My experience was different. Linux works fine for me. The Cinnamon version of Mint runs on 2014 Minis just fine, and the MATE version runs on the 2012 Mini. Both of those Macs have 8 GB RAM and SSDs.
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Google Chrome 150 Will Be Last Version to Support macOS Monterey
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Without a doubt it is planned obsolescence. There is no reason older Mac's cannot run newer OS's. Windows seems to be able to do this just fine but with Apple every OS seems to break something somewhere. We get used to that and have just come to expect that. One an old MacMini that is running Mountain Lion. It is used to run a wide format Epson printer that I have at home. The software itself was not supposed to be able to run on anything higher the Snow Leopard. It runs as it should in Mountain Lion but because of the requirements put on by the software company of the OS it makes it unusable for a clean install without going back in the computer to load the old OS and then load the software and update from there. If I wanted to update the software itself it is around $3K for a used copy and as I just use this at home for random things here and there I just keep the old MacMini running and never update. All that being said with the way Apple has gone about OS's every year it allows companies to also have planned obsolesce as they can control the requirements of their software and not allow an installer to work beyond what they want. Expensive in print production and a reason why many prefer Windows for RIPs because they are expensive and they are not worried about a Windows OS update ruining all that.
EugW
macrumors P6
On a 2014 mini with 8 GB RAM and SSD, I’d rather just run Monterey even given its upcoming browser limitations. However, I ended up selling mine a while back and buying a used M1 to replace it. And now I’m on the M4.
Linux has its place, but there’s a reason why the mainstream likes macOS way, way better than Linux.
Yes to both. By default is doesn't block 3rd party cookies but you can change that in settings. I use Ublock Origin Lite for Chrome and it works well. If you want to block most cookie permission prompts, try the "I don't care about cookies" extension. Works pretty well.
Typo - yes I meant macOS 🙂
I’m sure at some point in the next few years, they’ll stop supporting Intel Macs too
EugW
macrumors P6
Tahoe is the last macOS version that supports Intel Macs, so I’d guess Chrome will stop supporting all Intel Macs around 2030 or so… which is OK, since the last Intel Mac was released in 2020.
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WarmWinterHat
Suspended
Google roughly drops browser support when the vender drops OS security update support. Same happens with Chrome on Windows.
Windows 10 support, for example, for Chrome is expected to end in 2028, when the ESU period ends. Windows 7 was dropped in 2023 at the end of its ESU period.
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Need to be careful since Firefox will sometimes prompt to download a new version when that version no longer supports that OS. Always save a copy of Firefox before updating a base version.
ASentientBot
macrumors 6502a
have you tried using the Safari 15 that comes with Monterey recently? as non-ideal as Chrome is, at least it's not downright unusable for current sites (i use Firefox on my older Intel Macs)
dannys1
macrumors 601
No it's the sort of nonsense I see DAILY on Threads. Not cherrypicked, it's in my timeline constantly - the world is full of imbeciles, we're beyond capacity.
dannys1
macrumors 601
What utter nonsense. Windows 11 doesn't support anything older than a late 2017 processor with TPM2.0. Sequoia supported the same with the 2017 Mac Pro.
Monterey is OLD and supports computers back to 2014 - 12 year old systems. Developers can't continue to support very macOS version forever, it's not an arbitrary decision to restrict usage to a specific OS it's because the software will make user of newer APIs and have fall-back legacy support makes an app bloated and more time consuming to maintain.
I don't know what Google want to do that specifically needs the newer versions of macOS, nor do I care, the software is free and they want the most users possible so they've obviously decided that supporting Macs older than 10 years old isn't in their interest.
It's not like those Macs suddenly can't browse the internet, there are tens of other options - but I don't think it's unreasonable at all for a 12 year old system to stop getting the latest updates. I wouldn't want to be using any Intel based Mac anymore, let alone one from 2014!
I am not talking hardware, I am talking OS. I was running a 25+ year old RIP on Windows 11 ARM in a virtual PC on my Mac, I was surprised it would run because of the ARM aspect. By Apple having new OS's every year it makes it very easy for software developers to just stop supporting it and forcing obsolescent. There is no way the entire OS is changing so much that software will not install anymore because it is a version or 2 older.
I have a 2014 5K iMac that was my workhorse for many years and would still be if I could update the OS. Now I get that Apple Silicon has changed a lot of things and have no gripe with that, but this iMac was out of date before that. I could go about the back channels and update to a newer OS and will probably try that at some time when I have a bit more free time to get into it. I do get that certain things the computer might not be capable of with newer apps and requirements, but bare bones OS with basic features should be possible. It would probably be the most green thing Apple could do by keeping more machines running and working and not being made obsolete.
I love my M1 Max, but I also know my old 5K iMac is still a very capable machine with Adobe CC if it could run it. Apple is in this to make money, so it stands to reason they are forcing obsolescence earlier than actually would be needed. Apple removes features when it would harm potential sales of things like screens. iMacs of an older generation could be used as a screen. The 5K iMacs were a fantastic deal and great machines and while out of date now are still amazing screens but you have to rip everything apart, adding to the landfill, and buy parts to make something that could be so simple work.
bwintx
macrumors 6502
Based on the Chromium schedule, Chrome 150 is likely to be released as “early stable” on June 17, 2026, and as “stable” on June 30, 2026.
dannys1
macrumors 601
I didn't read the rest because you're totally wrong on this part here.
