Old Mac Afterlife

I’ve received a few old Macs lately. Most recently I got a 2009 iMac with a whopping 27” screen. Apple only allows the operating system (OS) to go to High Sierra (10.13) but I have a modified version of Catalina (10.15) that works. While Catalina is still new enough that Chrome works fine on it, that won’t likely last forever.
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The problem with older Macs is that Apple doesn’t support them and, at some point, the apps aren’t upgradable and stop working for some sites. This is true for Windows as well. So I know a couple of folks out there that have old Macs and are having some problems browsing sites that used to work fine. Yes, that is what happens. Site security gets updated but the browser can’t keep up because the OS can’t keep up.

I’ve been upgrading the OS of some Macs (and PCs) with ‘hacked’ or modified OS’s that allow for the upgrade to more current software. The Mac OS’s have been developed by reputable software engineers and have a stable and reliable history, so I’m comfortable using this method. I recently came across a process that allows for upgrading the aforementioned 2009 iMac to Ventura (13). I did NOT go to Ventura though, as Monterey (12.6) seemed a huge jump and I thought Monterey would be a good enough OS. Monterey also seemed a bit safer for a 2009.

The iMac has an Core i7 processor and 8Gb of ram, so the specs are good. The graphics processor is the weak part but I was assured that this model would work. In fact, the author stated he was upgrading a 2007 model. So I went through the instructions, which are many, 26 steps in all, and the thing works. I’m buying 16Gb of ram for it, as it deserves that now. After the memory gets installed I'll be giving this behemoth away. ​

This process did an upgrade from Catalina, which was nice. I didn’t have anything on it anyway, but it was good to know that it would keep my data in this process, assuming everything works. The process wants you to make a backup and if I had anything on there, that would be a requirement. If you feel daring or interested, you can read about the process HERE. 

If you have an old Mac, some time on your hands and nothing to lose, you should definitely give it a try. You’ll need a 16Gb flash drive, minimum, or another external storage device. A good internet connection will make things go faster.