Long story short, my dad has a couple old Macs that cannot be upgraded past Mountain Lion, and not even Chrome supports that version anymore. I will be unable to convince them to buy new hardware or software, and I can't afford Win 10 keys (which cost more than what the computers are worth). I'm not particularly familiar with Linux, and will be unable to help when something inevitably borks. In fact, I'm a seven-hour drive away and so can't really provide support - though my stepmom's daughter is her techsupport and she deals with Windows.
My understanding is that the Insider Preview program allows Windows 10 to be used indefinitely, as long as you consent to the constant upgrades. Would that be advisable? Or should I really just try to get him a decent Windows laptop like a HP Stream?
Thanks.
As to whether these Macs are capable of running windows 10 I cannot say.
When the Insider program was running prior to RTM, it was possible to run insider previews with the understanding that remaining within the program would allow upgrades for as long as the user continued to participate in the program. So far this remains true.
After RTM, the language changed and allowed insider previews on machines that had a "Digital Entitlement" from a Qualifying version of Windows (7 or 8x).
Windows 10 will not activate unless a qualifying system has been installed and activated to give the installed machine a "Digital Entitlement".
Unactivated systems don't allow certain things like personalisation of the UI. They may be blacklisted in some way in the future.
You may be interested in the link here Solved Cannot activate genuine copy after clean install - Page 5 - Windows 10 blog
IF you can get a virtual machine such as Parallels, VMWare Fusion or maybe boot camp to run on those Macs you may be able to install Win7 w/SP1 or Win8.1 on them so as to qualify for the free Win10 Upgrade. Or buy a copy of Win10 but as you say they may not be worth it. The mention of Linux suggests getting a LiveDVD version such as Linux Mint or another that purports to be easy to migrate by WinXP users. I use Linux Mint 17.3 on a Dell Desktop and an HP Notebook plus Linux Mint 13 on an older Dell Notebook with the Centrino processor that can't run anything newer, not bad for E-Mail and Internet plus comes with the free LibreOffice as most all Linux distributions have.
linux on mac hardware at DuckDuckGo
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
Thanks. I wasn't sure if I was just misunderstanding the terms of the program. I'll see if I can switch him to firefox first, as it still supports the macs.As to whether these Macs are capable of running windows 10 I cannot say.
When the Insider program was running prior to RTM, it was possible to run insider previews with the understanding that remaining within the program would allow upgrades for as long as the user continued to participate in the program. So far this remains true.
After RTM, the language changed and allowed insider previews on machines that had a "Digital Entitlement" from a Qualifying version of Windows (7 or 8x).
Windows 10 will not activate unless a qualifying system has been installed and activated to give the installed machine a "Digital Entitlement".
Unactivated systems don't allow certain things like personalisation of the UI. They may be blacklisted in some way in the future.
You may be interested in the link here Solved Cannot activate genuine copy after clean install - Page 5 - Windows 10 blog
A lot depends on the CPU if it is the Apple chip good chance the answer is no, albeit it is an Intel chip then probably yes. The reason I say yes is because I am running an early 2006 Mac Minnie with a dual Intel 2.5 chip that is running Windows Ten insider. I am doing this just for the fun of it, and because I have a new 5 K 27" Mac. I also have a 2004 Mac 24" with a an Intel Dual Core 2.0 that I am running Windows 7 on, and it works great. . .