It's nothing to do with the Unix kernal being "a bit newer" each year and that software wouldn't install. It's because the software is written to support newer APIs available. Software devs keep legacy support around constantly, but eventually they end up with 3 or 4 ways to do the same thing and the newest way is the most efficient. You end up with a bloated hard to maintain piece of software if you keep all the legacy code constantly active in it.
At some point they make the decision to simplify and streamline code. I should know I had an app which supported multiple older versions of macOS as most of our audio users had older versions installed and it was a nightmare to maintain. If we could have just made it for the latest few versions of macOS only it'd have been a much cleaner, leaner simpler app.
Reminder that Monterey is the last version to have the old style System Preferences
sdfox7
macrumors demi-god
We're only at version 143, so there's time.
Firefox will continue supporting Monterey for a long time (they still support Windows 7). And there are plenty of third party browsers you can switch to.
If you want to keep using Chrome without the annoying infobar, just do what we've been doing for years:
(EDIT): Copy and paste the following into Terminal, [press enter] then quit and reopen Chrome:
defaults write com.google.Chrome SuppressUnsupportedOSWarning -bool true
Firefox will continue supporting Monterey for a long time (they still support Windows 7). And there are plenty of third party browsers you can switch to.
If you want to keep using Chrome without the annoying infobar, just do what we've been doing for years:
(EDIT): Copy and paste the following into Terminal, [press enter] then quit and reopen Chrome:
defaults write com.google.Chrome SuppressUnsupportedOSWarning -bool true
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sdfox7
macrumors demi-god
Really? When I go to firefox.com in Chrome 109 on Windows 7, it prompts me to download ESR.
For Chromium on Windows 7 now, I only use Supermium. Love Firefox though!!
If you're stuck on Monterey as a last release for your Intel model, I highly suggest trying Waterfox. The threading model is so much more optimized for old processors like the last Intel macs. It seems to make more use of the graphics, both when it's on the integrated and dedicated too. It's muuuuch faster than Safari on those old macs, you may have thought the slugfest of Safari (it starts out ok, but bogs down over months no matter how you clean it) on old Intel macs was what their performance is just like, but it can be much better with a different browser. And with Chromium sunsetting support, good time to try.
2015 macbook pro 15" with dual graphics still running surprisingly quick on waterfox. Maybe Firefox is about the same but per some chatGPTing waterfox has more optimized flags for older hardware. I think Safari now just assumes huge unified memory bandwidth and becomes doodoo after a few months on an Intel mac, though it starts ok. Plus no pocket/telemetry which is nice.
2015 macbook pro 15" with dual graphics still running surprisingly quick on waterfox. Maybe Firefox is about the same but per some chatGPTing waterfox has more optimized flags for older hardware. I think Safari now just assumes huge unified memory bandwidth and becomes doodoo after a few months on an Intel mac, though it starts ok. Plus no pocket/telemetry which is nice.
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I took my play mac back from OCLP on Sequoia to native Monterey and immediately realized how much better and faster the old system prefs were even having gotten used to the new one for years now 🥲
Almost like their decades old HDI mattered. I hope the recent ouster and an actual designer taking back over helps going forward.
Hajj.david
macrumors 6502a
Uhh have you seen the recent versions of Windows? Even 2-3 year old PCs are getting deprecated.
Does anyone know what API that Chrome wants to use that's not available in Monterey but is in Ventura?
I could kind of understand wanting to drop support for say Catalina and making Big Sur due to the UI, etc. Big Sur's image frameworks also included support for things like WebP (though I believe Chrome used it's own library anyway). However, Monterey was pretty full-featured, and not sure what Ventura/Sonoma/Sequoia had builtin from an application perspective that Monterey didn't.
Or is this a matter of Github/CI/etc support? I am noticing that support for older platforms seems to be disappearing from software not so much due to API/capability but a domino of support. The vendor cuts off support so large companies like Github feel the need to cull them from build/CI farms. That means even independent projects are hard pressed to maintain support even if the software didn't use a library call beyond standard UNIX from 20 years ago.
I could kind of understand wanting to drop support for say Catalina and making Big Sur due to the UI, etc. Big Sur's image frameworks also included support for things like WebP (though I believe Chrome used it's own library anyway). However, Monterey was pretty full-featured, and not sure what Ventura/Sonoma/Sequoia had builtin from an application perspective that Monterey didn't.
Or is this a matter of Github/CI/etc support? I am noticing that support for older platforms seems to be disappearing from software not so much due to API/capability but a domino of support. The vendor cuts off support so large companies like Github feel the need to cull them from build/CI farms. That means even independent projects are hard pressed to maintain support even if the software didn't use a library call beyond standard UNIX from 20 years ago.