Old Tech no longer updates.

A 2009 MacBook Pro is basically 17 years old at this point. Is it not reasonable to upgrade to a newer model now?

How long were you expecting it to last?

For a fairly cheap alternative, and if you want to stay with an Intel Mac, a 2019 or so Mac would work can run the most current macOS version. Unless you need the portability of a laptop, a Mac Mini or older iMac may work at a lower price. Under $300 for these on eBay and the like.

Also, at that age you're likely still running 32 bit apps, so you may want to start looking for app replacements that can work on newer macOS versions.

For the iPad Pro, the oldest it can be is a 2015 model. 2020 models can be bought for fairly cheap these days (around 200 to 300 bucks) and can still run the current iPadOS version.

Outside of newer devices, your options are extremely limited. You won't one able to simply force software to work on old hardware.

If you do choose Ebay, make sure the Macs and the iPads are correctly restored and ready to set up again, otherwise you may encounter activation lock.

Usual path is looking at your current and likely future requirements and your trends, at the apps available for those requirements, then at the platforms and hosting services that can run those necessary apps, and then selecting. Tasks, then apps, then platforms, then budget, then purchase.

Here? Replacement newer or new hardware yes, selecting other apps with support for this ~16 year old gear, the Mac is 64-bit and can run Linux, one of the BSDs, and other options and then that with the apps available there, hosted Mac services from various vendors, and other hosted apps and services for other platforms.

For prolonging the gear and uunlike Mac x86-64, iPad has basically no options short of replacement, as it ages out of your necessary apps. Mac on Apple silicon can have a few more options for third-party operating systems, but third-party operating system support for Apple silicon is thin.

weavehole1 wrote:

I have an iPad pro 12.9 and a MacBookPro Mid 2009. They still work but no longer accept updates, this now means various software I use no longer work.

What are my options here?

(I’m assuming buying replacements is one of them but of course would love to avoid spending huge amounts of money)

Mid-2009 MacBook Pros shipped with Mac OS X 10.5.7 (Leopard) or Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). They can't run anything later than Mac OS X 10.11.6 (El Capitan).

The version of Firefox which runs on El Capitan is so old that Mozilla stopped providing "critical security updates" for it in October 2021 – more than four years ago. (See: Mozilla Support – Firefox Mac OS X 10.9, 10.10 and 10.11 users move to Extended Support Release). Given its age, it might have issues with rendering modern Web pages that go beyond the issue of security. (It's based on Firefox 78; the current version is 147.0.1.)

You might be able to download an archived, unsupported version of LibreOffice that will work on El Capitan (See: The Document Foundation Wiki – Documentation / System Requirements).

Realistically, it's time to replace the MBP. Sixteen and a half years is a good run.

Servant of Cats wrote:

In the current Mac lineup, the most likely candidates would be

• 13" and 15" MacBook Airs with plain M4 chips

• 14" MacBook Pros with plain M5 chips

All of these will run rings around a mid-2009 MBP in terms of CPU performance, …

And to provide data on the sizes of those rings run ‘round…

MacBook Pro mid 2009 was available in three models: 13”, 15”, and 17”, and with Intel Core 2 processor variants available.

Picking random instances of each screen size without regard to which Intel Core 2 variant, here are the single and multi-core performance scores, respectively:

13”: 249 and 322

15”: 183 and 365

17”: 338 and 454

Here’s a MacBook Pro 16” 2024 M4 14-core:

3951 and 22816

And MacBook Pro M5 (Mac17,2) 10-core:

4280 and 17894

Which makes M4 and M5 slightly faster than a Core 2, for values of “slight” that can exceed 10x.

It is the developer of the software that determines what OS versions they want to continue to support. It may help to know the OS versions on your device and the software you are looking to update. I assume both of your devices are updated to the latest OS version available when looking in Settings for Software Update.

Microsoft and some other companies are known to support only the last 3 OS versions and document that on their websites. Independant App Developers are less likely to have any specific policy and choose whatever they want for a minimum OS version.

weavehole1 wrote:

(I’m assuming buying replacements is one of them but of course would love to avoid spending huge amounts of money)

In the current Mac lineup, the most likely candidates would be

• 13" and 15" MacBook Airs with plain M4 chips
• 14" MacBook Pros with plain M5 chips

All of these will run rings around a mid-2009 MBP in terms of CPU performance, maximum RAM capacity, startup drive speed, interface speed, display support, and applications availability. The M4 MacBook Airs have a minimal port selection; the M5 MacBook Pro has more ports and a fancier mini-LED backlit screen.