Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple to Phase Out 32-Bit Mac Apps Starting in January 2018
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Mojave still runs 32-bit apps with a warning, but there's a good chance 10.15 won't run them at all.
It’s not a “good chance”, it has already been announced at this year’s WWDC that Mojave will be the last version of macOS to run 32bit apps.
Removal of support and outright breaking of decades old legacy applications is a feature, not a bug, I work with enterprise IT and most serious, big and very expensive problems are caused by people holding on to ridiculously old technology and processes. The way Windows is built makes sure I willl have a highly paid job for the forseeable future, but it an overall negative for humankind.
I’m totally in agreement with MagnusVonMagnum on this issue.
That’s the trouble .... what you call ‘moving forward’ will be the death of Apple, because if you move too fast and burn bridges behind you and alienate your loyal customer base ..... reducing connectivity to all their much loved tech and software without providing any option to make it work, is Apple arrogance at it’s worst, throwing it’s long term loyal customers overboard without a lifebelt.
Those with brains will swim ashore and might find an alternative paradise island where their tech still has a chance to work.
Windows. Archaic is sometimes best. Surprising and shocking how many industrial/ government systems still run on Windows 98 .....
Obscene profits means Apple barely notices the steady trickle of users switching to Samsung phones, Android tablets and a faster leaner Windows laptop experience that gives more choice, connectivity, increasingly a faster software experience ..... and for the nostalgic who want to use their old tech ..... at least some options.
Footnote case to illustrate: Bought an Alesis Micron analogue modelling synth the other day ....a few years old, knocks out some great sounds, but a devil to programme. Someone developed a Mac programme that allowed you to tweak many of the parameters in real time. Alas Apple’s so called progressive changes broke that app a few years back.
Multiply this story many many times .... to get an idea of the legacy of so called Apple ‘Upgrades’ ..... (Downgrades to many) over the last 10 years.
I’m lucky my Macbook Pro with built in DVD drive, firewire, 2xusb, sd card slot, stereo out, stereo mic input, ethernet, built in camera is still working and gives me a chance to use my music gear + do video ..... but only if I split my hard drive 30/70% and install Snow Leopard and all my old compatible apps that talk fast and efficiently to each other.
Needless to say, I keep the 30% for the modern, slower, glitchy useless brainrot stuff Apple produces today that has minimal interest or function ..... otherwise using the Internet, where other software developers have the same Apple Disease(breaking good old apps that work well) .... would be impossible.
Surely all the brains in this industry can develop software construct architecture that can accomodate a bolt on retro interface that allows us to talk to old tech and old software (possibly) across platforms.
Then we could all ‘progress’ at OUR own speed.
This is a major frustration to customers .... time the industries listened, got together and brokered a deal to make this work ..... develop a high speed software adapter that talks across platforms and always plugs into each manufacturers future development programmes.
It’s a big ask making it high speed ..... but computers used to be about multi communication options ..... and speed.
My working speed in all areas of my computer has slowed since Snow Leopard days ...... so when software people talk of “moving forward” .... why does my computer/tech experience go in reverse each “upgrade”?
Conclusion: The old guard programmers were much better at building a SOLID experience.
These sorts of decisions where ‘idiots’ at Apple and elsewhere break our tech ..... beware ..... when the Internet becomes too archaic ..... their Machiavellian scheme will be to declare that obsolete too ..... break your connection to talk privately to each other (under threat already, even with encryption), the revolution will end, brainless apps will predominate .... and the current Western Model of the Totalitarian State developing rapidly by those who allegedly orchestrated 9/11 will be almost complete.
Then we can all kiss Freedom and Democracy Goodbye. Game Over.
That’s the trouble .... what you call ‘moving forward’ will be the death of Apple, because if you move too fast and burn bridges behind you and alienate your loyal customer base ..... reducing connectivity to all their much loved tech and software without providing any option to make it work, is Apple arrogance at it’s worst, throwing it’s long term loyal customers overboard without a lifebelt.
Those with brains will swim ashore and might find an alternative paradise island where their tech still has a chance to work.
