How many years of support for a Mac?

[Johnluke91]

Hello everyone,
I've never had a Mac and am looking forward to the MacBook Pro 2018 to buy it.
Not having ever had one, how many software updates macOS receives a Mac from the time it is released? 5 years as iOS?
Thank you

 

[robvas]

It depends. The 2010 MacBook Pros can still run the latest software and they are 8 years old at this point.

 

[IPadNParadise]

I see this as a 2 part question 1) how many years can it receive annual software upgrades and 2) how many years can it receive security updates.

 

[NoBoMac]

I see this as a 2 part question 1) how many years can it receive annual software upgrades and 2) how many years can it receive security updates.

This.

And as others have pointed out, it depends.

I am using a 2008 Macbook Pro that came with Leopard (10.5) and Apple dropped software support at Sierra (I'm on 10.11). That's seven years of OS updates. And still getting some security updates (got a security update last week as well as new iTunes and Safari).