Apple Adds Three More Macs to Obsolete Products List

[Happy_John]

I was thinking the other day that OCLP might come back in some form to the M machines, but idk. Even AsahiLinux is having a rough road on the M machines, with some stuff still inside the black box.

So until those guys move forward with porting stuff to Linux, we might not get moving at the OCLP thingy.

We will see, but these 4 years, will be interesting years at Apple. New CEO, new product strategy? The return of paid MacOS updates (subscription based)?

Realistically, there can’t be any decent playing around with the “OCLP” idea, finding ways of running later versions of macOS on on M-chip Macs that have been “blocked”, until there is a version of macOS that “doesn’t support” (according to Apple) M1 based Macs.

But there will be people who will give it a go, just as I’m pretty sure people won’t give up working in Linux distrustful for M-chip Macs.

It’s a challenge, and there’s people who see challenges as puzzles to be solved, just for the sake of solving them.

 

[osxhero]

At this point in the game, that could add nearly all the the machines to the obsolete list. I've religiously used Apple products since 1983, even worked with Jobs for three years, and today, the machines are 2x a Windows / Linux alternate, and are a performance embarrassment. No one who does anything serious with a machine for money can stomach the time to render, visualize, anything on these consumer machines. Great to grandma, but not so good for students trying to grind AI locally or 3D render, or create a game, or edit a video, etc.

 

[Happy_John]

At this point in the game, that could add nearly all the the machines to the obsolete list. I've religiously used Apple products since 1983, even worked with Jobs for three years, and today, the machines are 2x a Windows / Linux alternate, and are a performance embarrassment. No one who does anything serious with a machine for money can stomach the time to render, visualize, anything on these consumer machines. Great to grandma, but not so good for students trying to grind AI locally or 3D render, or create a game, or edit a video, etc.

I wouldn’t go that far. Yes, the difference in the user experience between an Intel Mac and an AS Mac is immense, and it’s very frustrating to go back to an Intel Mac in terms of the momentary stutters, the heat, the fan noise and the lag.

But they’re far from dead if repurposed. The 2016+ MacBook Pros are NOT good computers, but the display is pretty damn good and the speakers are acceptable, if just viewing content.

Intel unibody Mac minis are still ridiculously useful boxes - two drive bays, upgradable, they’re great as small file servers, media boxes for a TV, and as TimeMachine backup boxes.

 

[Massy1989]

RIP to the 2017 MacBook Pro, the loudest fan noise MBP ever made.

Current MBP with Ollama disagrees

 

[Killbynumbers]

RIP to the 2017 MacBook Pro, the loudest fan noise MBP ever made.

My 2019 16" intel would like to speak with you.

 

[AppliedVisual]

Good to know about this. Also good to see that Apple will change the battery upto the 10 year mark.

unless its the 12" MacBook with that quirky tapered leaf battery.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Making perfectly good hardware obsolete shows care for the environment by making unnecessary electronic waste. 🥲

Obsolete does not make hardware stop working.

If anything, it's the user's fault to get rid of obsolete hardware, buy something new and create unnecessary electronic waste. If the user had common sense (s)he would know that obsolete hardware continues to do the same things it did before.

I continued to use my MBP 15" Intel i9 TouchBar for more than a year after it was declared obsolete. Guess what: nothing changed and it could do the same things it did before. I upgraded to silicon because of a Black Friday deal too good to resist but I still have that Mac.

If you want to blame Apple then I suggest you blame them for the iMac debacle, where it should be perfectly possible to continue to use that iMac as an external screen when the computer inside dies. Now that's a disgusting waste of a perfectly good screen.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Webster's dictionary: Obsolete means no longer in use or out of date

"No longer in use" is not the context that Apple means when it uses obsolete.

 

[benwiggy]

We will see, but these 4 years, will be interesting years at Apple. New CEO, new product strategy? The return of paid MacOS updates (subscription based)?

They won't sell the OS. Apple wants every Mac/Phone/Pad on the latest OS. Fragmentation of the user base makes it more difficult for support, security and third-party app development.

However, I envisage that macOS might become more "basic", more locked down; and only those who pay the Developer subscription, or some other "Pro" tier, will have fewer restrictions.

 

[Happy_John]

Obsolete does not make hardware stop working.

If anything, it's the user's fault to get rid of obsolete hardware, buy something new and create unnecessary electronic waste. If the user had common sense (s)he would know that obsolete hardware continues to do the same things it did before.

It’s Apple’s commitment to provide hardware and software support for the device that is obsolete, not the device itself.

If you want to blame Apple then I suggest you blame them for the iMac debacle, where it should be perfectly possible to continue to use that iMac as an external screen when the computer inside dies. Now that's a disgusting waste of a perfectly good screen.

This. It’s ridiculous. How diificult would it have been to offer users a „thin” OŚ that allows the iMac to be used as a monitor with speaker, moc nad webcam support, instalkę from the recovery boot menu?

 

[Dirk Pieters]

This. It’s ridiculous. How diificult would it have been to offer users a „thin” OŚ that allows the iMac to be used as a monitor with speaker, moc nad webcam support, instalkę from the recovery boot menu?

I have been tempted by the iMac to have something complete to work on in the living room. But I'll never buy one until Apple allows me to use it as an external screen even when the computer inside it is dead. It should be as easy as plugging it into another computer.

It is a total disgrace for a company that virtue signals itself with movies about Mother Nature and at the same time not allowing this.

 

[TigerDeLSU]

Good to know about this. Also good to see that Apple will change the battery upto the 10 year mark.

