[MBCook]

I got a new Mac at work maybe 6 to 9 months after the M1 generation came out.

I would’ve loved one, but some of the tools I needed did not work without real Intel hardware yet and there were no workarounds.

Today there are. But because of that I had to get a new Intel machine. And that’s going to be my machine until it reaches the standard replacement cycle. So I’ll still have it for a few more years probably.

By the same token a family member bought a new (to them, refurb) iMac maybe six months before the M1 iMac came out. Again I think that would’ve been a better computer, but it didn’t exist. And the old computer was on its last legs and needed replacing.

That computer does not get heavy use and will last a long time. It will probably get used until Apple stops updating Intel OSes and it starts becoming a real problem for the user.