My laptop is a (Early) 2015 MacBook. It is over ten years old. I am still using it. Everything is fine.
I haven’t needed to replace it. It runs. It does what I need it to do. Working around its limitations became part of how I work.
What I’m Running On It
Here’s what it’s handling on a regular basis:
- Building and maintaining three GitHub Pages sites
- Livestreaming an aquarium (yes, really)
- Image editing in GIMP and Inkscape — including designing our Save the Dates (I got married late last year 🎉) and now our thank you cards
- Running AI tools daily
Not too shabby for a ten-year-old laptop.
How I Work Around the Limits
The biggest constraint is resources. I can’t run a heavy IDE — no VS Code sitting open with a dozen extensions loaded. So I’ve built a lean workflow.
The GitHub web editor handles most of my coding. It’s browser-based, surprisingly capable, and doesn’t touch my local memory at all. For everything else, the Terminal app. That’s it.
For the aquarium livestream, yes I had to reduce the output quality. Yes I limit sources in OBS. Does it freeze sometimes? Sometimes. We don’t talk about that.
I did try to expand the RAM at one point. Turns out it’s soldered to the logic board and not removable. Not upgradeable. I was annoyed.
The upside of this constraint is that I’ve gotten very comfortable with browser-based tools and lightweight workflows. I don’t reach for heavy software because I can’t, and most of the time I don’t need to.
AI
AI doesn’t make the hardware faster, but it removes the bottleneck that used to require more powerful tools. I’m building things I genuinely couldn’t have built on my own before — not for lack of skills, but lack of time. Googling everything and actually finding a good resource took time. A lot of time. Now, instant answers, instant code, instant debugging help. My 2015 MacBook doesn’t need to be faster because the workflow got smarter.
How I Do This For Free
My entire tech life has basically been: how can I do this for free, or as close to free as possible, on whatever hardware I already have?
MySpace profile CSS. Geocities. Free hosting with FTP uploads. GIMP instead of Photoshop. GitHub Pages instead of a paid host. If I can do it for free, why not?
The 2015 MacBook fits that perfectly. It’s paid for. It works. She’s my ride or die. Literally.
Will I Ever Replace It?
Yes. One day. When she crosses the rainbow bridge.
And she’ll know she was loved.