How to Make Using a Mac Affordable

So you're interested in getting a Mac, but you don't know where to start and you're on a tight budget? Well, fortunately you have plenty of options. Despite what Tim Cook and the Apple Marketing department would have you believe, you don't actually need to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on that shiny, new, non-upgradeable, non-repairable Mac. In fact, if you play your cards right you could get a pretty decent machine for very little — or even no — money! "How?" I hear you ask. Well, join me and I shall teach you my ways.

Getting Started

So how can you get into using a Mac for next to nothing? Two words: grand larceny... I mean, used Macs!

For someone trying to get their hands on an Apple computer, whether it be a MacBook, an iMac, or a Mac Pro, you'd be well served to focus on the used market. Depending on where you live, the year of the device, and the demand for them you can find them on sites like eBay and Facebook Marketplace for as low as $125. If you’re a bit more technical and you can be careful, you can get non-working Macs for even cheaper — or even free — and try to repair them.

However, while these sites make it easy to guarantee you'll find something, it's not always the best deal. For that you should check thrift stores, pawn shops, garage and estate sales where you'll often find really good deals on this kind of stuff (even if it's not a whole computer). For example, about a year and a half ago I picked up an Apple USB keyboard and a puck mouse from an old PowerMac G3 or G4 at my local Goodwill for $5.00. Those usually go for up to $50.00 on eBay!

With all of that said, I've found incredible success in just talking to people. You see, if you're into computers — and especially retro computers — people will sometimes just give you their old machines, software, and gadgets because they don't want them anymore. Sometimes you end up with a total nugget, like the Elonex Websurfer…

The Elonex Websurfer, widely regarded as one of the worst netbooks of all time. Photo courtesy of CNET.

...and sometimes you end up with a PowerMac G3, an iMac, or a Mac Pro!

One of the C-Suite executives at my last job dropped her old 2007 iMac off in my office. I was also given a PowerMac G3 Minitower, a PowerMac G3 Blue & White, and a 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 that were on their way to the trash.

In fact, that is how I've built my collection to this point. In sharing my interest in old computers, I've had multiple people offer their old devices to me simply to get rid of what they viewed as outdated garbage.

Things to Watch For

Now if you're going to go down the route of picking up a used Mac -- or any kind of computer for that matter -- there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Is this a fair price? Shop around. Go on eBay, search for what you are looking at, then filter the results by sold items to get an idea of what that device is typically selling for. If it's an in person pickup kind of a thing, you may even be able to get a better deal by just asking the seller if they'd take less, especially because eBay prices tend to be on the higher end.

2. What condition is it in? Is it dirty? Is it scuffed up? Are there broken pieces of plastic or dents in the aluminum case? Are there dead components like optical drives or anything like that? If so, it’s perfectly reasonable to ask for less (assuming it’s not already a really low price). Of course, if the thing has been taken care of and cleaned, I wouldn’t insult the seller by asking for less than a reasonable price. Also, if you’re picking it up in person, ask to test it before completing the transaction.

3. Are there common issues with what you're looking at? Each Mac is going to be different, and they each have their own issues. Intel Macs run hot. PowerPC Macs are severely limited in what you can do outside of retro gaming and general enthusiast stuff. M-series Macs are new and expensive. Older Intel Macs are not officially supported and usually don’t have the really nice screens. Newer Intel and Apple Silicon Macs lack adequate port selection, and depending on the year of the device you may be stuck with that terrible butterfly keyboard. You won’t find a perfect Mac because the perfect Mac doesn’t exist. Do your research and figure out what you want and need, then make your best decision. To help with that, consider the next few things.

4. How difficult is it to upgrade the machine? Can you upgrade at all? Some Macs you can, and some you can’t. If you can upgrade the Mac you want, how expensive are the components? Most of the time, older Macs can upgrade the memory and hard drive pretty easily. Also, that memory is usually pretty cheap — but not always. For instance, the RAM upgrade I want for my Mac Pro 1,1 is over $250 USD… for a computer from 2006! Speaking of RAM…

5. What is the ACTUAL maximum RAM upgrade you can do? When you look at Apple’s spec sheets on their upgradeable computers, you will see what the maximum RAM is for that machine. The thing is, they’re dirty liars who want to artificially limit your upgrade options, so you have to buy a more expensive SKU for a better spec! For example, take my 2012 MacBook Pro. According to Apple, that machine maxes out at 8 GB of DDR4 RAM. However, I learned from EveryMac that the ACTUAL maximum is 16 GB, which obviously makes a huge difference! Finally…

6. What are your deal breakers? What sacrifices are a bridge too far? Do you want to use it for normal tasks like web browsing? The older Macs are probably not going to serve you well as they lack the software, you’d need for that. Are you a writer, or just somebody who cares about a nice typing experience? You should probably avoid MacBooks from 2015-2017, MacBook Airs from 2018 and 2019, and MacBook Pros from 2016-2019 which were the years of the butterfly switches. Are you wanting the full ecosystem experience? Well, a lot of older Macs — from my experience — are having issues with iCloud syncing, so it’s possible that your iPhone won’t be able to talk and share with your Mac the way you want it to. The big idea here is simple: know what you want and do your research!

