric tools.

And for me, I will be starting my 24th. year of college adjunct teaching, which I preceded it with 30 years of high school teaching. Hence, so that's 54 years of teaching, and I have no desire to stop any time soon. BTW, "adjunct teaching" means part time teaching, and I'll bet you already know that means paid only a fraction of what full time professors earn. That is why I'm looking for an economical way to obtain this second "back up" MBP.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Understood. I have a 1999 PowerMac G4 to run old Mac Classic software (Mac OS 9.2.2) as well as OS X 10.4.11. We have many apps that we bought years ago that still work, and from time to time we need to revisit old documents and revise or print them. I have a second 1999 G4 that I keep for parts... I have a Mid 2010 Mac Mini I keep to run OS X 10.6.8 and 10.10.something. It also runs WinXP and Win7 with Parallels Desktop. Going forward, I'll use it to run my Epson scanner on Epson Scan, since Epson Scan 2 is 64-bit and does NOT support Digital ICE functionality.

That said, I'm a fan of the subscription model, precisely because it is easier to swallow about $10/month for the Adobe Photography Plan or Microsoft Office 365 than hundred$ for a new package or an upgrade. I remember paying $600 for PageMaker back when that was real money! Back in the late 1990s, we paid $800 for Photoshop. I like the "drip feed" of steady improvements.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

That was the thing.
I had an older Sharp Viewcam, and lots of tapes.
Minor mentals later, I bought a Sony DV with firewire.
It worked as a "passthru" device, converting analog to digital to firewire to computer.
SWMBO got the viewcam.
And I have an iOmega hdd box. original drive is long gone, but the box refilled easily.
I waited- in vain- for more firewire applications.

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

I have a 2010 Macbook Pro - it can be a little slow sometimes but does everything I need (and it's often faster than my new Imac). So I'm happy to keep it. Then again my original series 1 iPad is still in use daily.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Those old machines CAN be upgraded with modern SSD drives and added RAM. You can do it yourself if handy with tools. OWC ( https://eshop.macsales.com ) has model-specific videos showing precisely what to do, and sells the right parts. iFixIt.com also sells parts and has step-by-step illustrated Dozuki manuals that do the same.

Interestingly, the latest iPads are over 1000 times faster than that original. The Apple A series processors are so fast, now, that Apple is going to ditch Intel processors in the Macintosh over the next couple of years. The fastest computers in the world use the same sort of ARM architecture.

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Do I get the hint that you is a place or two, that you respect for sales of used Macs?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

OWC for sure! I bought two Mid-2012 MacBook Pros from them in 2016. Then I put SSDs and more RAM in those, using OWC parts and videos. They’re still going strong. They can’t run the next Mac OS (11) but if they get my twins through school...

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

That's ... another thing.
"I need a new Mac! This won't run Big Sur! I won't be getting upgrades!"
Yeah, so?
Does it do what you want? Is it reliable? Are you happy with it, or is it just GAS?
I have a couple friends with 2004/5 G5s. Slow HDDs turned into SSDs. Old ram became 8gb.
Tiger likes it- a lot. You can dual boot with Linux distros; no Windows tho.
All those programs still do the job, and everybody knows how to use them.
THIS is a Macpro 5,1. It runs El Capitan nicely and it runs Windows 8.1 very very well.
I can finagle Catalina on it- but there is no real reason. I tried to think of some.
I also know folk still using Windows 7. With 3rd party apps it's safe and secure.
It's fast, light and Adobe CS6 is happy.
As long as you're not trying to run the biggest baddest games, mostly you can't tell.
Heck, I have a Macpro 2,1 that is still overkill for most, AND runs El Capitan too..

AND as far as your twins ... Dress them up a bit?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Leica-Leather-Camera-Shoulder-Messenger-Bag/153425504820

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CAMERA-V3-decal-sticker-for-MACBOOK-pro-mac-11-13-15-Apple-CANON-NIKON-FUJI/171855290548?hash=item28035fa0b4:g:oK0AAOSwT6pVoYy6

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-Camera-Sticker-Photography-Decal-For-Apple-MacBook-Mac-iPad-Laptop-Car/142301106555?hash=item2121ce917b:g:U7kAAOSw32lYut-0

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Harry, the twins each customized their MBPs with bamboo and leather coverings!

Jeez. Fashion. At their age, I was a radio producer. I liked my tape recorders unsullied with adornments. But they went to a school for the arts before university...

As for old Macs... My 2013 iMac can run systems 10.6.8 through 10.15, plus Win 10 in Parallels Desktop.

In 2018, I cracked it open and put 16 GB RAM and a 2 TB SSD in it. It’s no longer a slouch! It is about 7X faster at i/o tasks, which were always the bottleneck with the stock 8GB RAM and 5400 RPM HDD. I use several outboard startup drives as needed to run outdated apps.

So I can wait a few years for the Apple ARM SoC Macs and MacOS 11.x to mature.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

The first Macs used processors built by Motorola.
Then for a while they used 'RISC' processors built by IBM.
Now they use processors built by Intel.
I suppose it was only a matter of time until they switched processor architecture again.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Jeez. At that age I was a Dad. Again.
College in the day, gas station at night, parent and study in the middle.
Liberal Arts? Most people with a degree made less than I did at the garage.
ANYway, here's another ...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-Retro-camera-apple-sticker-black-quality-vinyl-Macbook-Pro-Air-11-13-15/321993392680?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649