How can I keep my MacBook safe is Apple is no longer supporting Snow Leopard? My MacBook was purchased in 2006 and cannot be upgraded to the newer operating systems.

Question

I have a MacBook which I purchased in 2006. It cannot upgrade to newer operating systems.Since Apple has stopped support to Snow Leopard, how can I keep my MacBook safe? Buying another computer is not an option. Any ideas or suggestions? Many thanks.

Answer 1

Klaus1 wrote:
Apple still sell, and therefore support, Snow Leopard.
For what it's worth, from my reading of the Snow Leopard EULA (and I would  assume that there is similar language in the EULAs for all other operating systems, as well), I'm not seeing any obligation on the part of Apple to provide Security Updates of any kind, period/full stop. The wording appears to be completely "use at your own risk." I have no idea whether this "use at your own risk" would survive a legal challenge, or if such a legal challenge would depend on whether or not Apple is still selling (or even giving away for free) an OS, or whether local law would, according to this, override the EULA. Perhaps this is why Apple never formally announces EOL or discontinuance of support for an OS. They can always claim that they are still supporting an OS, whether or not in any practical sense, they are. There was even a very late Flashback detection and removal script which Apple issued for 10.5 well after it was clear that they had stopped supporting Leopard. This hardly constituted ongoing support, but perhaps it was to deter the threat of legal action, or maybe it was simply out of benevolence. I don't know.
Besides that, even when Apple was still actively "supporting" Snow Leopard, which I don't think it is any longer, "use at your own risk" would still have applied to a case where Apple may have been late with a patch, or a response, or an adequate response, to a zero-day threat, such as Flashback was, which was constantly evolving. Many thousands were affected by that, and, to my knowledge, at least, there was no legal action directed at Apple throughout or after that episode. If there was any, I don't think it succeeded.
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