[psmith2.0]

We ordered it last night, it arrives later this week.

In September of 2009 she got a refurb white MacBook (160GB hard drive, 2GB RAM) and has used it constantly since then, for five years...travel, at home, etc. But it's showing its age, obviously...the hard drive creaks and churns, the 2GB RAM isn't exactly Mountain Lion/Mavericks-friendly, random shutdowns, no battery life to speak of, some of her keys are sticking or acting wonky, etc. Five years is a pretty good run, but it's definitely entered the "no fun to use" zone.

We were looking online last night and there was a single April 2014(!) 13" MacBook Air refurb for $929...and it had been upgraded/BTO to 8GB RAM. She's getting a current-generation 13" Air (upgraded to 8GB) for $929...the same thing would be $1,099 if she bought it new. $170 is nothing to sneeze at.

It has the 128GB drive, but she was only using about 65GB of her 160GB all these years, so I don't see this being a problem...she'll be at about half-capacity.

The clock speed is lower (1.4GHz vs. 2.13(?)), but I figured between the SSD and the 8GB RAM, it's nothing she'd ever notice. It's going to be a step up, no matter how you slice it. Plus, the higher-resolution screen, giving her more usable space (1440x900 vs. 1280x800), the big gesture-friendly trackpad, the size/weight difference, the better battery life, etc. Oh, and the light-up keyboard. All pretty substantial improvements, IMO.

I think she'll enjoy it. I was using her MacBook last night and it was pretty painful. iPhoto took about 9,000 bounces to launch, and it's pretty much Beachball City everywhere else.

So one evening this week, I'll be doing the migration/setup thing. But I won't have to hear her complain about her old white MacBook anymore (which I really can't do anything about at this point), so it'll be worth it.

Any suggestions about what we should do with the white MacBook? Can that bring anything? I doubt it. I'd like to just donate or give it to someone (with the caveat that I'm not on the hook for setup or support).

She actually said "maybe I'll keep it, and keep it in the bedroom to use at night...".

"Why would you spend $900+ on a current-generation MacBook Air with all the goodness it'll have...only to keep around a five-year-old MacBook that already drives you nuts?! Carry the Air from the living room to the bedroom...it doesn't have to stay on the couch or coffee table".

Good grief. I'm going to take the white one from her so she won't do something that goofy. I'll wipe it and do a fresh install, clean it up, etc. Like a fool I suggested maybe giving it to the grandkids (my niece and nephew) but then I remembered "oh, yeah...they already both have their own laptop AND iPad minis...oh, and iPhone 5c...". At 9 and 11 years old. I doubt they'd give a flaming rip about a beaten-up five-year-old MacBook. I don't wanna say they're spoiled, but...

Maybe we'll donate it. Anything to keep her from doing what she suggested above. If I have to throw it off a cliff somewhere or otherwise "lose" it, I will...

[psmith2.0]

PS - I tried (and have for some time now) to convince her to just get a (much cheaper) refurb iPad Air (or Retina mini) for her "on the go"/mobile use (she has an iPhone and knows iOS), but she said she likes to type and just feels better with a laptop, even though the MacBook (any version) is complete overkill for what she does.

Last night she was making my case for me..."I use Safari, iPhoto, iTunes, and Facebook, Pinterest and read", and I was like "EXACTLY...what do you need a MacBook Air to do that, when you can spend ~$400 for a refurb iPad of some sort?!"

She's just not willing to give up the keyboard. Oh well.

And here I am, trying everything I can to make it to where I don't have to buy a Mac again. I want an iOS-only existence...

[Robo]

You should donate it to my neckbeard Windows/Android-only cofounder.

I have basically the same WhiteBook (I have the speed-bumped 2010 model), and it feels fine for me. But mine's been upgraded to 9GB of RAM (and if it ever starts feeling slow, I could take it up to 16GB...not sure if the 2009 can go that high). So, I guess that's what I'd do with that old MacBook. Fill it to the gills with RAMs.

