Charlie StrossApr 8, 2024

TFY unwisely agree to Do Something about 70-year-old in-law's laptop, which is 9 years old and running Word 2008 atop a version of macOS unsupported since 2018 …

You have a spare M1 Probook to upgrade him to. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, he's forgotten his login password, never had an AppleID, and his old machine doesn't recognize APFS filesystems for that old-time floppy-style SSD shuffle.

And the cable to the only SSD they have is flaky.

(Now back home, screaming quietly in Mac.)

Show threadCharlie StrossApr 8, 2024
NOTE: situation is under control, file transfer is happening despite obsolescence (you can't even update his old machine to a new enough macOS to support Migration Assistant transfers to his new mac).
Show threadLiam Proven

@cstross OCLP will fix that, if you can be bothered.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/09/opencore_legacy_patcher/

The Now Official Mrs Proven's old MacBook is a 2009 model and it's supported by OCLP. In principle I could get it onto macOS >10 easily. Big Sur is the last one to support pre-Metal GPUs. It's doable.

But it's in the basement in Prague and we can't find it. So I hackintoshed macOS 11 onto my old ex-SUSE Dell, restored the Time Machine backup onto that, then copied the files onto a USB HDD and switched the SSD for one with ChromeOS Flex on it. That does all she needs and it's simpler and quicker than macOS.

(This latter made some folks on Reddit very angry with me.)

Apple antique aficionados can boot to the future with OpenCore Legacy Patcher

Hackintoshing reaches a wider audience – owners of older Macs

The Register
Apr 8, 2024 at 4:15pmWeb
Show threadCharlie StrossApr 8, 2024
@lproven Old machine was 8Gb RAM, a 250Gb SSD ... and a Celeron M. It's not worth keeping.
Show threadIsaac Ji KuoApr 8, 2024

@cstross @lproven

Yeah, 8GB or RAM and 250GB SSD is actually kinda nice, but Celeron M performance is just too sluggish.

Heck, it was too sluggish when it was new. I think Celeron M laptops weren't able to handle Netflix or YouTube even back in the day.

Even so, I'd personally have uses for it (don't need much CPU or GPU to remote into my work computer, or act as an extra display).

Show threadCharlie StrossApr 8, 2024
@isaackuo @lproven The only thing the 2015 12" Retina Macbook has going for it, these days, is its weight (it's the lightest non-hackintosh Mac ever made). And I'm sorry, I have a fully loaded M3 Macbook Air now, kthxbye. (It feels subjectively faster than my 10 core i9 iMac.)
Show threadLiam ProvenApr 9, 2024

@isaackuo @cstross Fake news!

Can attest that my Core 2 Duo 2009 MPB can play YouTube -- my toddler daughter could watch for 2-3 hours, on the original 2009 battery, as of 2022.

Of course a HiDPI screen will need more juice, yes, but a Core M should be significantly faster than a C2D.

Show threadIsaac Ji KuoApr 9, 2024

@lproven

I wouldn't bet on that.

Passmark for a Celeron M 1.6Ghz is only 190

Passmark for a Core2 Duo E4300 @ 1.80GHz is 593

The E4300 is an older slower Core 2 Duo, and it's still 3x the performance of the best Celeron M.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+M+1.60GHz&id=710

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Duo+E4300+%40+1.80GHz&id=1678

@cstross

PassMark - Intel Celeron M 1.60GHz - Price performance comparison

Show threadLiam ProvenApr 9, 2024
@isaackuo @cstross Wow! OK then...
Show threadCharlie StrossApr 9, 2024
@lproven @isaackuo I think this particular Macbook was a Core-M clocked at 1.2GHz, with 8Gb of RAM (ouch) running El Capitan? (Mine was a 1.6GHz m3 with 16Gb and *that* was unbearably slow.)
Show threadLiam ProvenApr 9, 2024

@cstross I didn't think Apple ever shipped Celerons?

And as ever, a reminder: these things are relative. Mrs P's MacBook is a Core 2 Duo with 6GB of RAM (I have more but it's *too fast* for the nVidia GPU) and a 120GB SSD.

It flew along in 10.13 and its ~12-year-old battery was good for ~2 hours of disconnected use.

It was a freebie (dropped; dinged case, dead HDD) so I did it up as an experiment. A very successful experiment. It became a daily driver for another couple of years.

Show threadCharlie StrossApr 9, 2024
@lproven They didn't quite—it was a Core M, in the 12" Retina Macbook, from 2015-2017. (Still totally gutless.) In hindsight, the Macbook cut too many corners (cpu power, battery life) to be useful: today's M3 Macbook Air is only 200g heavier and ridiculously more useful (14 hour battery life, stupidly faster).
Show threadLiam ProvenApr 9, 2024

@cstross Aha!

I think I tried one in a shop. Not my cuppa: ultra-low travel keyboard, just 1 port, tacky gold option, etc.

But, saying that, for some people it would be a lifesaver.

Apparently it runs Ventura and Sonoma well with OCLP! https://www.reddit.com/r/macbook/comments/178zg1f/updated_my_12_mb_via_opencore/

Show threadCharlie StrossApr 9, 2024
@lproven I ran one for a couple of years and loved it to bits for its portability EXCEPT for the only-one-USB-C port (back then cheap portable USB-C docks with passthrough charging and an NVMe SSD slot were figments of my imagination) and the lack of power (even Scrivener could make it grind, and Scrivener is infinitely more lightweight than MS Word or just about any web browser).
Show threadLiam ProvenApr 9, 2024
@cstross Wow!