When is it time to junk your computer?

[usonian]

12. If OS support means a lot to you, when it's unsupported.

Mainly because security patches stop.

You can go to linux because it is more efficient and patches continue much longer.

It's just amazing what apps, and web apps install easily on linux and run chores. Less bloat means a lot.

I try to use FOSS apps like GIMP, Darktable and so on, so I am free to roam about operating systems.

Even a mac user has to worry about those 6 GB online upgrades, which apps and toolchains are going to break and waste lots of time trying to get in working order again.

If you want cheap, I upgraded the old mac mini to a new one with M2 CPU for $600. Stuff that lagged goes fast now. Magnetic disks are always a bottleneck, so go SSD on external if you can. Magnetic disks are just so damn cheap. Try to use them for backups and book/media storage, where access is infrequent.

Staying modular means you can upgrade one item at a time, so a single failure won't generally knock out the whole system. Happened to an imac. Display quit. (Very old, FWIW). Of course, you need bootable backup disks just in case. I use SuperDuper free version on Mac.