I need to know how much longer my iMac will be good for

Question

Hi Everyone... need some help if you have some time please..... Thanks in advance!
I bought this used iMac in 2010 and it's been great except that I can't upgrade anymore on it. I have snow leopard and I was told my Apple this is the last upgrade for this computer.
That worries me because my internet browsers will eventually stop working when more they upgrade and my computer is still runing on Snow Leopard.
Can anyone tell me how much longer I'll be able to keep this Mac before I have to replace it? It still works perfectly.
Here is some of info:
10.6.8
2.16 GHz intel core 2 duo
3 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDram
Hardware Overview:
  Model Name:          iMac
  Model Identifier:          iMac6,1
  Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:          2.16 GHz
  Number Of Processors:          1
  Total Number Of Cores:          2
  L2 Cache:          4 MB
  Memory:          3 GB
  Bus Speed:          667 MHz
  Boot ROM Version:          IM61.0093.B07
  SMC Version (system):          1.10f2
  Serial Number (system):          W86*******VGP
  Hardware UUID:          00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016CB9E4088
<Edited by Host>

Answer 1

xxranexx wrote:
Thanks for responding! so helpful! I was told by apple reps I can't upgrade to Lion and you stated the same thing but then you said if I 'move to lion 10.7' I would be able to?
My firefox doesn't work very well on this computer it's really slow and doesn't load sometimes. and If I use tumblr it's even worse. I can't even scroll.
My main concern is the browser upgrades. I want to make sure this computer can still be upgraded (so I can use netflix for at least another year or 2 etc etc)
Lion is 10.7, Mountain Lion is 10.8.
You should max out your RAM, but the Firefox issue may or may not be RAM related. If you restart and open no other applications but Firefox, do you still experience problems? If you don't, then it's most likely RAM related.
It may be an Add-on responsible for the slow loading. Quit Firefox then reopen it in safe mode, by holding  down Option(alt). This will disable all Add-ons. If it appears to work better there, then you need to test by disabling each Add-on one by one to see which is the culprit.
It may also be a corrupted Profile in your Firefox folder. Option-drag the entire Firefox Folder located in your user Library>Application Support. This will make a backup, which you can restore later. You will know it's copying when you see a small circle with a plus sign inside. Don't do this if that doesn't appear. There is a more elegant way to do this, but it may be trickier to get going than what I have suggested.
Next, get a new Firefox application and install that. Doing this will create a new Firefox folder and Profile in that location. See how that one behaves. If it's better, then post back and I can tell you how to migrate things over from the old Profile. If it isn't, then just return the original Firefox folder to that location and allow it to replace the new one.