I like my Macs. I had a Bondi iMac. Then moved to one G-4, then two G-4s, then a G-5, and now a 2006 Mac Pro. I also have a 2008 Macbook. An iPhone 4S. I also have one Windows XP pee cee because sometimes you still need pee cee.

It used to be that anything you wanted to buy for your Mac was proprietary and more expensive. Now, replacement hard drives etc. are compatible with both platforms. It is easier to own a Mac today.

But here is my beef with Apple: You pay a premium for Apple's nice hardware designs, but the premium price you pay does not amount to all that much because in about 10 years Apple will label your Mac obsolete. I realize everybody has to make a living but Apple trying to force me to go buy a new Mac for thousands of dollars pisses me off.

In the "old" days, computers were slower. My Bondi iMac was 233 mhz. By today's standards, it was dog slow. The G-3 got faster, the G-4 got faster still. We went to the store and bought the latest gee-whiz Mac or PC because they were getting faster. By 2006, the year of my Mac Pro at 2.6 ghz is as fast as I will ever need. I don't need to replace this 2006 Mac Pro. But Apple is making it harder for me to keep it.

Issue #1) Thanks Apple, but I really prefer to buy a DVD with the latest operation system as opposed to your new way of giving me the latest OS for free. You see, I know what you are doing with this free OS upgrade stuff. You are taking control away from me. I upgraded my 2008 MacBook to OS 10.9, but found out I liked OS 10.8 better, but since I don't have an OS DVD I cannot go back to the earlier system that I like better since you have made that OS installer disappear. With the enticement of "free" upgrades you pulled control of how I use my Mac into your court and I do not have a say in the matter. I'm stuck with 10.9 and cannot go back to 10.8.

Issue #2) Apple, I was really impressed with the sneaky the way you time-bombed my OS 10.7 Lion software installer. But I figured you out and I can play your game. That was real tricky the way you tried to make the think my installer was broken. I wondered if you time-bombed the installer and so I rolled my computer's clock back to make this 2006 Mac Pro look like it was only 9 years old. And when I rolled the clock back I learned my OS 10.7 installer works just fine ( My current install is starting to act up and I am going to be doing another time rollback to re-install OS 10.7 shortly).

Issue #3) My 2006 Mac Pro works just fine, but I see you are starting to break things; Things like your Safari browser that does not work well at all anymore. And I see you have Google Chrome slowly breaking things for my version of Google Chrome, as well. Firefox is not playing your "we want you to upgrade" game. So, I find myself resorting to more Firefox usage. But I feel you will eventually figure out how to make Firefox toe the line and I will have to upgrade (spend more money) to a new Mac just so I can have a browser that works.

Issue #4) Apple, when I needed to buy a new printer, practices you used to try to get me to toss out this perfectly serviceable 2006 Mac Pro are bordering on shameless It was like one month I was shopping for a printer and when I made my decision to buy one month later, the printer manufacturer introduce a brand new line up of printers, and son of a bitch, there were no drivers for OS 10.7 Lion with the new printers. But I beat you at your game; I found the earlier model of the printer, with the drivers I needed, for sale on Amazon.

So, Apple I realize you need to keep the upgrade cycle going but I pay a premium for your products and really do not appreciate how you try to force me to throw away a perfectly good computer. Even if it is 10 years old.

Sorry, man. Mac Pro did not hit the streets until 2006. 11 years old max.

A little more on this "we are going to break your machine because WE NEED you to upgrade:

I'm a good Ebay shopper and recently bought one of those Hewlett-Packard 4600/4670 scanjet scanner so I can scan some play field stuff with that glass-bottomed scanner. That nice scanner that has pretty much been made obsolete by design.

Now, I can get the drivers for XP at HP's website but I really don't even need to do that because the Windows XP system already has the software installed that allows me to make play field scans.

But for the Mac? HP's web site had made all Mac software for this scanner disappear. It is just gone. I suppose I can't blame HP for this because when Apple moved the OS X system from OS 10.6 to OS 10.7, the move to the Intel chips was complete and Rosetta was no longer a needed item. So, a lot of toys got left in the dust when move to Intel chips was complete. the 4600/4670 Scanjet was one of those items to get left behind.

But, dammit to hell, Apple and HP, I beat you at your obsolescence game. You see, I kept my old G-4s hidden away. My Ebay find shipped in with the original discs and I got the drivers I needed. I even have a cart that holds the G-4, keyboard, and monitor and I can roll to anywhere I need and scan whatever the "F" I need without the two of you trying to shut me down .

Here is a patch that may let you update that Macbook.

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/how-install-macos-sierra-on-older-mac-3654960/

No. It is not the same.

It is much easier to get in and manipulate the files on a Mac than on a PC. Granted, if you are PC centric and have studied the PC Koolaid you can get around pretty good. But for novice, or someone who needs to keep his computer tuned up, Pee Cee's don't come close to a Mac. Also granted, Apple is making it somewhat harder to get in there and keep your files tuned up, but Pee Cee's don't cut the mustard in this respect.

For the average user, Macs still just work.

I would like to upgrade my 2006 Mac Pro with the Trashcan, but Apple went to that Thunderbolt connector for the monitor(s) and lost the DVI connectors. I don't think my Apple monitors with the ADC-to-DVI adaptors will work and I'm not sure any monitor with DVI connection would work. I thank would need to buy new monitors for the Trashcan, but not absolutely sure.

Thank you for the information. Actually, I am starting to look at maybe getting a 2012 Mac Pro from Ebay. I know that will work. I have been working with three monitors since I built this rig in 2002. And with a 2012 Mac Pro I could probably keep working and surfing and not lose my 3 monitor set-up. Actually, you can now buy curved monitors but they are smaller than what I have. I would lose the separations between the monitors that I now have but I don't want to lose the size.

But with your information I m going to start looking at HDMI to Thunderbolt adaptors. Thanks again.

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