If you spent money for that lovely premium computer hardware they sell, you only get updates for a few years, if you bought it at the end of the cycle.
in a few exceptional cases around the very well known architecture transition that was announced in 2020. They will maintain older mac OSes that are intel compatible, so intel not completely unsupported.
Aside from that, Macs typically get many years of OS updates.
golden gate, out tomorrow iirc, the first macos that’s apple silicon only, and the last to support intel applications via compatibility layer.
tahoe, the previous version and last to support intel cpu, will get two more years of updates. the last intel cpu mac wasn’t discontinued until 2023.
there is no further upgrade path from apple for anything that cannot run golden gate. it’s e-waste to most, a linux goldmine for a few. just like every pre-8th gen era windows pc, but at least with windows you can trick the current version to run on the relics that don’t ‘officially’ support it.
Lol. Right… That’s why my MacBook Pro is collecting dust while the spec-inferior MacBook Air I was required to purchase to keep getting OS updates is now my development machine… 🙄
That would be GRAND if Apple didn’t unnecessarily lock iOS compiling to only the very latest MacOS, and iOS application development is the only reason I even own Apple products.
Yeah, I bought a Mac Studio, Mac Pro, and used to own a powerMac G5. The worst part was that Apple sucks at GPU’s and always did. I dumped my Mac Pro when I realised the GPU was totally crap compared to PC half the price on the market, and there was no official way to update it, and keep using MacOS. I could switch GPU, but, Mac OS wouldn’t have the drivers.
It was super embarressing. Despite only needing to support a handful of GPU’s, Apple still didn’t offer a long timeframe of support for that system. The only solution was buy a whole new computer
Apple only updates their computers for about 6-7 years. After that, no new MacOS updates. Architecture changes are unrelated, but, yes, they did that twice in the past 20 years (Microsoft and Linux both support mostly the same architectures they always did, with the itanium builds, or other funky architectures that never succeeded).
In contrast, even Microsoft only JUST broke backwards compatibility with old processors (and, have only done it once)… And I’m not even sure that’s a hard cut off (as, I’ve seen older CPU’s than 7XXX series with windows 11 being sold)
Apple profits on both the OS, and the hardware directly. They’re in full control, and it isn’t as though they need to support a RANGE of hardware. And they charge a premium for this hardware.
As BJW mentioned, even worse, developers hoping to develop for Mac OS or IOS NEED to buy an Apple computer to ensure compatibility with the latest builds. Microsoft doesn’t force you to buy a Surface if you want to develop for them. On Linux, you don’t need a specific system either
with windows 11 it depends a bit, there’s cpus you were able to install win11 with some workarounds but that due to missing cpu instruction sets can’t run newer builds
so the latest win11 major update running on a machine below official system requirements is no guarantee of the next one doing so as well
in a few exceptional cases around the very well known architecture transition that was announced in 2020. They will maintain older mac OSes that are intel compatible, so intel not completely unsupported.
Aside from that, Macs typically get many years of OS updates.
golden gate, out tomorrow iirc, the first macos that’s apple silicon only, and the last to support intel applications via compatibility layer.
tahoe, the previous version and last to support intel cpu, will get two more years of updates. the last intel cpu mac wasn’t discontinued until 2023.
there is no further upgrade path from apple for anything that cannot run golden gate. it’s e-waste to most, a linux goldmine for a few. just like every pre-8th gen era windows pc, but at least with windows you can trick the current version to run on the relics that don’t ‘officially’ support it.
Lol. Right… That’s why my MacBook Pro is collecting dust while the spec-inferior MacBook Air I was required to purchase to keep getting OS updates is now my development machine… 🙄
You don’t need to run macos on that older machine.
I distinctly remember how at some point the “best all around laptop for running windows” was a MacBook pro,
Ofc by now more people are catching on they are much bettered served with linux…
That would be GRAND if Apple didn’t unnecessarily lock iOS compiling to only the very latest MacOS, and iOS application development is the only reason I even own Apple products.
The actual fuck? I didn’t know this, how is that even legal…
Yeah, I bought a Mac Studio, Mac Pro, and used to own a powerMac G5. The worst part was that Apple sucks at GPU’s and always did. I dumped my Mac Pro when I realised the GPU was totally crap compared to PC half the price on the market, and there was no official way to update it, and keep using MacOS. I could switch GPU, but, Mac OS wouldn’t have the drivers.
It was super embarressing. Despite only needing to support a handful of GPU’s, Apple still didn’t offer a long timeframe of support for that system. The only solution was buy a whole new computer
Apple only updates their computers for about 6-7 years. After that, no new MacOS updates. Architecture changes are unrelated, but, yes, they did that twice in the past 20 years (Microsoft and Linux both support mostly the same architectures they always did, with the itanium builds, or other funky architectures that never succeeded).
In contrast, even Microsoft only JUST broke backwards compatibility with old processors (and, have only done it once)… And I’m not even sure that’s a hard cut off (as, I’ve seen older CPU’s than 7XXX series with windows 11 being sold)
Apple profits on both the OS, and the hardware directly. They’re in full control, and it isn’t as though they need to support a RANGE of hardware. And they charge a premium for this hardware.
As BJW mentioned, even worse, developers hoping to develop for Mac OS or IOS NEED to buy an Apple computer to ensure compatibility with the latest builds. Microsoft doesn’t force you to buy a Surface if you want to develop for them. On Linux, you don’t need a specific system either
with windows 11 it depends a bit, there’s cpus you were able to install win11 with some workarounds but that due to missing cpu instruction sets can’t run newer builds
so the latest win11 major update running on a machine below official system requirements is no guarantee of the next one doing so as well