Apple to drop support for Intel OS/X

One thing about this topic is that it is full of opinions of what Apple might do. One opinion I have heard is that if you buy a Mac new from Apple is that you should expect around 7 years of support (but not OS upgrades). Apple has just recently dropped the last Intel Mac from its new sales. The opinions I have read generally say that there should be at least one more OS upgrade for the last Intel Macs that just sold. Update support for a Mac OS has usually lasted three years.

Other opinions I have read say that you might only get 5 years of support and that they could stop upgrading to a new OS while only providing updates to the OS running.

If your Mac does not connect to internet then it is less of an issue.

My complaint is the support is not specified when a new Mac is purchased, not so much that old Macs have been dropped.
 
Microsoft would never do that, would they?

You know, obsoleting a motherboard by releasing an operating system that requires new hardware, then dropping support for the previous versions. Like, I don't know, maybe the transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

No, only Apple do that.
 
almorton said:
Microsoft would never do that, would they?

You know, obsoleting a motherboard by releasing an operating system that requires new hardware, then dropping support for the previous versions. Like, I don't know, maybe the transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

No, only Apple do that.
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the difference is the hardware changes, the windows 10, 7, xp could all run on the same hardware. to add features that improved security they had to choose to obsolete motherboards without the security. Apple seems to do it on a whim and without any real world reason other than to sell new hardware.
 
The M processors seem to be a lot faster than the intel equivalents and less expensive - that's one reason to change hardware.

And for the avoidance of doubt, I'm typing this on a Windows 10 PC while wearing my Samsung watch and with Android phone and tablet to hand.
 
Overall I'm fine with it. From the hardware side Apple is usually better than most other consumer electronics companies when it comes to long term support. And sure it would be nice if you could run newer software on the old hardware. But at some point you have to cut off support. Especially in Apple's case where they have made such big changes with their processors, going from Power PC, to x86 Intel, and now to their own custom chips. All of which are completely different architectures. Microsoft has had an easier time of that since they've been running on the same x86 instruction set the entire time. And I really think Windows would be in a much better place if they would do the same as Apple more often. There is so much code still there to support 15+ year old hardware that just ends up slowing things down on newer hardware. Code that could be totally removed, or better optimized to run on the newer hardware. Not to mention all of the security holes that are allowed to remain or accidentally created to support that old hardware.
 
Exactly so. As someone who develops software, it's eye opening how many bits of legacy cruft are hanging around in the Win32 API that really should have gone decades ago but are there just in case. There are even "empty" macros which can mess up new code if you aren't aware of them which are there purely so that code written for Win 3.1 could theoretically be recompiled and run. Backwards compatibility and legacy support sometimes is a millstone.

Should Apple try to allow original Macintosh software, which would have bene written for a 68000 processor, to run on a new M series Mac?
 
DuckJordan said:
Apple seems to do it on a whim and without any real world reason other than to sell new hardware.
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With the resent MacOS release, most 2017 Mac models were dropped. It is my understanding the only component in these models that won't work with the new OS is the wifi circuitry. They otherwise would be able to run fine. I don't think it would have been too problematic for Apple to continue support for the wifi. At some point, there will be a hack to get these models included but I don't believe it will work as well as native support.
 
almorton said:
Exactly so. As someone who develops software, it's eye opening how many bits of legacy cruft are hanging around in the Win32 API that really should have gone decades ago but are there just in case. There are even "empty" macros which can mess up new code if you aren't aware of them which are there purely so that code written for Win 3.1 could theoretically be recompiled and run. Backwards compatibility and legacy support sometimes is a millstone.

Should Apple try to allow original Macintosh software, which would have bene written for a 68000 processor, to run on a new M series Mac?
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I don't know, carbon seems to have been working fine when they killed it off capriciously. And we killed it off capriciously is kind of apples slogan. As an example here, there will no longer be OS updates for, say, the trash can Mac pros, which were the most recent decent power performance ratio machines in their line. So what they have just done is chopped the value of all of that Machinery people might want to sell used... to zero.

Just as it comes in range for certain categories of potential buyers to be able to afford it, it doesn't make any difference anymore. Because software vendors are going to march ever forward, not building software that will run on those intel OSs anymore. And this is just the same thing they've done every single time.

