<![CDATA[Is #apple purposely breaking older laptops?]]>Is purposely breaking older laptops?

I have a 2018 Macbook Air that I factory reset through the internet recovery. It formatted the drive and installed MacOS 10.15 and rebooted.

On reboot, setting up the account let me log into my Apple account, but then I could not accept the TOS, no matter what I did.

It seems this is a common issue where there is a "communication issue" with apple's servers.

Seems that Apple is purposely adding friction to use "older" machines.

What do you think?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/d3c44b72-ea9f-4cab-ad3c-a139ff42cf73/is-apple-purposely-breaking-older-laptopsRSS for NodeMon, 27 Apr 2026 19:17:35 GMTFri, 17 Apr 2026 18:41:30 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Is #apple purposely breaking older laptops? on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:17:37 GMT]]>@codemonkeymike Wouldn't be surprised if this kind of friction is "by design".

Similarily, the Asahi Linux project has had plenty of success with the M1s and M2s, however the M3s and onwards is another story

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.dk/users/simonjust/statuses/116421653819965450https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.dk/users/simonjust/statuses/116421653819965450Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:17:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Is #apple purposely breaking older laptops? on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:08:19 GMT]]>@simonjust yup.. i love running Linux on Apple products pre-t2. Post T2 is a nightmare

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/codemonkeymike/statuses/116421617250477963https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/codemonkeymike/statuses/116421617250477963Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:08:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Is #apple purposely breaking older laptops? on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:57:40 GMT]]>@wyatt I agree.. Like seems like organizations like the EU should sue the crap out of Apple for something like this.

To actively stand in the way of simply signing into a device...

And yes, it's an older OS but it's what their own internet recovery system put on there.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/codemonkeymike/statuses/116421575375773595https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/codemonkeymike/statuses/116421575375773595Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:57:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Is #apple purposely breaking older laptops? on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:57:10 GMT]]>@codemonkeymike I've been running Linux (Fedora + Ubuntu) on everything from 2009 Macbook Whites to 2014 Mac Minis and my 2015 MBP is very coorporative, but none of those had the T2 chip.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.dk/users/simonjust/statuses/116421573399824976https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.dk/users/simonjust/statuses/116421573399824976Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:57:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Is #apple purposely breaking older laptops? on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:56:14 GMT]]>@snow exactly.. its negligent at best.. its malicious and evil at worst..

Either way, Apple doesnt care.. but sure should be made to.

Again, there is a workaroudn where you can skip the Apple account login, but still, its NOT clear.. how many people will not do this and assume the computer is dead?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/codemonkeymike/statuses/116421569678343556https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/codemonkeymike/statuses/116421569678343556Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:56:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Is #apple purposely breaking older laptops? on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:48:41 GMT]]>@codemonkeymike My guess is yes, whether intentionally or not.

The server that handles that TOS is probably either dead or confused at why it's receiving a API call today.

But my experience is mainly in trying to register ancient versions of software from disk-- some of the mechanisms that ensure the software is authentic rely on a server somewhere issuing a cryptographic "all is clear for installation" signal, and some of those servers are just dead now.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/abmurrow/statuses/116421540046746502https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/abmurrow/statuses/116421540046746502Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:48:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Is #apple purposely breaking older laptops? on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:46:09 GMT]]>@codemonkeymike Computers should never require an online account or Internet access to set up the basic OS.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/dhry/statuses/116421530086440351https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/dhry/statuses/116421530086440351Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:46:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Is #apple purposely breaking older laptops? on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:45:33 GMT]]>@codemonkeymike Not sure if purposeful or just not incentivized to care.

Companies that abandon old hardware should be required to release specs, tooling, documentation, etc. Whatever it takes to allow people who still own this hardware to continue using it.

"Oops, we don't want to support it anymore" should not force users to chuck it in the trash.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://teardrop.net/ap/users/116314969205740204/statuses/116421527667712614https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://teardrop.net/ap/users/116314969205740204/statuses/116421527667712614Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:45:33 GMT