Years ago I got tired of supported my parents’ Windows machines so I gave them my old Macs: a 2007 iMac and a 2009 MacBook Pro upgraded with an SSD. (I think both are stuck on OS X 10.11 El Capitan)
They mostly use them for web browsing, email and word processing. The machines themselves run perfectly fine for their needs. Recently they’re running into more sites that don’t work on their older browsers (I think mostly SSL/TLS issues). I bought my Dad a used iPad when he was in the hospital for a while and he says he much prefers using a desktop.
Are there any current web browsers out there that still support old OSs? I know these machines are considered ancient, but my parents are both retired and have fixed income, so they rather not buy new computers. (I also hate to throw out perfectly working hardware.)
I’m tempted to try OpenCore Legacy Patcher to run newer OS versions, but a newer browser would be much easier. Installing Linux probably isn’t a good option either.
Based on my understanding it’s a community project with the goal to keep old hardware alive? I haven’t had a chance to test it myself as I ran out of time resources for my own project in this regard, so I can’t give any experience reports; but maybe worth taking a look?
Not a browser recommendation but if you’re local to them, I’d suggest Linux Mint, XFCE Edition. It’ll run like a dream on those machines and will get all the current security updates. They can run Firefox, Thunderbird and LibreWriter which will open Word files if that’s what they use for word processing.
It’s easy to install, maintain and use. Should be no problem for anyone familiar with a Mac. You can download it and flash it to a USB drive and boot it from there to test it. The only likely complication in the initial set-up is the wifi. You’d want access to an ethernet cable to update the wireless driver after installing. That was the only issue I had. Been flawless ever since.
Thanks for the all the suggestions. I wound up going with Chromium Legacy for now. Visited my parents after New Years and put it on their machines. So far so good. My father’s iMac was pretty slow, but he said he was fine with that. (I wish replacing the HD with an SSD didn’t involve taking the whole screen off).
I did that to my old 2009 MBP before I gave it to my mom and it made a huge difference with the performance. Maybe I just need to watch some old iMac upgrade videos and give it a try the next time I visit.
