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The original OS for the 2019 iMac was 10.14.4, so nope

And Apple used to be fairly good at producing backward compatible OSes.

Just another way Apple is making the lives of users more difficult!
 
And Apple used to be fairly good at producing backward compatible OSes.

Just another way Apple is making the lives of users more difficult!
You're misremembering. Macs have worked this way since the beginning. This would be more of a forward compatibility situation than a backward compatibility one.
 
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