Early Intel - Trash or treasure? MacBook Pro 2008

[chaosbunny]

What was "good" in 2008 is laughable in 2022, what is good in 2022 will be laughable in 2036. And so on. It's always been like that.

Like you mentioned in another thread, the wheel is slowing down. A computer from 2008 is a lot more useful today than a computer from 1994 in 2008 - in terms of doing contemporary stuff.

I like to compare this to the development of airplanes. There were the Wright brothers followed by huge improvements in world war one and two. Then there were the first jetplanes by the end of the 1940ies. But afterwards? The commercial plane design has not changed much since the 1970ies. The F18 is still relevant today.

As much as manufacturers try to fight it with planned obsolescence, I think we are at a point where computer design can be considered "mature". There is definitely a lot less difference between my 2019 MacBook Pro and my 2010 MacBook than between my 2010 MacBook and my 1999 iBook.

 

[bobesch]

If you came here to necromance a thread

This thread is IMHO the essence of what made the "Early Intel Macs" subforum come to life!
So I'm very glad to see it revived, even if this is from a mocking-bird ...
Actually it's worth to get pinned at the top-section of this subforum!

 

[bobesch]

What was "good" in 2008 is laughable in 2022, what is good in 2022 will be laughable in 2036. And so on. It's always been like that.

Finally I was forced to move from my early-intel daily driver (17"early2008 MBP4,1) to a mid2012 15" MBP9,1.
I miss the 17"MBP with it's georgeous display and the whole lot of 5USB-ports (two of them USB3 via PCExpressCard). It's still by my side, but unfortunately rarely in use.
Ok, if it comes to 4k+ video editing and that sort of stuff, it cannot cope.
But it's a shame, that web-ads/background "spying"-traffic, discontinued support of cloud-connectivity drives very capable hardware obsolete ...

We have to buy the latest and fastest hardware, cause web/cloud/streaming-support has stopped working, and we are supposed to abandon our capable old hardware - just to be able to stream postapocalyptic movies, where the hero creates life-supporting technology by using that precious old stuff, about we are told to dump it just now ...
How sick is that!?

 

[Amethyst1]

What was "good" in 2008 is laughable in 2022, what is good in 2022 will be laughable in 2036. And so on. It's always been like that.

I'd like to clarify that the above statement was not my personal opinion. It was meant as a gentle reminder that specs need to be seen in perspective and it makes no sense to fault older hardware for being a child of its time.

Like you mentioned in another thread, the wheel is slowing down. A computer from 2008 is a lot more useful today than a computer from 1994 in 2008 - in terms of doing contemporary stuff.

I and the several Core 2 Duo Macs I'm still keeping alive fully agree.

 

[bwillwall]

...Just so I'm clear, older computers ARE slower then?

 

[bobesch]

...Just so I'm clear, older computers ARE slower then?

Yep! It's like if You get older and everyday technology gets more and more bloated and complicated.
Then You'll be slower too.
But for sure even then You will bind Your shoe-laces as fast as ever!

 

[chaosbunny]

...Just so I'm clear, older computers ARE slower then?

Depends on the task. Editing and grading 4k material in DaVinci Resolve or developing raws in Lightroom, sure! Browsing or posting on this site, not really.

 

[B S Magnet]

Depends on the task. Editing and grading 4k material in DaVinci Resolve or developing raws in Lightroom, sure! Browsing or posting on this site, not really.

Yeah, that’d do it in a real hurry.