A decade of writing on the same Macbook

A decade, really?

Being able to use the same laptop for over a decade should not really demand a post. But, given how devices are considered "old" in just 3-5 years these days, I feel compelled to write something from this same device. This is mostly a reminder to myself, lest I forget of this possibility.

Now, you might immediately notice the dated Monterey running on it. Unfortunately, this is the final major version of macOS supported on the device. But, it really only EOL-ed half a year ago.

Technically speaking, I got around 9.5 years of continuous software updates on this device. I think that's pretty remarkable.

The beginning of Macbooks for me

I had been introduced to Fedora & Ubuntu Linux around 2005/2006 and basically had started using it full time on my PC, though I did keep switching distros a lot. I have strong memories of device drivers crashing all the time. Back then, it wasn't as much of a smooth ride to use Linux as it is these days.

Around 2008, one of my friends got the White plastic Macbook and it just seemed so much more prettier & "stable". Influenced by that, I got my first Macbook in 2009, just before I went abroad for my Masters studies. Macbooks were of course, rather expensive so this first device wasn't really fully spec-ed. I just got something that would get me by for the duration of my studies.

For a personal portable device, I have never looked back again. That laptop easily carried me over for the next 5 years. The 2009 model was fairly self upgradeable, so I did max out the specs for disk and memory before selling it sometime around 2014. By then, I was already working at a startup that provided me a Macbook Air as a personal device.

This current device - Macbook Pro (Early 2015)

In spring of 2015, I had just quit my job. Once again, I was in need of a personal laptop. I decided to buy a pretty beefy laptop(given the considerations in 2015) hoping it would last me at least 5 more years.

It easily lasted my more than 5 years. I had no initial plans of using it all the way to 10 years. In 2022, macOS Ventura was announced and my laptop was not going to get it. That's the first time I considered upgrading to another laptop. But, for all my personal needs, this device was more than enough.

Now, I do have to mention that there's a parallel timeline of NixOS based workstation/laptop that I started using since 2015. But, that's a post for another day.

It just hit me one day that I could just keep pushing this laptop to the 10 year mark, instead of selling it while I still somewhat could. That would be a pretty fun personal achievement for a device that I used everyday. In 2024, I joined Antler to start a tech. company. The majority of the software written for this startup so far is on this 10 year old laptop, which I do feel pretty smug about.

What's next?

Given my comfortablity of custom NixOS based setups, I felt towards the end of '10s that I would probably not get another Macbook, esp. given the lack of GPUs etc. But, everything changed with the introduction of M-series Macbooks. After, looking at them from the sidelines, I am convinced that they're the best in class hardware for a laptop form factor right now.

So, once again it's time to get a new Macbook. Over the next month, I plan to phase out this laptop into one of the recent Apple silicon based devices. And, I hope to write a similar post once again in 2035. Wish me luck!