OS X Mountain Lion Officially Drops Support for Some Older 64-Bit Macs

My late 2006 iMac is plenty fast enough for iOS app development, but sometime in the next year I won't have access to the latest Xcode, so will be frozen out.

They must have a better reason than graphics drivers.

throttlemeister said:

... running W7 on his Northwood P4 2.8 single core and 2GB of memory, and it does run just fine - for what he uses his computer for (internet and office stuff). It'll run W8 just as well. A hand-me-down system (from me) built in 2002.

Click to expand...

Great part is that W7 will continue to run until what - 2020 - complete with security updates and driver updates if they happen. With the reduced upgrade pricing on W8, Microsoft clearly seems to be offering the better deal since W7.

And all the bull crap about "legacy resulting in instability" is just that -crap! W7 is stable as a rock.

I'm torn on Apple's thought process.

A) I can appreciate the fact that they will push forward technology, which will prematurely obsolete hardware.
B) I can understand customers being upset that fairly powerful hardware a few years later will be left behind for (seemingly) no reason.

That said, ML is not an absolute necessity (for now). My older (2006) MBP still runs 10.6 like a champ. No plans to move beyond that. My 2010 runs Lion nicely and I suspect will run ML nicely as well.

Not in the market for a new Mac, nor do I yet have the money. Maybe 2014 or 2015...

O and A said:

I have 3 - 2007 mac pros at work. Not happy. Especialy as an iOS developer where apple will surely force me to run the latest OS X to run the latest version of xcode.

Click to expand...

My suggestion: Sell them at Craig's List quickly and buy some used ones that are supported (I mean used, so it doesn't break your bank) - before Mountainlion is out of its cage.

Navdakilla said:

Not a big deal. They are dropping support for computers 4-5 years old.
I would love to see my old single core windows xp computer handle windows 8.

Click to expand...

There are tons of of machines close to 10 years old now that will run windows 7 and windows 8. Windows 8 is actually less resource intensive than windows 7. Windows 7 runs great on these machines as well.

Baytriple said:

I am running my Mac Pro 2,1 on Mountain Lion DP4. I'll be upgrading it when it is paid for.

You CAN run it on a Mac Pro 2,1 and earlier.

It took me a little time but really it is quite simple once you know what you are doing. You can PM me if you need any help.

Here is how you do it on a Mac Pro

http://www.jabbawok.net/?p=47

Click to expand...

Yup Providing you dump that old 7300GT, its all cool.

Well, I guess my Early 2008 Macbook (That still runs Lion with no issue at all) won't be getting ML. I'll still put it on my iMac but it's kinda annoying that I'm sure it would run fine and won't be getting supported anyway. Might downgrade it to SL in order to play old games I guess, since it won't be supported for new OS' anyway.

ChazUK said:

Does it meet these specs?

Click to expand...

Once you loose the ipad2...what rumors site will you follow

Cisco VPN?

Well, this is ok by me as I'm lucky enough to have a new rMBP except when it comes to VPN. It's beautiful, but absolutely can't boot (and work) in 32bit mode. Of course I've only got a 32bit Cisco VPN client, so I can't use that. There is a 64bit Cisco VPN client, but Cisco wants people to PAY for that client... ugh

Apple's internal "Cisco VPN" works for 40 minutes then stops working. So that means every 40 minutes I've got to reconnect to the vpn.. ugh.

So, I hope apple has REALLY FIXED the "Cisco VPN" to work properly in ML, otherwise I can't use a brand new state of the art laptop with a Cisco VPN... (I even tried Shimo, but that doesn't work properly either).... ugh

Anyone else in this boat? Suggestions?

I find it odd that an 07 iMac is supported, but an 07 Mac Pro is not

hobo.hopkins said:

People can't legitimately expect to receive the newest updates on machines that are 3+ years old.

Click to expand...

I thought the iOSification of OS X was bad but it aint nothing compared to the Androdification.

bedifferent said:

So worst case, a complete rewrite for a kext in order to support hardware that can run 10.8 would be required. Wasn't 10.8 a complete re-write of Lion, as 10.6 was for 10.5?

Apple could have easily implemented support for certain systems that still technically meet the necessary requirements. Instead, iOS features seemed to be the focus for engineers and Apple can sell more hardware for those who need 10.8 support. Sorry, but this is simply a business strategy by a company that pushes a 3 year turn over rate for their systems (OS X and AppleCare support are evidence to this point).

UPDATE: Thank you MacRumors for FINALLY removing the negative voting system!

Click to expand...

Oh it is still there...just have to vote up first then down...