Windows. Archaic is sometimes best. Surprising and shocking how many industrial/ government systems still run on Windows 98 .....
Obscene profits means Apple barely notices the steady trickle of users switching to Samsung phones, Android tablets and a faster leaner Windows laptop experience that gives more choice, connectivity, increasingly a faster software experience ..... and for the nostalgic who want to use their old tech ..... at least some options.
Footnote case to illustrate: Bought an Alesis Micron analogue modelling synth the other day ....a few years old, knocks out some great sounds, but a devil to programme. Someone developed a Mac programme that allowed you to tweak many of the parameters in real time. Alas Apple’s so called progressive changes broke that app a few years back.
Multiply this story many many times .... to get an idea of the legacy of so called Apple ‘Upgrades’ ..... (Downgrades to many) over the last 10 years.
I’m lucky my Macbook Pro with built in DVD drive, firewire, 2xusb, sd card slot, stereo out, stereo mic input, ethernet, built in camera is still working and gives me a chance to use my music gear + do video ..... but only if I split my hard drive 30/70% and install Snow Leopard and all my old compatible apps that talk fast and efficiently to each other.
Needless to say, I keep the 30% for the modern, slower, glitchy useless brainrot stuff Apple produces today that has minimal interest or function ..... otherwise using the Internet, where other software developers have the same Apple Disease(breaking good old apps that work well) .... would be impossible.
Surely all the brains in this industry can develop software construct architecture that can accomodate a bolt on retro interface that allows us to talk to old tech and old software (possibly) across platforms.
Then we could all ‘progress’ at OUR own speed.
This is a major frustration to customers .... time the industries listened, got together and brokered a deal to make this work ..... develop a high speed software adapter that talks across platforms and always plugs into each manufacturers future development programmes.
It’s a big ask making it high speed ..... but computers used to be about multi communication options ..... and speed.
My working speed in all areas of my computer has slowed since Snow Leopard days ...... so when software people talk of “moving forward” .... why does my computer/tech experience go in reverse each “upgrade”?
Conclusion: The old guard programmers were much better at building a SOLID experience.
These sorts of decisions where ‘idiots’ at Apple and elsewhere break our tech ..... beware ..... when the Internet becomes too archaic ..... their Machiavellian scheme will be to declare that obsolete too ..... break your connection to talk privately to each other (under threat already, even with encryption), the revolution will end, brainless apps will predominate .... and the current Western Model of the Totalitarian State developing rapidly by those who allegedly orchestrated 9/11 will be almost complete.
Then we can all kiss Freedom and Democracy Goodbye. Game Over.
Apple should offer a boxed emulator mode for games, at least. Most older games will not get updated and things like VMWare don't run media/sound/graphics worth a damn on older Mac OS versions (unlike Windows in VMWare, where it does a reasonably good job with "most" games). Apple is slitting their own software throat by wiping out almost two decades worth of OS X software and almost every game made in the past 15-16 (out of 18) years. Not a smart move AT ALL. It will just continue to drive more people to Windows (which historically, by comparison has gone out of its way to maintain software compatibility) and virtual computers run older Windows software far better than the Mac (which until only a few years ago, wouldn't allow ANYTHING to be run in VMWare but the "Pro" versions of OS X. I've got Snow Leopard in VMWare and without a 3rd party hack it has NO SOUND (and with the hack, it still has LAGGED POOR SOUND). Graphics? Forget about it. It can't run a single video file in Snow Leopard. Total CRAP.
Not to forget, that under Windows, you've got options like dgVoodoo, nGlide and such. Great for old games on modern displays.
And there is also WINE, that helps run older Windows stuff under Linux, BSD, Mac etc.
Just like Apple no longer exists because it wiped out over two decades worth of Apple II games, Apple III software, Lisa software, Mac 68k games, non-32-bit-clean Mac software, Newton software, PPC software, iPhone 3G games, iPhone 4 apps, and more. Just look at how much higher the competition's customer satisfaction ratings have risen above Apple's.
;-P
It is NOT a feature, it is absolutely a bug.
