I bought a 2017 iMac in 2019, months before it was discontinued, and Apple only supported it until Ventura. That's only three major upgrades since I own this Mac. It is disappointing, and I don't really understand why they dropped it so early, when other Intel Macs still receive upgrades to this day. It's really a shame, because with a fast SSD and more than enough processing power it's a perfectly capable daily driver. Unfortunately very soon third-party developers will also stop releasing updates for Ventura, which will mean a deteriorating user experience from now on.
Since it's Intel tech inside, I will likely be able to make a decent Linux machine out of this Mac later, so it's not going to be completely useless once I completely move to my M2 mini. I'm not sure though, how Apple Silicon Macs are going to fare. It seems likely they are going to become e-waste even faster. There are some efforts to reverse-engineer them in the Linux community, but without Apple's help it's an uphill battle.
Personally this experience made me look differently at the long-term value of Apple hardware and even consider using standard Intel/AMD hardware again for some of my needs.
I'm just generally not going to feel sorry for someone who buys an Apple product without knowing how recent the model is that they're buying. Although the refresh cycle is much more variable for Macs, it's akin to buying an iPhone in August and getting mad that they release a new one a month later. The only exception is if your old computer went kaput and you just couldn't hold out for a few more months.
You're referring to a 2017 iMac, which was discontinued in March 2019, and based on your wording it must have been January 2019 when you were buying. The 2017 iMac and its predecessor (2015) had both been on sale for about a year and a half; the 2014 iMacs only made it about a year. With even a little bit of research, there should have been a flashing red "don't buy this" sign. If only there were
a website that does all that hard work for you!
Moreover, there were four (not three) major upgrades between early 2019 and discontinuation of macOS support for the 2017 iMac: Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura. To my knowledge Apple has never
formally committed to releasing two years of security updates for older macOS versions on unsupported models, but Ventura should still receive security updates as needed through at least the fall. Apple occasionally will push updates for "unsupported" OSes even years after that two-year mark to fix critical bugs.
Regardless, the 2017 iMac will have received over 8 years of official software support through feature releases and security updates. You bought it 1.5 years into that and will have likely received just short of 7 years of official support, which the consensus through all this thread seems to be
reasonable. As you mention, you have plenty of options for what to do with your hardware after that date.
Never buy hardware based on the promise of future software, of course, but as for Asahi Linux, I'd venture to guess it will likely be perfectly suitable as a daily driver once macOS support for M2 SoCs becomes an issue.
