Before going on holiday, during a bout of tidying up the office, I rediscovered an old MacBook from 2015.
Apple had stopped supporting this model many years ago so the newest operating system (OS) was a few iterations behind.
To give it a new lease of life, I installed a different operating system, namely Linux Mint.
As with most versions of Linux, Mint runs great on older software and once installed whizzes along with common tasks like browsing, watching video, listening to music and playing games.
I was well pleased with my initial tinkering and then went and upgraded the SSD hard drive from 256GB to 1TB. The battery, being ten years old and showing as only having around sixty percent of it’s original capacity, was swapped for a brand new unit.
Having breathed new life into the old machine, we then went away on our camping trip but whilst away, I scoured eBay for a slightly better model. Still of the same vintage, I found a MacBook Pro as opposed to the revamped Air.
I made an offer which was accepted. The model was a special order when new with an upgraded CPU and extra memory. Originally, this would have cost something like £2,600 but I got it for under a ton.
The SSD was only 256GB but I could use the one out of the Air as an upgrade. The description also mentioned that the battery was on its last legs and one of the speakers was distorted. Battery and speakers were available and ordered from Amazon and would be delivered ready for the MacBook’s arrival.
A few days after arriving back home, a brown box arrived and I started to upgrade this one.
I put the original SSD (with Linux Mint installed) back into the Air and the 1TB drive went into the Pro. A fresh install of Mint went onto the drive. The battery was swapped but, unfortunately, the replacement was a dud so that was returned (no problem) and another ordered from a different company.
After a few more days and another delivery, I had the MacBook Pro all tarted up and ready for service.
The MacBook Air was wiped and the latest, working, version of MacOS installed. It was then listed on eBay. A couple of days later, I received an email saying that the Air had been bought at my “Buy it Now” price.
I am now using the ten year old MacBook Pro for everyday use. Some of the Apple apps aren’t available but I’ve found Linux alternative and, at a push, I can even run Windows programs on it.