I guess I was wrong...can't vote my own comment down...

Guess you really need to disagree to vote it down.

KnightWRX said:

First Unibody Macbooks released in 2008 had EFI32 only and yet can still run Mountain Lion.

Click to expand...

My Stepdad has one and it Has EFI64 and will boot 64 K+E
Correction, It's a later Pro he has.

TDPHunter said:

I think this is just a case of the sweet spot. Apple Supports computers for 5 years and then they get labeled Vintage (aka Unsupported/Obsolete). This is just that rare case when some hardware was 32-bit when it should of been 64-bit. Anytime I look at buying a computer I always look at the internals and see what the life span of the technology is or if I may have a problem in the future. When everything was moving to 64-bit I wouldn't of bought a Mac that had hardware that only supported 32-bit drivers. Unfortunately, because of Marketing and things like that.. your average consumer wouldn't be thinking about this.

Click to expand...

Agreed, although that being the case Apple should keep supporting and providing security updates for Snow Leopard for at least another year or two to compensate.

Moonjumper said:

My late 2006 iMac is plenty fast enough for iOS app development, but sometime in the next year I won't have access to the latest Xcode, so will be frozen out.

They must have a better reason than graphics drivers.

Click to expand...

Yes, its called stop updating and supporting 10.6 and make you buy a new mac.

Itpirate said:

I find it odd that an 07 iMac is supported, but an 07 Mac Pro is not

Click to expand...

Completely different graphics chips.

I wonder if it'd really be that big of a deal to re-write and test those graphics drivers, if it's the fact that even if they did, the performance wouldn't bee good enough.

Say they contract out 5 drivers for $100,000 each. 250,000 people would have to upgrade at $20/each to break even. You know, Apple can't spare $500,000

Maybe it costs $250,000 to contract out a graphics driver I don't know.

Future hacks...

Anyone think there will be a future hack to get AirDisplay to work on a mid 2009 MBP? The machine is ML compatible for some reason you don't get the AirDisplay feature. Was quite looking forward to that one too.

This is pretty annoying! I'm just waiting for my MacBook Pro to get discarded now. Although, I was thinking about upgrade to a new one when my pay cheque comes through.

I've got a Mac Pro 1,1 (dual Core 2 Duo processors) and runs very well, so this is a bummer - a year from now this very capable system won't be able to get new security updates for the OS (as Lion will fall out of the two release security support line).

I can see what Apple is saying here with not wanting to write new drivers for graphics (although just for that let us buy a supported card and drop it in)...

I'd like Apple to give me security updates on Snow Leopard (which ends this month because Lion was only out for a year) or Lion and future OS releases for about the same amount of time they used to do that before their move to yearly OS releases with Mountain Lion (which drastically reduced the time of that security update support is available for new OS's).

applesith said:

Not too unreasonable.

Click to expand...

Quite good in my book too. My 2007 iMac came with Tiger 10.4.10 then i got Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion and now Mountain Lion. No too shabby i think.

I'm not 100% convinced my old MBP will work, it looks like it should work, but I won't know. Even if it DOES work, I'm sure it will be the end of the line for it. Time to upgrade. Now to convince the wife of that.

I love it. You can't swing a cat around here without hitting somebody who swears they'll never give up Snow Leopard. Now people are up in arms because their second hand eBay specials won't load ML. XD

it isn't true that any Mac capable of running a 64bit kernel is being dropped. The Early 2008 XServe is also being dropped... which is a huge pain for us.

us being my employer ;-)

TDPHunter said:

I think this is just a case of the sweet spot. Apple Supports computers for 5 years and then they get labeled Vintage (aka Unsupported/Obsolete). This is just that rare case when some hardware was 32-bit when it should of been 64-bit. Anytime I look at buying a computer I always look at the internals and see what the life span of the technology is or if I may have a problem in the future. When everything was moving to 64-bit I wouldn't of bought a Mac that had hardware that only supported 32-bit drivers. Unfortunately, because of Marketing and things like that.. your average consumer wouldn't be thinking about this.

Click to expand...

That's the problem of my Mac Pro 1.1 they lie to me saying that is 64bit (but EFI is 32bit) I have sell it and bought a PC Workstation!

domness said:

It's pretty annoying, but good things will come from the move. It gives Apple the time and resources to develop only for machines that run 64 bit, thus not having to cater for an old set of machines that can only run 32 bit.

Click to expand...

Did I fall asleep and wake up in a universe where Apple are short of resources?
Also isn't this thread called "OS X Mountain Lion Officially Drops Support for Some Older 64-Bit Macs"? I assume the machines in question can run 64bit just fine.