The reverse of a question I asked on here a while ago.
IMO:
Early 2000 -> 2014 - MacBooks are great
2014 -> 2016 - MacBooks are decent
2016 -> Last Intel Models - MacBooks are bad
M1 -> Present - MacBooks are great
Currently using my 2011 MacBook Pro! It’s got 16GB of RAM and I’ve replaced the optical drive with a SSD, but it still browses the web and handles sorting and browsing and editing 80k photos!
I put Linux Mint on mine. It’s like a brand new laptop. Incredible hardware.