I have a mid 2010 5.1 Mac Pro that has served me wonderfully since new. The only real changes have been more ram, added SSD and a Metal enabled graphics card, so it can run Mojave. Last year I bought a new mini and the Mac Pro has become the backup machine, though still in regular use.
I have some concerns going forward about the security risks on these old machines, given that Apple will likely stop security patches for Mojave in a few months, but I look around and seem to be in a minority thinking about the security risks on these older computers. Many are updating to newer OS versions using unofficial patches, however I gather that also entails compromises and even with Mojave I cannot enable file vault like I have on the mini. Another point is that Intel has not updated the microcode on these machines for quite a while now.
Some are using even older Mac Pros that are still running El Capitan with the outdated TLS version in Mail and seemingly oblivious to any risks. Perhaps I am being a little paranoid, but these days we keep so much information on our computers and I question the continued wisdom of using such old computers.
My original plan was to use the Mac Pro purely as an offline production machine for certain tasks, but I wonder how practical that is in reality. The work I do makes it more or less essential to have a second computer and it's very useful synching work data over iCloud, so you don't want any weak links. The irony is that I could theoretically run Windows 10 with all the latest patches but that would make it much less useful to me.
Any thoughts on the continued safe use of these older Mac Pros?
I have some concerns going forward about the security risks on these old machines, given that Apple will likely stop security patches for Mojave in a few months, but I look around and seem to be in a minority thinking about the security risks on these older computers. Many are updating to newer OS versions using unofficial patches, however I gather that also entails compromises and even with Mojave I cannot enable file vault like I have on the mini. Another point is that Intel has not updated the microcode on these machines for quite a while now.
Some are using even older Mac Pros that are still running El Capitan with the outdated TLS version in Mail and seemingly oblivious to any risks. Perhaps I am being a little paranoid, but these days we keep so much information on our computers and I question the continued wisdom of using such old computers.
My original plan was to use the Mac Pro purely as an offline production machine for certain tasks, but I wonder how practical that is in reality. The work I do makes it more or less essential to have a second computer and it's very useful synching work data over iCloud, so you don't want any weak links. The irony is that I could theoretically run Windows 10 with all the latest patches but that would make it much less useful to me.
Any thoughts on the continued safe use of these older Mac Pros?