What are the worst tech purchases you or your family have ever made?

I watched a video recently and wanted to know what other have bought over the years.

  • BJW@lemmus.org
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    6 hours ago

    I bought a MacBook Pro for iOS development. It was alright until Apple decided to exclude it from future OS updates, preventing me from using it for it’s sole purpose, and forcing me to either buy a new one or stop developing iOS apps. Guess which one I chose. There is nothing wrong with the hardware, it’s still got a 2TB SSD, 16GB of RAM and 16-core CPU but apparently Apple thought they could make more money off of me by intentionally barring it from updates to force me to buy a new one, rather than simply allowing me to install MacOS updates. They were wrong.

    • Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      There is a patch to update macOS when it’s not compatible. One I have used before is from dosdude1.

      You can also put Linux on it, or dual boot. Older Intel Macs I remember being really wasy, the T2 Mac’s need special drivers but it’s not too hard, and the new Mac’s have ashai Linux.

      • djdarren@piefed.social
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        1 hour ago

        It’s Opencore Legacy Patcher these days. A remarkable tool really.

        I used it to run up to Sequoia on a couple of old Macs, which I’ve ended up just putting Linux on instead. But if you’re an iOS dev, then OCLP is a decent shout.

        That said, we’re only a year or two away from macOS dropping Intel support entirely, and that’ll be the end for OCLP.

      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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        2 hours ago

        I thought Mac development had to come signed from one of their OSs though? Maybe I’m wrong. Have never owned one.

    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      What even model and year is it? They support the things for a very long time. I’ve got a 2011 that still works great but it’s getting Linux on it cuz they’ll run better in it than any version of Windows or OXS. 500GB SSD, 16GB RAM, i7 of some sort. Love it.

      • djdarren@piefed.social
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        58 minutes ago

        I’ve got a 2011 MBP running Debian that is about to be put into service as a backup for my Nextcloud server, which is being hosted on 2014 mini that’s also running Debian. That one is my general purpose home server, running things like Navidrome, Mealie, Grimmory, Jellyfin, etc…

        Then I’ve also got a 2011 mini running Mint, which I took to work to use solely for giving presentations for teaching competencies.

        Those old Macs are resilient computers.