But getting at least 2GB of RAM is quite cheap these days. I upgraded my 2012 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM and a new 240GB SSD for around $70. Luckily that’s quite easy on old Mac models. You may need to upgrade the RAM on a particularly old model before installing CloudReady.

Any tower or trash can Mac Pro from mid 2007 with more than 2GB of RAM.

Any MacBook Air model (all models have at least 2GB of RAM).

Any non-unibody or unibody MacBook Pro from mid 2007 with more than 2GB of RAM.

Any white or black MacBook from mid 2007 with more than 2GB of RAM.

Any white or silver Mac mini from mid 2007 with more than 2GB of RAM.

Any aluminum iMac from mid 2007 with more than 2GB of RAM.

Macs that should work with CloudReady but aren’t officially certified include:

MacBook Pro 9,2 (13″ Core i5 or Core i).

MacBook Air 6,1 (13″ Core i5 or Core i-Early 2014).

MacBook Air 5,1 (11″ Core i5 or Core i).

MacBook 6,1 (Unibody 13″ Core 2 Duo Late 2009).

Mac mini 7,1 (Core i5 or Core i7 Late 2014).

There are a few specific Intel graphics cards that don’t play nicely with CloudReady, including the GMA 500, 600, 36. CloudReady requires at least 2GB of RAM, at least 16GB of storage, and graphics components made during or after 2007. CloudReady has officially only certified 11 Mac models, but it’s likely you’ll be able to get the OS up and running on non-certified Intel machines as well. Compatibility with CloudReady technically begins with Macs from 2006, but it’s not recommended. CloudReady will not work on PowerPC Macs, so sadly, you can’t revive your sunflower iMac G4 or your blueberry iBook. You can install CloudReady on virtually any Intel Mac from 2007 on. The Mac mini that I used can run Big Sur, but it’s severely underpowered, being seven years old and not physically upgradeable. The MacBook Pro model that I used for this experiment only runs macOS up to Catalina, so it’s already out-of-date. Neither run recent versions of macOS particularly well, and they certainly aren’t good for power-hungry tasks. Each of these Macs had 4GB of RAM and much older Intel processors. Both of these machines have run-of-the-mill specs for their time. I was able to get CloudReady running on a 2014 Mac mini and a 2012 13″ MacBook Pro.

Here’s how to get CloudReady up and running on an old Mac. This means that Google offers an officially sanctioned way of reviving old computers with Chrome OS. Just last year, Google acquired Neverware, the company behind CloudReady. CloudReady isn’t a new product by any stretch, but I had always been itching to try it out. Is there an old out-of-date Mac that you desperately miss using? Well, you’re in luck because it’s incredibly easy to install a modern version of Chrome OS on old Intel Macs for free.

Chrome not installing on mac