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I bought my MacBook Pro in early 2014. It was my third Apple computer and second Apple laptop, a belated graduation present to myself after finishing my master's and landing my first full-time emergency management job. It's been uncomplainingly robust until fairly recently, when it started to labor under what I guess is, for it, intensive load - large InDesign layout jobs and some other stuff that seems to tax its graphics capabilities. It's not throwing any errors but I don't want to risk a catastrophic hardware failure at an inconvenient time, and nine years is a lot to get out of any laptop. It feels like I'm pushing my luck.
I have an uncomfortable cheap/atavistic streak that wants to get the most out of any piece of essential hardware while simultaneously feeling guilty about setting aside something that still works just fine. But I'm also in a place where I can afford to spend money to (a) forestall problems and (b) have a backup system of known quantity in case the new primary craps out. So yesterday, I threw Apple a fair bit of coin for a mid-range MacBook Air M2.
The transition has, so far, been remarkably straightforward and drama-free. File transfer on a peer-to-peer wireless connection took about four hours for ~380 GB of data and applications. Leaping a few years of MacOS updates in a single bound will no doubt throw minor complications in my face for some time to come, but the basic user experience is the same, and it seems that almost all my accounts and credentials transferred over without issue.
I'll continue working in parallel on both machines for a bit until I'm sure the new rig is stable and I haven't lost anything essential in the transition. But the MacBook Pro is now in the basement with its external monitor, where it will likely remain for a few more years as the workshop's research/YouTube computer. It's a well-earned semi-retirement.
I have an uncomfortable cheap/atavistic streak that wants to get the most out of any piece of essential hardware while simultaneously feeling guilty about setting aside something that still works just fine. But I'm also in a place where I can afford to spend money to (a) forestall problems and (b) have a backup system of known quantity in case the new primary craps out. So yesterday, I threw Apple a fair bit of coin for a mid-range MacBook Air M2.
The transition has, so far, been remarkably straightforward and drama-free. File transfer on a peer-to-peer wireless connection took about four hours for ~380 GB of data and applications. Leaping a few years of MacOS updates in a single bound will no doubt throw minor complications in my face for some time to come, but the basic user experience is the same, and it seems that almost all my accounts and credentials transferred over without issue.
I'll continue working in parallel on both machines for a bit until I'm sure the new rig is stable and I haven't lost anything essential in the transition. But the MacBook Pro is now in the basement with its external monitor, where it will likely remain for a few more years as the workshop's research/YouTube computer. It's a well-earned semi-retirement.