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.
macOS Sonoma Drops Support for These Macs
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I believe the integrated graphics and Retina display don’t play that well since macOS Big Sur. Yes, there is the T2 chip but it doesn’t seem to help much for video en/de-coding.
I hope so. I skipped the M1 mac mini & waited for M2 mac mini because some 1st-gen products (like the iPad 1) got a short lifecycle.
Especially since the M1 Air is still being sold today, I'll be glad to be proven wrong and the M1 products would have a long lifespan.
I'm glad my iMac 2017 is booted into Windows 99.9% of the time. I don't even remember what macOS it now has.
Apple's planned obsolescence has gone too far. Now that a 10-year-old PC hardware does not feel old at all — like my main workhorse with a 3rd gen i3 Intel CPU — dropping a computer support after just 5 years is pure greed. With an i7 and 40 GB RAM, it's as fast as on day one!
Yet another reason to never come back to Apple again.
Apple's planned obsolescence has gone too far. Now that a 10-year-old PC hardware does not feel old at all — like my main workhorse with a 3rd gen i3 Intel CPU — dropping a computer support after just 5 years is pure greed. With an i7 and 40 GB RAM, it's as fast as on day one!
Yet another reason to never come back to Apple again.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
Yep. I still have a maxed-out 27" non-5k Intel iMac that is on High Sierra (the latest supported OS) sitting in a nook on my living room, for guests and my Mom to use when she comes around or quick searches.
But it is comparatively snail-speed slow to my M2 MBA, even with the SSD I installed.
I'm sure it'd make an excellent Windows 11 machine, but I ain't got time for that.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
Here's the thing: I feel stats like the above are somewhat useless.
Apple brags about installed share, etc. as a way to get developers to make stuff that people want to use for their platform.
And that's the thing with Apple customers (in general): they pay for sht. Developers know this and support the platforms. Because of this said platforms become very successful, even if the market share doesn't reflect it like the above.
So, Apple can get away with stuff no one else can, and has been for DECADES.
Apple can price things sky-high and people will buy it, because in many ways Apple products carry a relatively unique recipe of features and are priced (relatively) fairly for what you get.
I remember when even I balked HARD at $250 AirPods, when most of my wired phones cost $10 and wireless ones $30. Now I can't live without them.
Apple today previewed macOS Sonoma, its latest operating system for the Mac. Available in beta today and launching in the fall, macOS Sonoma drops support for a handful of Mac models compared to macOS Ventura, according to Apple's website.
macOS Sonoma drops support for the following Macs:
macOS Sonoma remains compatible with the following Macs:
- 2017 MacBook Pro
- 2017 MacBook Air
- 2017 MacBook (12-Inch)
macOS Sonoma will likely be released in October like macOS Ventura and macOS Monterey were.
- MacBook Pro: 2018 and later
- MacBook Air: 2018 and later
- Mac mini: 2018 and later
- iMac: 2019 and later
- iMac Pro: 2017
- Mac Studio: 2022 and later
- Mac Pro: 2019 and later
Article Link: macOS Sonoma Drops Support for These Mac
I don’t know why so many people are shocked every time this happens. Five years, five years. You get the new OS for five years and then you get security updates for about two years. Now if we add 5+2 that’s 7. Seven years, that’s how long a Mac is considered usable until it becomes vintage.
After that, your choices are either doing some work around to install an unsupported macOS or install some type of Linux.
After that, your choices are either doing some work around to install an unsupported macOS or install some type of Linux.
I wish Apple would at least release semi-annual security updates for older systems.
Other app developers will surely follow suit and drop support for their software on older systems.
It won't be long until any Intel macs won't get a new OS.
At least I can conviniently switch to any Linux distro.
Other app developers will surely follow suit and drop support for their software on older systems.
It won't be long until any Intel macs won't get a new OS.
At least I can conviniently switch to any Linux distro.
To my understanding, the gap between intel and silicon was so vast that that was why a lot of devices dropped out of support with Ventura. The gap between M1 to M2 (and so on) isn't that vast in comparison. Only ones to worry are those still with intel based computers.
There's no reason to believe that Apple Silicon Macs will get any longer support than iOS devices currently do (ie. 5 years at worst, up to 7 if you're lucky). We already know there's no technical reason to drop support so soon, they just do because they know they can get away with it.
I expect the 2025 macOS release to start dropping support for the first batch of M1 Macs.
Macs have always had longer macOS support vs. their mobile devices - typically 7 years. Now that Apple has more vertical control over their personal computer stack, extending beyond 7 years is a realistic expectation.
If Apple tries to do that, I may just switch back to a PC. I don't think they will.
Well - my 2014! Retina iMac (i9) still runs nicely with Ventura (using OpenCore).
Once it starts crawling I'll convert it to Linux.
Yeah, now that they have total control over their stack they certainly could do it quite easily.
But they won't.
When it comes to their own SoCs, Apple leans towards 'longer support' vs. less-than-average. Apple TV is a good example. Apple has already announced 9 years of tvOS support for the Apple TV HD, introduced in 2015.
iPhones and iPads inherently get upgraded by consumers at a faster pace than computers and Apple TV-like devices. Because iPhones drop, have battery issues, etc. So 7 years for mobile devices, 7-9+ for more stationary things.
So why won't they keep M1 support for 8+ years?
The AppleTV HD got an abnormally long support life because it was still being sold all this time until very recently. It's not representative of their overall support strategy.
M1 MacBook Air is still sold and promoted today, it was 'on stage' yesterday!
Not only is it still being sold nearly 3 years after intro, it's still insanely capable.
Same story with M1 iMacs, we don't even have an M2 version. Arguably, the increased performance of the M2 wouldn't add much value to the average ~$1200 iMac user. You really think a 'new' PC (M1 iMac) being sold in mid-2023 will no longer get macOS updates in 2 years? That has no basis in prior behavior for a similar product.
Not really. Educated guessing at the very least. The reason Intel Macs are being phased out so fast is because they're not capable of most of the awesome new features in these latest OSs. So it's appropriate to assume that early Apple Silicon Macs won't be updated-out of support nearly as quickly as the Intel ones.
Wasn’t the intel Mac Pro still sold until yesterday when the new one launched? Be harsh to drop intel support for the £7K machine in a few years?