Intentionally breaking software is a nightmare far worse than dealing with legacy software. Sure, it's nice to have nothing but new clean-ish code on a system. But having business-critical software that will never be updated intentionally broken is why businesses are terrified of Apple these days.
The costs involved with replacing a functioning workflow are always high, and can sink a business. I've seen it happen more than once that a small business will fail because of legacy software breaking. THAT is an overall negative for humankind.
[doublepost=1538063716][/doublepost]
Apple almost didn't exist because of the way the Apple II was treated. You're forgetting how close Apple came to failing because of that stupidity back in the '80s.
Apple had over 50% of the education market with the Apple II. That went down to almost nothing for over a decade because Apple utterly failed to provide a sane path forward.
Apple had nearly 50% of the small business market with the Apple II. They're nowhere close even today.
Yes, Apple still exists, and is bigger than ever. But that was really iffy for a while. And Apple still doesn't have anywhere close to the market share they had in the early '80s.
Not supporting legacy software is a MAJOR mistake. Apple will survive it, but I guarantee business customers WILL be lost over this.
You have it both right and wrong at the same time. The reason a small business can and does fail due to legacy software breaking is precisely because there is no forced upgrade threadmill or not enough of it, resulting in companies accumulating technical debt for DECADES until eventually, a tiny little something happens and the whole thing comes crumbling down.
I fully applaud the idea of either forcing you to pick and stick with regularly maintained software or forcing you to chose another platform altogether. Apple obviously doesn't want this specific type of customer and I fully understand why (they don't want to be blamed for problems that are not theirs to solve, just as Microsoft repeatedly and constantly gets blamed for problems caused by some random 3rd party vendor software from 1997, even though Microsoft's own work is obviously not problem-free).
Comparing an Apple II to Mac games that came out just a few years ago isn't the smartest comparison I've ever heard.
(You can run an Apple emulator easily for one thing if you really want to run that software; the same is not true of more recent Mac software as stated even with VMWare)
Don't need to emulate. Just keep bootable drives or partitions around with your previous versions of OS X. Do that before upgrading to newer OS versions. Older Macs stay in working condition for a very long time if you take care of them. Plenty available on ebay/et.al.
Or if I want to emulate some ancient PPC apps, I just get out my older Intel MacBook, switch the boot partition, and boot Snow Leopard.
You may laugh, but one of the Xbox One's most loved feature is its backwards compatibility all the way back to the original xbox. And my SE is running 10.3.3 because my favorite iPhone game isn't 64bit.Yeah, I'll dig out my old Amiga 3000 and Atari 2600 too....
Companies seem to generally avoid that and I can only assume that's because they're afraid you're going to be spending too much time playing old games instead of buying new ones, but if you want a happy customer that will buy more hardware from you in the future, they should consider what customers want a little more carefully, IMO. The only thing holding me back from just buying a Windows 10 machine at this point is the forced updates and what amounts basically to M$ spying on some of the things you do (don't know how far for sure, but I've heard they can key log if they want to). I never liked their software licensing agreements in general either. But what I hate about Apple is them constantly disappointing in terms of game support (they generally don't help AT ALL and often make things worse), the way they utterly ignored Blu-Ray (took 3rd parties to make it work) and generally seem to be heading towards a Mac App store ONLY policy at some point in the future (which will likely kill most/all 3rd party open type software and all emulators, etc. making the Mac almost WORTHLESS seeing as I rip/encode for home theater on it currently and they would never approve such tools on the App Store, etc.) Linux desktop could be OK if they didn't have a half dozen various largely incompatible versions that STILL require SOMEONE to make binaries for the distribution or you have to get out the compiler yourself. There's very little commercial software support either. I've never been LESS excited about desktop computing as I have been in the past few years.
If you restart weekly, you'll probably never have to worry about an unexpected reboot for an update.
Their data collection is horrible compared to something like Windows 98, but in reality it's no better or worse than using a smartphone. If you have an Android phone and a gmail account (that you use), Google knows far more about you than Microsoft could ever hope to.