What’s more annoying than getting rid of your old MacBook because of Apple’s software advancements? It’s now a thing of the past: the OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP) software helps you avoid retiring your machines too quickly.
Each release of a new version of macOS is always a moment shared between excitement and sadness. Excitement, because the operating system is making great strides. Sadness, because this also means that some older computers won’t be able to support it.
Sonoma is 14e and latest version of the Apple OS, presented in June 2023. With its release, all computer models prior to 2018, not compatible with it, were excluded. But a team developed OCLP, precisely to avoid this pitfall.
OpenCore Legacy Patcher: a second wind for old Macs
The tool was developed as open source by a team of free software developers. Their project has been underway for several years, and it has finally been released in version 1.0.0, completely free. The link to download the software can be found in the GitHub source at the bottom of this article.
The goal of these developers is quite simple, they want Apple users to no longer have to worry about this famous problem of compatibility between computer models and OS version. A completely laudable objective, both from an ethical and ecological point of view.
An (almost) miraculous tool
Theoretically, OCLP would even make it possible to run Sonoma on a MacBook model dating from 2008. In reality, it still has its limits, mainly due to the hardware. If you take USB 1.1 for example, it will no longer be supported, because Apple has removed the code that supports it since macOS 13 Ventura.
This will give a not really practical result if you try to make OCLP work with a 2010 MacBook Air for example, since its touchpad and keyboard will not work. Fortunately, this obstacle can be circumvented using a USB hub. Some other hardware limitations also exist, but it’s frankly not a lot to pay when you see the result.
To install OCLP, you will simply need to have a 16 GB USB key and go to GitHub. You will then just have to download the system installation file to it in order to launch the installation directly by plugging the key into your computer. The handling is rather well explained, and it is always possible to backtrack in case things go wrong. A backup of your system before any manipulation is therefore imperative.
The initiative of these developers is one of those that we would like to see more often. You now know what you need to do if you want to bring one of your old machines back to life! The list of compatible computers is available in the link to the site How it works below.
Sources: GitHub, How it works, Fabrice Neuman on X.com
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