With sufficient RAM and an ssd, I can still run Windows 10 on a core 2 Duo from 15 years ago. Maybe 20 if I really think about it. And that is probably true of Pentiums that go back 30 years.

The adjective 'gratuitous', though, is the thing that does it for me. Most of these fences that they have erected over the years were gratuitous. They were just trying to make their own life easier.

Microsoft has never been my favorite vendor, but I got to grant them this: they've gone out of their way *not* to obsolete people's old hardware.
 
They've put a millstone around the neck of future development by slavishly clinging to decades old platforms. They're finally waking up. There will be some changes that will be analogous to apple's changes. But the that'll be OK, because it's not apple.
 
almorton said:
They've put a millstone around the neck of future development by slavishly clinging to decades old platforms. They're finally waking up. There will be some changes that will be analogous to apple's changes. But the that'll be OK, because it's not apple.
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I *am* a developer, and I don't care about the developers here.

Apple's goal here is "Obsolete old hardware so we can sell new hardware".

They're welcome to do that, but I don't have to approve of it, and I don't.
 
Jay Ashworth said:
I *am* a developer, and I don't care about the developers here.

Apple's goal here is "Obsolete old hardware so we can sell new hardware".

They're welcome to do that, but I don't have to approve of it, and I don't.
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I don't purchase Apple products except under duress of work needs. I own a Gen 1 iPad. No Mac, no iPhone, no FruitWatch, no iPod, no FruitTV.
 
DuckJordan said:
the difference is the hardware changes, the windows 10, 7, xp could all run on the same hardware. to add features that improved security they had to choose to obsolete motherboards without the security. Apple seems to do it on a whim and without any real world reason other than to sell new hardware.
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also.... at least for PC's You can buy a new compatible motherboard for an older system..... (If you really need windows 11) Though I've loath to admit it. I've become an "apple user" in my proffesional life, with 2 macbook pros, 2 ipad, an iphone, an iWatch and Apple TV. Though my main personal machine at home in the family room is still my come custom self-built PC.
 
NickVon said:
also.... at least for PC's You can buy a new compatible motherboard for an older system..... (If you really need windows 11) Though I've loath to admit it. I've become an "apple user" in my proffesional life, with 2 macbook pros, 2 ipad, an iphone, an iWatch and Apple TV. Though my main personal machine at home in the family room is still my come custom self-built PC.
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There is a linux based product called prox mox designed to host virtual machines. I was able to load the demo version of server 2022 on a very capable but probably 8 year old machine AMD 8 core.. Proxmox handled the virtual environment such that it provided the TPM layer to windows.. even in the absence of TPM hardware. Sever 2022 would not load on the same machine "bare metal" Interesting option virtualize your Hard drive and live in the matrix.
 
I love apple hardware so I guess that puts me on the opposite side of the fence.

But as much as I love apple hardware, I'm not the biggest fan of their OS updates, so for the most part, I don't do them.
I have 2 mac minis and 2 macbook pros all running 10.14 or 10.15 and they're just fine.
Sure I don't do banking on them but I'm not generally worried about security issues on them any more than PCs running Windows 10 because they're appliances, not browse the web machines.
My personal Mac is up to date, with Monterey(2021), because I don't like how Ventura looks, but Monterey will receive security updates for years and years.

What makes me question your dislike of Apple hardware is that Apple is clear about what they're deprecating. Mac models are labeled and there aren't even that many models. So when a new version of some software comes out and it doesn't support the 2013 Mac Pro - that's super obvious and easy for the developer to explain.

In PC land, you really need to be a computer nerd to understand what a TPM chip is or AMD 8 core or Pentium vs Core i3 7th gen. If you're a sound guy and need to make sure a computer you're about to buy meets the minimum requirements, PCs are a word salad of tech mumbo jumbo that isn't your forte.
I'm sure the computer people feel the same way about mics and speakers and LEDs and arc lamps etc.

Even if I wasn't an Apple fan, having the clarity and transparency of Apple's hardware line and 3rd party developer buy in wins for me every day.
 
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