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Laptops · Apple MacBook

Apple MacBook 2008

5owners with an opinion
80%of verdicts positive
1/1positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for reliability and repairability; criticized for noise.

What people wrote

Doesn’t like it
Just am, granted my app is basic JavaScript/Electron but yeah, I get these compulsions to buy old tech and use em. Like I bought 3 different ASUS Eee PC laptops and got pydantic ai to run on em with Python. It took hours to build the python wheels. The 2008 MacBook has a weird smell, it has a new battery but yeah. thought it was perfume from the old owner but I guess it's a thing with these laptops. I do have to use i3 though, Ubuntu's desktop freezes for a few seconds then continues on the Macbook.
Likes itStill going
Thing I hare about the Air is no internal fan. The Macbook Pro has them so if you do anything intensive like AI inference you have actual airflow. Additional point since you are considering Mac Minis. My wifes 2008 and 2010 Macbooks (the 2010 is a Pro) still turn on and run the OS just fine. I swapped the drive on the 2010 but its because she dropped it ages ago. Thats 16 years for the 2010, and 18 years for the 2008. I cant find a single Windows laptop that has lasted me this long EXCEPT the ones I installed Linux on. Something about *NIX literally saves your hardware lifespan.
Likes it
I use old PC and Mac because it continues to work. I also have an old Macbook (2008) that I wish I could repair, so I could continue using it. While the old macbook doesn't run modern software, it ran Linux well, and it would've been fine running Home Assistant, web servers, NAS with Thunderbolt2/3, etc. I'd hate seeing old computers go to e-waste, if I could just fix it cheaply. Also, I might've run some classic software that is no longer supported on modern system, like old Adobe Photoshop that ran without subscription, and classic games as well.
Likes it
I still use my 2008 MacBook with GNU/Linux and FreeBSD on it. It does all my web browsing tasks, and most stuff runs fine on it even with it's limited 2.5GB ram. I guess OS X is pretty heavy-weight.. The 2014 MacBook Pro should be fairly usable even now with these OSes instead.