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Post date: November 18, 2023
This is my timeline for how long a Mac lasts, and that being 10+ years. I'm writing this while I own two Macs for as long as possible. We have both a MacBookPro14,1 (2017) and a Macmini9,1 (m1, 2020). I purchased the Mac Mini back last year while my partner has had this MacBook Pro since it released in 2017! She currently uses the mini while I use the MacBook Pro since I enjoy the portability and she prefers having a real mouse! This also gives me a good oportunity to get the most out of this computer.
The timeline is basedon how long you've owned said computer.
For the first ten years, the Mac should be completely usable, even if it's not on the latest version of macOS. For instance, our MBP has been used for 6 years, meaning we have 4 more years of use out of it, all the way until 2027! Unfortunately macOS won't support this computer by then since they are transitioning to their ARM Macs and the last "official" supported version is macOS 13 Ventura (though you can install Sonoma (14) and theoretically the next version of macOS assuming it's not ARM only.
As for our MM, we won't have to go to the next step until 2032! With how powerful these ARM Macs are we might use it for much longer assuming Apple doesn't do some planned obsolescence :p
This is where more nerdy stuff comes along... We use this old mac as a server! The use of this server depends on whatever you wanna use it for! Linux on this model of MBP is pretty iffy as we don't have sound or bluetooth support, but everything else should run perfectly fine! I would most likely install Ubuntu 26.04 since that'll be the latest Long Term Support release available. They offer about 10 years of software support so I wouldn't haven't to upgrade through different releases unless there's something that I'd absolutely want!
The main thing I'd most likely run on this server if I had to do it right now would be web, git, and music. While I would try and do something like video through jellyfin, I don't think this MBP is that powerful enough without being very very very hot.
Now the timeline suggests that after 10 years we'll make use of our older computers as servers... so the MBP would only be a server for 3 years and then when the MM is 10 years old it'll be a sevrer? If that's what happens, then yes! We would either utilize two servers and have all the lighter software on the MBP and the more intensive things like a media server on the MM, or we might just recycle or sell the MBP since the MM is pretty powerful. The only problem with the MM running as a server is that GPU acceleration isn't available as of the time of writing (November 18, 2023), but in nine years I bet it'll be all sorted out (and if not, server software can run in macOS, it would just be a bit odd since I've never used macOS as a server operating system...
I honestly don't know what we would do with our Macs after 20 years of owning them. By the time the MBP hits 20, I'll be in my mid 30s and for the MM I'll be 40 and I don't know where I'll be by then. Hopefully the world wouldn't blow up. But it's fun to speculate, right?
Assuming the internals of either of the Macs are holding up, it'll still be doing the same server stuff as usual. Maybe there'll be addons to the MM since the storage is a bit lacking (maybe install some Direct Attached Storage [DAS] with a bunch of SSDs?)
I'll update this page as life goes along... Hopefully I do a little bit for what I plan to do with these Macs.
TBD in all honesty :3