Q: How new a machine do I need?

I have a Late 2008 MacBook, upgraded to 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, running Mavericks. It seems pretty zippy to me.  According to Apple it could also run El Cpitan but I don't want to try it yet (just transitioned last week from Tiger OS).

I have a MacBook Pro Early 2011.

I upgraded to 8GB and changed the Hard Drive to a 500 GB SSD.

I is really fast now and runs everything.

However, I must add that I am eagerly awaiting the new MacBook Pros which will hopefully be released sometime this year with the new Skylake chip.

Be careful about speculating on Apple products that have not been publicly announced if not fully released.

That is one point moderators take seriously.

Yes, I see your point.

I tried to edit the comment, but I guess it was too late.

Thanks very much for the advice.

You are safe with "I am waiting and hoping a new and faster system comes out this year" because it is generic and unspecific.

By that I mean so that the hardware would not be incompatible with current software too soon.

This is nebulous, there's no set rule and even general patterns are changing.  It used to be a computer might be able to run most software for about 10 years after manufacture.  Take my G4 produced in 2002 for OS9/OSX 10.0. The last OS upgrade it could take was 10.5 in 2007. Software continued to support 10.5 for a while.  iTunes 10.6.3 in 2012 was the final release and was finally supplanted buy iTunes 11 in 2014.  So that's 12 years of effective iTunes use.  That is actually a pretty good run for a computer. Look at the latest iTunes release which basically dropped all pre mid-2008 computers.  That's now 8 years. For my G4 it also required being able to update hardware and newer Macs can't do that. If you buy a newer used one and the person didn't buy it configured with more RAM than they needed at the time (expensive compared to old days of third party RAM) then you're likely to be squeezed for RAM in an OSX release or two.  Apple's official take on hardware support is 5 years, so already at that time they are slowly dropping software support for older models. Some software releases may continue for a while and iTunes tends to be one of the longest.

So you decide on what you mean by "too soon" and how much you need "current software".  Frankly although I just upgraded this 2008 MacBook to run Mavericks I still only use iTunes 7.5 because I don't see the need to automatically upgrade to the latest and "best" just because somebody tells me to.

My 2011 system still runs strong, with RAM maxed and I can replace the HD/SSD without issue.  But I have owned it from the beginning and know its history.

2012 models can change RAM and HD/SSD (non Retina units).  Should still be safe enough to run, provided you trust it is in good shape still.

I happen to be in agreement  with Limnos. I have a 2010 Macbook which can run 16 GB of memory and a SSD drive. I can run any operating system from Snow Leopard to El Capitan if i want to. And it is plenty fast enough. it has some small cracks and blemishes on it. So it's not as pretty as new. But I can run the operating system I need for the apps I run.

Hi everyone, I think this is concerning my wifes problem.  Me being a kindly soul gave her my old MacBook Pro a couple of years ago as I bought myself a new one (selfish Ha).

Problem is being an older Mac 2006, when we went to update from Snow Leopard 10.6.8 to Mountain Lion it wouldn't let us, so we just soldiered on with it as is.  Today our printer went belly-up, got a new HP printer but won't load onto anything less than 10.8 e.g. Mountian Lion or younger.

Is there anything we can do like upgrading some hardware or is it time to bin it?

Your computer is only able to be upgraded to Lion. That would not help if the new printer needs Mountain Lion or newer.

Thanks for that Ginger.  It actually said 10.8.  I assumed it was Mountain Lion, in fact I didn't know that there was a Lion.  Not too computer savvy.  So if 10.8 = Lion where can I get that from?

Fingers crossed!

10.6 Snow Leoaprd

10.7 Lion

10.8 Mountain Lion

10.9 Mavericks

10.10 Yosemite

10.11 El Capitan

Apple will give you a download code for $19.99 for the App Store: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion?fnode=aecfe3e692deed3591a6a 26ea11f9ece1e92a0a0556a151e96b721702d8ed…

From the search I have done it appears that Lion = 10.7 & that 10.8 = Mountain Lion.  Sad!

So we have just purchased this HP Envy 4524 All-in-One, is there a work-around so the older system can use it?