[shrek]

I decided to try it on my 2009 MacBook Pro 15 inch (model 5,3). I used the DosDude1 patch tool and it was extremely simple. Surprisingly enough everything works. Only issue is that login times are a little slow (like 20-30 seconds even on an SSD). All hardware works though, and I've seen no UI glitches or other problems. iCloud, Facetime, and everything else works. Sleep, trackpad, WLAN, Bluetooth work as well. Ticking the box for the APFS boot patch allows me to use APFS. 

It would appear that Apple's support limitations are completely artificial. Anyone else have an old Mac and want to try this out?

[Irinikus]

Does it run as fluidly as Mojave did?

I would agree that part of the reason why Apple would drop official support for old systems, would be to entice you to buy one of their newer systems, but I also believe that Apple wants there systems to run properly, as a poorly running machine would be bad for them from a business point of view.

For example, if someone who had never used a Mac before tried out a system struggling to run it's OS, they would immediately have a bad impression of Apple, not knowing that the machine was simply struggling due to the fact that it was older hardware tying to run the latest software.

You even see this with SGI machines. (It's better to run older versions of IRIX on older machines, as they simply run better when running a version that's more inline with their hardware capability.)

[Jacques]

My 5,1 MacPro with GTX 680 isn't supported, how is this less powerful and capable than my supported mid 2012 13" Macbook Pro? It's to try and force people to buy new hardware. I'll take my cMP to Mojave next year then move to a Mini in a few years...if they're still making hardware...

[Irinikus]

Why wouldn’t they still be making hardware?

I was initially disappointed by the look of their new design, but after a bit of thought, I can’t see any system that’s better designed, of course that’s only my opinion though.

[Jacques]

Why wouldn’t they still be making hardware?

I was initially disappointed by the look of their new design, but after a bit of thought, I can’t see any system that’s better designed, of course that’s only my opinion though.

I suspect they will revert to their own chipset and cpu designs and start moving away from traditional laptops / desktops in favour of touchscreen devices. I don't see these touchscreen devices as true creative productivity hardware, I see iPads and iPhones as consumer gadgets. I have a huge gripe with 1 year turn cycle disposable hardware, which iPhones and iPads are essentially, they are engineered to become obsolete in a year or two. 

Maybe I'm just getting old and don't like the fact you can't truly upgrade / repair most current Apple hardware.

[Raion]

I'm sticking with High Sierra on my 2011 Mini - probably gonna sell that when i can find an i7 2012 or 2014 cheap

[shrek]

Irinikus I get what you're saying here. With the stock hardware (2-4GB RAM and mechanical disk) these machines would not be able to run Mojave or Catalina. However, when you bump the RAM up to 8GB and install a SSD the experience is pretty comfortable. Obviously not anywhere near as fast or snappy as a brand new machine but it's still pretty close when it comes to simple stuff like web browsing, email, spreadsheets. The more reasonable thing to do would be to put up a warning message on the installer telling users to upgrade those pieces of hardware if they want to install the latest macOS version, rather than dropping support entirely.

[Raion]

Or better yet, include a check for RAM, CPU, graphics card config etc. That would be smarter.

[SuicideK]

I agree with Shrek that it is mostly artificial. I say this posting on a MacBook Pro 2010 model running a patched Catalina install. The SSD upgrade for the older MacBook Pros (also maxing out the RAM) makes them extremely usable in a modern OS. Most things that I do (not a gamer) never max out the CPUs on any of my machines. I however do prefer Mojave since 1) It has actual Mac Pro 5,1 support 2) It feels lighter and snappier on machines 3) Most of the Catalina changes I don't use.

I actually took this machine to my work hackathon and did all my Docker and Kubernetes work on it instead of my 2017 HP Windows 7 elite book. No issues besides it kinda being a heavy machine.

[shrek]

I did the Catalina upgrade on my MacBook and hackintosh desktop since I have an iPad and wanted to use Sidecar. Well I patched Sidecar and it works when tethered but it’s not great. The picture is very fuzzy and it barely works. My girlfriend has a 2018 model and the results with that were the same. I have no idea why Apple would advertise this as a feature. Nice idea but not worth it. Otherwise Catalina is pretty fast and looks nice, so guess there’s that.