install os x el capitan on any unsupported macs

Models released in the last 4-5 years are generally well supported, but as they become ‘vintage’ (which now includes early Intel models up to 2008), some key parts can become almost impossible to obtain.Īll PowerPC systems apart from the very last Power Mac G5 model are unsupported by Apple, so even specialist spares suppliers such as Mac Upgrades, VIS, and The Bookyard may be unable to offer parts. Hardware spares tend to become scarcer the older your Mac is. You could try an open source emulator such as Basilisk, a 680×0 emulator, or SheepShaver, a Classic emulator, but they are generally not as good or as compatible as a real PowerPC and Classic. Plenty of really useful products never made it out of the Classic environment if you want to run them, you will need to keep a PowerPC-based Mac running Tiger (OS X 10.4), which provides Classic 1.9, as Leopard (10.5) dropped it, and it does not run on Intel-based Macs. Ideal applications for older Macs include streaming non-essential media, and maintaining access to beloved ancient applications which are not available for more recent releases of OS X.

Similar concerns would make it unsuitable for use as your main file server for active or massive files, where its limited bus capacity would also make it a performance liability. Web servers work their hard drives ragged, if they are at all busy, so you would need to replace its drives before putting it into service, making a significant investment in a Mac which could fail irreversibly at any time. Unless you want to offer up a honeypot to hackers, you must keep old models running unsupported versions of OS X well sheltered within your firewall.Īnother major flaw in that plan would be the hit taken by its ageing hardware. Once a hacker discovered which OS and web server software it was running, it would quickly be defaced or taken over completely. First it can run, at the very latest, Leopard (10.5.8), which has accumulated a worrying list of known vulnerabilities since it was last updated. Whilst it is perfectly possible to use an old Power Mac G4 as a web server, you should think very carefully about whether that would invite problems. Rather than consign them to recycling, or filling your loft or storeroom with such museum pieces, you could still find good use for them.

Many Mac models outlast their support, still going strong long after Apple has cut them adrift in terms of both spares supplies and updates to OS X. Why hoard or recycle your old Macs when you could do something useful – but not dangerous – with them?

Install os x el capitan on any unsupported macs