After posting “How to make a bootable macOS Mojave (10.14) installer drive”, I got an email from Eric Z:
I know lots of folks wouldn’t do it, but Collin Mistr has made a tool to create a bootable USB installer for unsupported hardware. I’ll be using it to get Mojave onto my 2009 Xserve! Mostly for kicks.
There’s no chance I’d ever use this kind of thing but I’m sure some of you would love to stuff Mojave on to an old Mac.
Two mid-2009 MacBooks in our home using that tool to install High Sierra, and now Mojave. Had updated both to use SSD drives prior to installing High Sierra. One, in kitchen, is used for family calendar, notes, checking weather, etc. The other, in my office, mirror my iMac development machine, and I take it on the road when I travel. Both work great for their role in our household, and are in line with Apple’s current thought process of using products for a longer time period. Shawn: I wouldn’t dismiss this tool or older Macs so quickly.
Not dismissing it or older Macs at all. I said some of The Loop readers would like it. I’m saying *I* wouldn’t use it – not that it’s not useful to other people.
Agreed. Older OS X would work fine. Just personal preference to have latest OS.
Last sentence of my comment is too strong, and I apologize for the tone of it. Just trying to indicate that the tool works and Mojave does too on older machines, if the need is there. Be sure to read the list of supported and unsupported Macs before using that tool.
Heck, even as far back as Leopard will be fine for that stuff.
(Not Tiger, because it doesn’t have TLS support, so it can’t use modern https connections; I have a collection of antique Macs, and anything running Tiger or earlier is useless on the internet without a special browser with proper crypto baked in, since the OS permanently lacks it.)
I used the tool to update to High Sierra on my early-2009 Mac mini (my daily driver) and it has been good. If the performance of Mojave is good as well, I will be updating to that in the next little bit. The only issue is that my model doesn’t have a wireless card that is supported, so I lose WiFi (and can’t use hand-off).
Honest question – why, especially on the first Mac, do you care if it’s running the latest OS? Sierra or even El Cap or Yosemite would do those things fine. The mobile dev machine I can see.
Tempting. But my 2008 MacBook is now partitioned for two older versions of the OS, for three (and counting) specific older apps. I wouldn’t want to have to repartition and reinstall everything again, much less go shopping for a larger SSD than the one I put in.
I am about to do the same with my own early-2009 Mac mini. Glad to know the caveats ahead of time so I know what to expect!
There are some visual glitches with dark mode, but nothing that has been too horrible. If you haven’t done it before, be certain to follow the instructions exactly as written.