Of course, you probably wouldn't get enough extra money if you were to sell it to pay for the upgrade, so what do I know.

[psmith2.0]

I'll probably just wipe it, remove the battery and put it in my closet next to the tangerine iMac DV and original iPhone. Just keep adding to my Early 21st Century Apple Hardware Museum. Damn...wish I still had my iMac G4!

If I leave it at her house, I know she'll do what she talked about...and I can't stand by and knowingly allow something that silly to take place.

Actually, I need to design and build a neat little display shelf/cabinet for my living room and just put the iMac, MacBook and iPhone out here in the open, in plain view, as a neat bit of decor/conversation piece. I've actually got an unused corner that would be perfect. A shame for such interesting, nice-looking stuff to be sitting in a closet...

Years ago, I was scouring Craigslist and eBay for cheap (sub-$150) jellybean iMacs (the nicer-looking slot-loaders from October 1999 on). My "goal" was to collect every color/pattern ever produced (the five fruits, Graphite, Snow, Indigo, Sage, Ruby, Blue Dalmation and Flower Power...12 in all, plus the original tray-loading Bondi, simply for historical purposes/color completeness) and build a floor-to-ceiling, multi-tier lighted/captioned display for them. Just because. The fact that I had it all designed/drawn up in SketchUp (and wrote out the description placards for each series) shows you how serious I was about it at the time.

I wasn't after functioning units, and I didn't really care if they were gutted or whatever. If they had the mouse and keyboard, great. But I was mainly after the iMacs themselves, viewed from the side in all their jellybean, lickable glory.

Then I woke up one day and came to my senses.

[Robo]

Ooh! The little indie Mac shop I frequented in Oregon had something like that...a Mac 128k, a Bondi Blue iMac, a G4 Cube, and a few other "special" Macs in little glass museum-style displays, with little placards and everything. It was super neat.

Of course, that was a store, and not a living room. But I think you should totes go for it! I do basically the same thing with my gallery of Nintendo hardware, though the advantage there is that I can have them all plugged in to my TV, so it at least looks like maybe they're all functional things that I "need" and it's not just a big shrine.

[psmith2.0]

Exactly. My place is kinda small. If I had a second/spare bedroom or a small den - or even just a large walk-in type closet - maybe. I don't know if I should be cluttering up an already-small, cozy living room. My current 2-3 piece lineup wouldn't be so bad, but I couldn't (and wouldn't) do it with 12-13 iMacs.

[turbulentfurball]

I was looking at a similar aged MacBook to shove in a closet to use as an iTunes server. I find the 128GB more limiting than I thought it would be, with 54GB of photos and 32GB of iTunes media. (Though saying that, Yosemite public beta 2 seems to have doubled the space I'm using for photos - but my iPhoto library is apparently only 26GB... I wonder where the rest of the space is being used...)

Anyway, my point is that it should be put to use somehow. An unused Mac somehow makes me sad a little. My parents still happily use a 2006 Core Duo Mac Mini with no complaints.

[psmith2.0]

I don't have anything to use it for, and she certainly doesn't. I don't need a mail or music server, etc. Whoever winds up with it can do whatever they want. I'm not going to cook up some unnecessary scenario just so it can stick around and "serve a purpose". She's gotten five good, solid years of use and travel from it. She doesn't need more stuff in her house, computer-wise. I finally got her to let go of the unused Mac mini sitting in the spare bedroom for two years. If I didn't take these pro-active steps to de-clutter and "let go", she'd have 3-4 Macs in her house...and two is more than enough for someone who makes greeting cards and hangs out on Facebook. And, frankly, I'm not looking to create more maintenance/troubleshooting work for myself...I have more than I want, via immediate family/friends and their various "iStuff" these days.

Technical question: we've decided to consolidate her iPhoto libraries onto her iMac (bigger screen, more storage, one central/easy-to-manage photo collection, etc.). She's always had a desktop and a laptop since 2009-2010, and when she comes back from a trip, she's had no real set pattern about which machine she connected her camera to. So she's got a bunch of photos on her 1TB iMac, and then a bunch more on her MacBook...some overlap, but mostly different from all I can tell.

