I use an 11 years old desktop computer, with a few upgrades (memory, SSD). It is good enough for my virtual machines and other heavy programs.

I don't see a reason to invest in a laptop if 90% of the time you work in the same place. For the other 10% - buy a cheap laptop.

I don't want to sound dimissive but if you code anything more than 90's stuff an 11 years old desktop won't cut it. Especially if you have an apple computer. Such a model is not just obsolete but would open a lot of security issues.

Invest in a laptop? With the current prices pretty much everyone that uses a computer professionally can afford a laptop.

Until last year I used a 2011 iMac with Linux, 24gb of RAM and an SSD. Quite a bit better in performance and security than laptops I've seen engineers issued last year.

the key is "with linux". Try developing iOS apps or do anything within the apple ecosystem (e.g. check your photos?). Not viable for 99.9% of mac users.

My computer was too old for Apple, a characteristic similar to saying 90% of brand new laptops are too blonde. There are very few modern Apple development machines but anyone with an old desktop can make most modern software. (There are also plenty of exceptions where an Arm laptop isn't usable in software development, so nothing is universal.)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32614135

https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/#readme

> running and unlocking features in macOS on supported and unsupported Macs