Worth buying a 2006 Mac Pro for basic surfing etc now?

[monkeybagel]

Don't bet on that.

" ... Firefox requires an Intel processor and Mac OS X 10.5 or above up to Firefox 16, Mac OS X 10.6 or above from Firefox 17. See all System Requirements. If you use an old Mac OS version, see Firefox no longer works with Mac OS X 10.4 or PowerPC processors or Firefox no longer works with Mac OS X 10.5 for help. ... "
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-mac


Firefox doesn't live in the past forever. If look at the systems requirements part for Mac... Currently it is.

"...
Operating Systems

Mac OS X 10.6
Mac OS X 10.7
Mac OS X 10.8
...."

A span of 3. Which is exactly what I'm pointing out. When Apple adds 10.9 the span from 10.6-10.9 is going to be 4 inclusive of both of those endpoints. By the time 10.10 comes that is 5.

There is not alot of good rational behind patching up apps on top of an OS that has been desupported. If closing the hole involves getting from cooperation from the OS libraries then that is a dead end. Teams with resources to blow away (or a cadre of stuck in time volunteers ) eventually those folks will be forked off it they remain still ( e.g., TenFour fox ).






Actually not. Most malware is targeted at already researched and available holes. (i.e, there is a larger group exploiting the holes than in trying to find new ones). Those are much more often in older systems. Especially those not getting patches.

I don't think anyone knows how long 10.6 will continue to be support as I am unaware of an official support policy from Apple. I think about the time 10.6 is EOL, 10.7 will not be far behind either, simply because it only had a one year lifespan, and was followed up by Mountain Lion. With the exception of a few of these older machines that may be limited to 10.7, they may support it a little while longer, but I don't expect it.

I think it would be silly to connect 10.6 directly to the internet and not behind a NAT device unless the firewall is on. Apple also disables outdated Java and Flash Player to keep this kind of stuff from happening. The bottom line is, malware has all be social engineering up to this point, and no trojans or replicating viruses have been widespread enough, if they exist, to get enough attention. Since Java and Flash is probably 90% of how web browsing infects a machine, I still think it would be pretty much safe. Much safer than doing banking on an Android device for sure