What is the easiest, most hassle-free way to move her iPhoto library - with folder/album/event structures intact, if at all possible - and put it onto her iMac and have it all flow in - and merging with the existing iMac iPhoto content and not replacing/overwriting it - and sit where it's supposed to (date order of events, etc.) and not be a daylong pain-in-my-ass?

I've got a 32GB flash drive and her MacBook's iPhoto library seems to be around 20GB or so, so that'll be my transfer method.

[Capella]

That was a great model MB. With some more RAM, it'd still be a good email-pictures-web machine. I've been trying to get something like that for my mum, or my college's lab.

[psmith2.0]

The Air arrived today, one day earlier than originally estimated. I was able to do the iPhoto thing with no real hassle/issues (just time-consuming for that much data (15-20GB) to copy, then copy back, etc.). But, thanks to iCloud/Apple ID, setup on the Air couldn't have been easier...within 2-3 minutes of initial startup, it was ready to use. There were a few pending updates, as is always the case, and she had a couple of third-party Mac App Store titles to download, but it was very slick and responsive.

She loves the light-up keyboard.

And I did a neat test, for her to see...once I got the new Air setup and configured, I started both laptops up, side-by-side.

From start-up chime to usable home scree...

MacBook: 2:12
MacBook Air: :24



Pretty damn awesome. Every app - Safari, Mail, iPhoto, iTunes, etc. launched in 1-2 bounces (if that; some just appeared and opened instantly, like Contacts, Notes, etc.). All these apps would bounce between 8-15 times on her MacBook before they were ready to use. The difference is dramatic.

And that's with a 1.4GHz machine (albeit an Intel i5 vs. the 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo and 2GB RAM on her older MacBook).

By the time we consolidated files, she got rid of some things she didn't need or use (or we moved them over to her iMac), she's right at 35GB used out of 128GB, so she's not going to be hitting the ceiling anytime soon.

It was as smooth a transition/setup as I've ever done. It helps that she doesn't have a ton of third-party software and huge files (on her laptop) to mess with, and that she has iCloud and already had an Apple ID...that stuff, on the front end, takes care of so much of the tedious monkey-work.

[Boomerangmacuser]

I know you really tried to get her into an iPad Air, but the Macbook Air is a really nice little piece of kit. I did the same with my mom. But in the end, likes the physical keyboard and got a bluetooth mouse for playing her little Facebook games... I can remote support her from across the country. In the end I agreed, the laptop is better for her than the iPad.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 PS - I tried (and have for some time now) to convince her to just get a (much cheaper) refurb iPad Air (or Retina mini) for her "on the go"/mobile use (she has an iPhone and knows iOS), but she said she likes to type and just feels better with a laptop, even though the MacBook (any version) is complete overkill for what she does. Last night she was making my case for me..."I use Safari, iPhoto, iTunes, and Facebook, Pinterest and read", and I was like "EXACTLY...what do you need a MacBook Air to do that, when you can spend ~$400 for a refurb iPad of some sort?!" She's just not willing to give up the keyboard. Oh well. And here I am, trying everything I can to make it to where I don't have to buy a Mac again. I want an iOS-only existence...

I've gotten my parents down to this. No more diagnosing computer issues 2000 miles away. I've received literally zero calls since they switched to an iPad.

[Kickaha]

My grandmother moved from a B/W iMac G3 to an iPad last year, when she saw the price differential, and we started discussing what she used it for.

She too refused to give up the keyboard, insisted on a crappy little Brookstone case w/ integrated kb. Finally admitted she hates it so much she barely uses the iPad because of the kb quality.

She's looking at an Apple Wireless Keyboard now.

[psmith2.0]

My favorite keyboard ever, these ones currently from Apple (wired or unwired). I type so fast on them...love the low travel and the easy touch. If I had an iPad-only setup, I'd definitely have one of those Apple Bluetooth things to pair with it for any heavy typing.