Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Anyone using a pre apple intelligence OS on an m series?

D

dairymilkbatman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 4, 2025
8
2
I know, I know, a controversial subject. Please, I just want to know if anyone is running one of the OS versions pre apple intelligence?
I think that would be Big Sur through to one of the early sequoia's?

Got an old air (m2) with smallest HD that needs to be as streamlined as possible so it can serve its last days out with purpose!


Many thanks!
 
  • Like
Reactions: maxoakland
Why? It's not like the so called "AI" is going to run in the background stealing all your data all the time. There are only some quite weak features that are totally optional and can be disabled.
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Mitchan1999 and TechnoMonk
dairymilkbatman said:
I know, I know, a controversial subject.
Click to expand...
Why?

dairymilkbatman said:
I think that would be Big Sur through to one of the early sequoia's?
Click to expand...
Generally speaking, you cannot install an older version of macOS then the one that came with your Mac (there are exceptions of course). My mac came with sequoia, I have not invested any time, or energy to see if I could install sonoma. Right now Sequoia works fine for me, though I am tempted to see what the fuss is about with Tahoe
 
maflynn said:
Why?


Generally speaking, you cannot install an older version of macOS then the one that came with your Mac (there are exceptions of course). My mac came with sequoia, I have not invested any time, or energy to see if I could install sonoma. Right now Sequoia works fine for me, though I am tempted to see what the fuss is about with Tahoe
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why, but an observation of the search results on this subject tells me that people seem to be offended that someone would do such a thing :p

Regarding compatibility between models, this makes sense, however; it would also make sense to me that code for the ARM architecture was introduced a few versions back (big sur maybe? not sure) and so I running earlier OS(n) should be fine - in theory. :)
I may try the softwareupdate CLI tool on this old mac since I don't mind bricking it etc
 
dairymilkbatman said:
people seem to be offended
Click to expand...
Who cares what other people think. You use what you want, what fills a need or what you enjoy. I don't care what some stranger on reddit thinks of me using a particular product.

dairymilkbatman said:
it would also make sense to me that code for the ARM architecture was introduced a few versions back (big sur maybe? not sure)
Click to expand...
The M4 Max Studio was released in March 2025, so its highly likely that Sonoma released in 2023 does not have the kexts/device drivers needed for the M4 Max Studio. While you're correct that the ARM architecture is largely the same, how Apple implements the details does matter and its very likely that older operating systems won't run. I know this was a thing since intel macs, and truth be told, I wasn't really interested in going backwards back then, and less so today. What I'm saying is YMMV
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: _Mitchan1999, TechnoMonk and splifingate
Who cares what other people think. You use what you want, what fills a need or what you enjoy. I don't care what some stranger on reddit thinks of me using a particular product.
Click to expand...
Thank you Sir!
Very much agree.

The M4 Max Studio was released in March 2025, so its highly likely that Sonoma released in 2023 does not have the kexts/device drivers needed for the M4 Max Studio. While you're correct that the ARM architecture is largely the same, how Apple implements the details does matter and its very likely that older operating systems won't run. I know this was a thing since intel macs, and truth be told, I wasn't really interested in going backwards back then, and less so today. What I'm saying is YMMV
Click to expand...
This is exactly the data I was after. Since I am fairly new to apple products, I don't have the memory to recall of such events. (From linux world). I wasn't aware of this being the case with the intel based macs. It definitely wasn't self-evident to me that this would be the case. Seeing as it was, then I can now see this being the case today. Apple -as a company- do weird things, it seems.

In light of that, I wonder if apple would tailor each download to each specific mac, with slight variations in the code base. Seems more probable to me that they would bundle x86 and ARM into a single ISO, or .app, or whatever apple use.
Guess I'll have to find out. I'll figure out what my m2 came with, then revert it to the an earlier OS with ARM support and see what happens :D
 
Fishrrman said:
I still use Sonoma on my 2021 MacBook Pro 14".
It runs well enough and I'm satisfied to "stay right there" for now...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input. This is what came with the mac though right? I am interested in reverting back to a OS version that was released before my model macbook.


UPDATE:
I used softwareupdate cli tool to download monterey to put on my m2, during creating the USB iso, it failed because the OS was complaining about 'myfindiphone'.
This is the problem with apple... I should not need to find my iphone to write a disk... I disabled that months ago.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back