Operating Systems

To me, one benefit of using an older Mac is getting to use older software and to have a kind of “time capsule” experience. However, most people aren’t weird like me. Most people want to be able to use their computer for day-to-day tasks in order to be entertained and just get stuff done. If that’s you, you might be thinking an older Mac is off the table, but if you still want something older (and cheaper) you do have options here.

Sometimes you’ll get lucky and be able to squeeze some modern life out of that aging macOS or OS X install, like the time I got a modern-enough version of Firefox to run on Mac OS X “Mavericks”. However, as time goes on, that will become more and more unlikely. A better option that is still pretty simple to implement is to install another operating system on the hardware.

Windows

Modern versions of Windows, like Windows 10 and maybe even 11, can run on most Macs from the last 10-15 years pretty well with the right hardware upgrades. Of course, drivers are an issue, but thanks to Apple’s Boot Camp from their Intel years, you just need to download the latest Boot Camp software and run it on Windows from a USB drive. However, keep in mind that the system requirements for Windows 11 may prohibit this as an option, and Windows 10 will reach end of life next year (2025).

Linux

Of course, the best option, if you’re not locked into proprietary software like Adobe’s Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office, etc., is probably to try installing Linux on your Mac. Your mileage will vary depending on which distribution you choose to install, but in my time running Linux on Mac hardware these distributions have always had the best results when it came to compatibility:

• Any of the Ubuntu flavors; especially the standard Gnome, Kubuntu, and MATE versions

• Linux Mint

• Pop_OS!

• Arch Linux

Basically, you want a distro that makes it easy to enable proprietary driver support and third-party codecs out of the gate. Even then, however, you may find your Wi-Fi not working at first.

Other Alternative Operating Systems

Of course, Linux isn’t the only “alternative OS” that you can install. There are the BSDs, Haiku, etc., but heaven help you if you’re going to try to run them natively as your sole OS. I’ve tried with Haiku Beta 3 and the FreeBSD-based helloSystem in the past, and it just wasn’t worth the time it took to install it. But who knows? Maybe you’ll have a better experience than I did.

Upgrade to a Modern macOS

The best option for someone wanting to get into the Apple ecosystem on a budget is to upgrade their aging Mac to the latest macOS version. While this is the most obvious solution, I put it last here because it’s also the most involved. You see, macOS versions are killed off and support is dropped within a few years of the newer versions being released and Apple doesn’t look back. Similarly, hardware support is far shorter than what you’d see with a Linux or Windows system.

Once again, consider my 2012 MacBook Pro. The machine released with Mac OS X, 10.8, “Mountain Lion”. It was officially supported until was moved from Apple’s Vintage list to its Obsolete list back in 2020. The last version of macOS it could run, according to Apple, was macOS 10.15 “Catalina” which came out in 2019. However, I am currently running macOS 12.5 “Monterey” and the latest version I know I can install on it is “Sonoma” which came out last fall.

To do this, you have to patch your Mac using a wonderful tool called OpenCore Legacy Patcher. It’s basically a boot loader that tricks the operating system into thinking your older machine has passed all of its hardware checks. OCLP isn’t perfect. There are sometimes issues when running modern macOS on unsupported hardware. For instance, my MacBook Pro predates the Metal-supported GPUs, so I lack the ability to render certain graphical things properly. Also, modern macOS is a lot higher in the resource requirements, and so your Mac may run a bit hotter at times. It may also be slower due to the hardware, but again, if you do your upgrades, it isn’t too bad.

If you can live with those tradeoffs, and you have the cojones to patch your system and install a much newer OS, then you will have a modern system that can:

• Run modern software

• Access the modern App Store

• Visit and use modern websites

• Properly sync with iCloud, and

• Use most of the inter-device features with your iPhone and iPad

Software Options

The last things I wanted to mention have to do with your software choices. If you want to go with something like Linux, or stick with a slightly out of date macOS which limits your access to the App Store, then maybe consider utilizing FOSS to fix your broken macOS experience.

• Can’t get modern iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) or Microsoft Office for Mac to install from the App Store? Try LibreOffice, FreeOffice, or any of the other FOSS office suites out there.

• Or better yet, go install Homebrew on the system (macOS-only) and install the software you want from the terminal.

• Can’t get iCloud to sync your notes down? Switch to Simplenote or Joplin on the Mac and your phone to sync between them.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even try making your own FOSS iCloud alternative — which is something I plan to do later this year when I have some time to do it. You can self-host or cloud-host something like NextCloud and maybe couple it with something like Syncthing and see how it goes!

Conclusion

To me, using old computers and old operating systems is a fun hobby but I also see it as a way to keep A LOT of e-waste out of the landfills. Many of these machines (both Macs and PCs) still have plenty to offer as daily drivers or as dedicated media/storage/backup devices. For example, that big old 2006 Mac Pro I showed earlier is currently under my desk acting as a media, file, print, and FTP server for our local home network. It works great, can be reached by Windows, Mac, and Linux clients, and serves as a nice bridge to my older Mac OS 9 and Windows 98 machines (these use FTP to get stuff on and off).

The moral of this meandering story is simple: you don’t need the latest and greatest, new shiny toys to have a solid workstation. Save yourself some money, help the environment, learn some things, and have some fun in the process.

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