Just note their battery prices are more than double Amazon prices. The Apple Store wanted $249 to replace the battery in my 2018 MBP 13" laptop. I got the replacement battery from Amazon for about $105 and did the replacement myself. I knew the "obsolescence" was coming soon anyway. It has no trade-in value, Apple will only recycle it (whatever that means).

 

[sdfox7]

Source: Wikipedia

 

[Happy_John]

Apple will only recycle it (whatever that means).

Exactly what it sounds like. They pull apart devices for specific metals etc and melt them back down.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Source: Wikipedia

View attachment 2657549

This is not what is happening here. The 3 devices in the topic are machines from 2017/2018 which Apple no longer supports. They are 8/9 years old. I wonder what people expect from Apple.

Even car companies only sell new parts for a certain model for a certain amount of time.

 

[sdfox7]

This is not what is happening here. The 3 devices in the topic are machines from 2017/2018 which Apple no longer supports. They are 8/9 years old. I wonder what people expect from Apple.

Even car companies only sell new parts for a certain model for a certain amount of time.

I feel that in the past we saw much longer support cycles.

My MD101 2012 MacBook Pro shipped with OSX Lion 10.7, and was supported all the way to OS Catalina 10.15. That's 9 years of major OS versions.

By the time Catalina support ended in 2022, that MacBook was officially supported for 10 years (there was another update this past February to 10.15.8)

It's obvious Apple is trying to shed Intel support as fast as possible, and isn't committed to supporting them. Anyone who bought an Intel Mac in 2019 or 2020, before the Silicon announcement, got the short end of the stick.

Think of all the people who bought new Intel Macs during the height of the pandemic in early 2020, when demand for computers and work from home was through the roof. Apple would release Silicon only six months later.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

I feel that in the past we saw much longer support cycles.

My MD101 2012 MacBook Pro shipped with OSX Lion 10.7, and was supported all the way to OS Catalina 10.15. That's 9 years of major OS versions.

By the time Catalina support ended in 2022, that MacBook was officially supported for 10 years (there was another update this past February to 10.15.8)

It's obvious Apple is trying to shed Intel support as fast as possible, and isn't committed to supporting them. Anyone who bought an Intel Mac in 2019 or 2020, before the Silicon announcement, got the short end of the stick.

Think of all the people who bought new Intel Macs during the height of the pandemic in early 2020, when demand for computers and work from home was through the roof. Apple would release Silicon only six months later.

There will always be people who buy new hardware at the worst time possible. There is no one to blame, it just happens.

I bought my Intel MBP 15" TouchBar in 2019. Even though it became obsolete last year I still saw a few updates for it. Given the change in architecture and how fast Apple moves ... I understand why they want to get rid of Intel.

Given the circumstances, we would all do the same.

 

[Happy_John]

There will always be people who buy new hardware at the worst time possible. There is no one to blame, it just happens.

I bought my Intel MBP 15" TouchBar in 2019. Even though it became obsolete last year I still saw a few updates for it. Given the change in architecture and how fast Apple moves ... I understand why they want to get rid of Intel.

Given the circumstances, we would all do the same.

Yep. Given what they had with the M1 chip, it made sense for them to get it onto the market. Delaying the launch to keep Intel owners happy might have been nice, but a terrible business decision.

The M1 chip wiped the floor with any comparable intel laptop chip of the time.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Yep. Given what they had with the M1 chip, it made sense for them to get it onto the market. Delaying the launch to keep Intel owners happy might have been nice, but a terrible business decision.

The M1 chip wiped the floor with any comparable intel laptop chip of the time.

During the period of delay people would have bought Intel machines, so it's just moving the goal post.

Unless they stopped selling Intel machines 6 months before release, which would have eaten into their sales. It's a no win situation.

Except we all won with Apple silicon.

 

[sdfox7]

Yep. Given what they had with the M1 chip, it made sense for them to get it onto the market. Delaying the launch to keep Intel owners happy might have been nice, but a terrible business decision.

The M1 chip wiped the floor with any comparable intel laptop chip of the time.

Would you consider removing the headphones and power adapters from new phones and computers a bad business decision?

The irony is that every new Mac still includes a headphone jack, 10 years after it was removed from the iPhone.

It's pretty humorous how inconsistent Apple's "decisions" have been over the past 10 years.

 

[Happy_John]

Would you consider removing the headphones and power adapters from new phones and computers a bad business decision?

The irony is that every new Mac still includes a headphone jack, 10 years after it was removed from the iPhone.

It's pretty humorous how inconsistent Apple's "decisions" have been over the past 10 years.

Well, it comes down to whether the market accepts it or not. F the market accepts it, it would be a good be sinews decision. Not a nice one for buyers, but a good one for the company.

People didn’t stop buying iPhones when Apple removed the headphone jack. Apple sells are lot of AirPods. So it was a good business decision.

Business isn’t nice.

The same goes for removing the power brick from the iPhone box. It didn’t stop people buying. So again, not nice, but good business.

Stop thinking business should be nice. It isn’t. It’s simply about selling the minimum for the maximum price, as long as the market gears and accepts it.

F you think that is evil, think about your own work and income. If you could be paid more more money for doing the same work, or less if the same work, would you say no to that?

 

[mlayer]

I have two 2017 products: an iMac Pro which is not on either the vintage or obsolete list, and a iPad Pro which is on the vintage list. It's about time for a new full size iPad.

 

[ignatius345]

The 2018 Retina MacBook Air

Still wishing for a proper successor to this thing. Put Apple Silicon inside and ship it with a working keyboard this time, and I’d spend way too much on it. I really want another MacBook I can forget is in my bag.