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Mac App Store Apps Can Now Drop Support for Intel Macs

Nermal said:
I don't know what stats Apple has, but at least among the more technical users (who know enough to install and use Homebrew), around 26.7% of Mac users in the past 30 days are on Intel (I'm excluding the "CI" entries).

formulae.brew.sh

Homebrew Analytics OS/Architecture/CI (30 days)

Homebrew’s package index
formulae.brew.sh formulae.brew.sh
Click to expand...
Sadly homebrew has already started to drop support for Intel CPUs. I'm currently compiling a few formulas because there are no x86 pre-compiled bottles available.
 
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anakin44011 said:
The sheer number of apps on my Mac that prompt the Intel warning message tells me that Golden Gate is going to have to wait a while before I upgrade. I had no idea how many apps still run via Rosetta. And I still don't...until...

Okay - I just found a $.99 app that detects all of them

Out of 262 apps - 67 are Intel only. Crap!

C'mon Developers - Please!?!
Click to expand...
Developers have been known to stop support of apps. If you are willing to pay enough, I am sure you can get them to port an orphan app for you.
 
Zapski said:
Why do they do this? The code is done, no updates have been made to my knowledge and they can just leave it in. Ugh.
Click to expand...
Because developers get lazy and refuse to move on, and with a universal app that’s wasted space for me, even if it’s only a small amount.

People have had a 6-year warning that Intel is being dropped; for anyone still running Intel, then that’s their own fault. Even if your Intel Mac cost $5k, a cheap M5 Air would run rings around it in speed, thermals and power consumption. Move on already.
 
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Realize that the next version of Xcode and Swift will have all Intel binaries stripped out and will not be allowed to be uploaded into the App Store.
Third-party developers that don’t use the App Store we find their tools crippled by Apple and they will be forced to drop Intel as well.
Developers like Firefox, Google, Adobe, blackmagic, affinity, crossover, will drop Support like a hot potato. But will continue to develop Intel windows versions for many years. From Microsoft point of view this is good news, there are going to be many former Mac users switching in order to preserve their hardware investment.

What I’m surprised to see is the sheer size of the installer files for Golden Gate, I thought all Intel code was stripped out but here the installers are even larger than Tahoe, so much bloat.
 
JosephAW said:
Realize that the next version of Xcode and Swift will have all Intel binaries stripped out and will not be allowed to be uploaded into the App Store.
Third-party developers that don’t use the App Store we find their tools crippled by Apple and they will be forced to drop Intel as well.
Developers like Firefox, Google, Adobe, blackmagic, affinity, crossover, will drop Support like a hot potato. But will continue to develop Intel windows versions for many years. From Microsoft point of view this is good news, there are going to be many former Mac users switching in order to preserve their hardware investment.

What I’m surprised to see is the sheer size of the installer files for Golden Gate, I thought all Intel code was stripped out but here the installers are even larger than Tahoe, so much bloat.
Click to expand...
I'd guess the size is due to the LLM model. The on-device Apple Foundation Model is about 8Gb in size.
 
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Make sure you maintain good backups of the existing versions that are working, when a developer releases a new version that said it’s intel compatible but as soon as you install the update the application is broken, you will need the ability to revert to the previous version, the developer may just throw up their hands and say no more intel and you’re stuck with a broken version.
Experienced something similar recently but fortunately the developer released one more update which fixed it and then dropped support completely for my macOS version. fortunately I maintain copies of older apps for just such an emergency and had to execute reverting until they fixed it.
Also maintain copies of applications for different macOS versions, a lot of times when an update comes out they delete the previous installer and you lose the ability to support that older version on different hardware.
Obviously maintain good time machine backups and also disc image backups.
 
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Don’t be surprised when the next major security hole appears that Apple maintains two different versions of the Sonoma, Sequoia, Tahoe, Apple Silicon patched, Intel no.
Look how they’ve left everyone running macOS previous to Sonoma vulnerable to the screen sharing bug.

And next will be Apple deleting and purging all Intel code off the App Store from apps you’ve already purchased, already experienced that with the iOS ecosystem and Apple TV system, there’s apps I purchased that are no longer available to download.
 
sevoneone said:
While Apple uses off the shelf flash memory, the use a custom storage controller that is part of Apple Silicon. The biggest advantages are security and speed. It isn't new for Apple Silicon either. It started with Intel Macs that had the T2 chip. Up to that point most Macs had user replicable storage. Since Apple only needed the flash chips they soldered them to the board to save space and money. But... the current Mac Mini and Studio actually both have socketed storage, and there are paths for upgrading both though not "official."
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OWC is not offering any storage upgrade for the current Mac mini.
That was my go to source before.
Hence my previous comment.

iFixit has videos showing how though.
Still wish Apple can be more flexible on this like they used to do.
 
iHorseHead said:
People have forgotten how fast PowerPC lost the support. I'm surprised Intel Macs were supported for so long. You pretty much knew 6 years ago that it was over for Intel.
Imagine those who bought Mac Pro in 2005 and by 2009 support was gone and by 2011 security updates were gone.
PowerPC to Intel switch was way faster.
Click to expand...

PowerPC lost support so quickly because the only company producing commercial systems with it ceased making them, effectively halting most development for the platform. In contrast, Intel (x86/64) continues to be sold in new systems and has an active development community, allowing new and existing code to remain relevant. Continued Rosetta support for games further underscores this difference.
 
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What I really miss about the Intel era is iTunes.. and I hate that I can't install it on a M1 with Sequoia .

I would like to get an Air or a 2015 Pro with Intel only because iTunes. Really hate Apple Music to handle the music and transfers to the iPhone /iPod
 
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aespana said:
What I really miss about the Intel era is iTunes.. and I hate that I can't install it on a M1 with Sequoia .

I would like to get an Air or a 2015 Pro with Intel only because iTunes. Really hate Apple Music to handle the music and transfers to the iPhone /iPod
Click to expand...

I'm literally still bummed about the loss of iTunes that started with Sequoia.

(Retroactive installed iTunes, the latest versions, stopped working at that time)
 
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Arm makes sense for media/creative work, but if you are in the pro engineering/embedded sector, then you might still be clinging on to x64 Mac's particularly for VMware support. Engineering tooling often moves very slowly. I accept though this is very niche, and probably a market Apple is not too bothered about.
 
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anakin44011 said:
The sheer number of apps on my Mac that prompt the Intel warning message tells me that Golden Gate is going to have to wait a while before I upgrade. I had no idea how many apps still run via Rosetta. And I still don't...until...

Okay - I just found a $.99 app that detects all of them

Out of 262 apps - 67 are Intel only. Crap!

C'mon Developers - Please!?!
Click to expand...
What is the 0.99 app?
 
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