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Should I Buy an Intel Mac Today or Wait to Buy an Arm-Based Mac?
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He didn't say explicitly that "Power PC will be supported for years to come", just that they had PowerPCs in the pipeline still. I think that's why Tim Cook said that "Intel Macs will be supported for years to come" — to reassure people that what happened with PPC > Intel wouldn't happen again (ie, only having Tiger and Leopard support).Yes. But to be fair they did support Power PC for years. But what I think you’re asking about is new Power PC’s. Jobs said “we have a lot of great Power PC’s in the pipeline”. After that they shipped only one single new” PowerPC. (Youtube link start watching at 58:00) Of course they continued to sell current models but after Jobs said that at WWDC in mid year, and they only shipped a single G5 then went dark until January 2006 when they started shipping Intel Macs. They never shipped another new Power PC after that.
Mac transition to Intel processors - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
List of Mac models - Wikipedia
Also, 2005 vs. 2020/2021 is a very different time. Apple this time is driving away from the industry standard, not to it. The timeline between Mac OS X upgrades back then was longer, too — 2 years in-between. Based on the fact that there are numerous Intel applications, potential upcoming Macs with Intel processors, and a few years for any bugs to be ironed out, I'm confident macOS upgrades will continue for at least 4 more years, if not 5-7, even 8 at most. My gut feeling tells me that once macOS on Intel is finished, Apple will move to a new, unified OS for all their devices (as all devices will then use the same processors) and retire the macOS/iOS/iPadOS/tvOS/watchOS naming terminology for a simplified new appleOS, scaleable from the tiny Watch to the Mac Pro.
So, I'd say macOS support for at least 2020 Intel Macs is safe for at least 5-6 years.
I will wait for the Apple silicon Mac, but it is not a difficult decision since I have a pretty fully loaded Mac Mini 2018/64GB (top processor). If I needed a computer and I needed to run Windows on it at the same time... I would buy now. If otherwise - unless you really needed a new computer ...then I would wait until the Apple silicon computers came out. Apple has to have all the chips finalized for computers coming out this year, and likely all of the other chips it plans to use are likely in sample quantities for testing... since I have no doubt they would not have made the decision to move now unless they have the initial test results that indicate they can exceed each of the computers they have now in the functions they are designed for... because just being so-so would be a disaster press-wise. I will be buying one of them as soon as I see a model that meets the form factor I want (headless or maybe laptop depending) -- it is the future... so I would have no qualms jumping on board.
Tiger and Leopard averaged 2 year releases - so a total of being on the newest OS for 4 years. Apple also supports their OS releases for an average of 2 to 4 years. I expect Apple to support 3 releases for both Intel and Apple silicon (and then that 3rd version will be supported for 4 years)... this will bring it to 7 years of actively being supported at which time it will be vintage.
Just because you cannot run the latest and greatest with all sorts of new features does not deminish the ability to continue using your supported Mac for the promised 7 years (then unsupported after). Apple was not definitive on how long they will come out with new releases because they did not want to have people focus on it and did not want to be locked into something they are not planning on doing.
This transition will be much quicker than anyone can imagine. I bet Apple will:
In this fall (i.e. October event):
1. Replace current 13" MBP with ARM and increase size to 14" this fall
2. Introduce 24" ARM iMac
Spring 2021 (i.e. March event):
1. Introduce 27" ARM iMac with redesign (slimmer bezels) and with increased screen size (probs to 29"-32")
Spring - Fall 2021:
1. Move most of the other Mac lineup to ARM (i.e. MBA, MBP 16" etc)
This means Apple will have transitioned most of the entire lineup to ARM in just 1 year (by WWDC 21)
Mac Pro will then follow and be last to complete the transition, as it will take more processing power to replace Intel Xeon, and this expensive machine has just undergone a signficant redesign in 2019.
In this fall (i.e. October event):
1. Replace current 13" MBP with ARM and increase size to 14" this fall
2. Introduce 24" ARM iMac
Spring 2021 (i.e. March event):
1. Introduce 27" ARM iMac with redesign (slimmer bezels) and with increased screen size (probs to 29"-32")
Spring - Fall 2021:
1. Move most of the other Mac lineup to ARM (i.e. MBA, MBP 16" etc)
This means Apple will have transitioned most of the entire lineup to ARM in just 1 year (by WWDC 21)
Mac Pro will then follow and be last to complete the transition, as it will take more processing power to replace Intel Xeon, and this expensive machine has just undergone a signficant redesign in 2019.
I remember VirtualPC and agree it was incredibly slow. I have used Macs for years but it wasn’t until the Intel transition that windows became viable to run in a VM.
The vast majority of the software we write is .Net for our Windows using customers so we still need Windows support at this time. However, over the next 3 or 4 years it may be possible to move our software to .Net Core and make it platform agnostic so the next time we need new hardware, wintel support may not be so important
Running 10.6.8 on 2007 machine. Couldn’t run latest software but works still as intended.
I never said he did. I quoted what he said word for word. (We are saying the same thing, except you think I am saying something different...which is weird.
Here is were we are saying different things, or disagreeing:
Again to be fair to Apple, Tiger and Leopard support is plenty. I did not feel abandoned by Apple at all. When Snow Leopard shipped, which didn’t support my Mac, it continued to work just fine and received many maintenance updates. After my mac stopped receiving updates I still used it as a home media pc while using my new Intel mac as my main. I will be very surprised if Intel Macs received more than 3 years of OS updates beyond Big Sur. Whatever OS ships in 2023 will probably be last Intel supported OS.
The link you posted confirms nothing about Windows specifically, just some vague words about “cross platform solutions.”You can use Parallels to run Windows with the Apple Silicon.
Parallels confirmed this and even in the Apple keynote they showed Parallels running. So that should mean that there is hope that you can still run your windows computer the same way you run parallels now instead of boot camp.
Application and Desktop Delivery | Parallels RAS
Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) is a complete application delivery and VDI solution empowering the creation of digital workspaces! Read more.www.parallels.com
What you saw in the keynote was Parallels running an Arm distro of Linux. There has been no definitive answer about Windows virtualization on Apple silicon yet.
Yet being the key word here.
So you're saying that Intel Macs released this year will only have macOS upgrades through 2023? I find that hard to believe. Especially late 2020, then having seen that their computers will only receive up to macOS 14, or macOS 15? (or 11.3/11.4)
This roadmap does not make sense, especially given that 2012 laptops were given 10.7 through 10.15 (8 macOS releases). 2020 laptops get 10.15, 11.0, 11.1/12.0, 11.2/13.0, and 11.3/14.0 (5 macOS releases)? No way.
Kinda wish I had waited. I had a 2016 13" MBP and just upgraded to the latest model with the much improved keyboard. It's a nice machine but... I'll probably upgrade again when the ARM machines are available.
I hear a lot about issues with first gen Apple products but I've had:
1st Gen 2008 unibody 15" MBP
1st Gen 2010 unibody 13" MBP
1st Gen 2012 redesigned MacBook Air
1st Gen 2016 13" MacBook Pro
These were all great machines. The latter two are still in service.
I used to use a lot of virtualization and Bootcamp that really hasn't been the case in 5-6 years.
I hear a lot about issues with first gen Apple products but I've had:
1st Gen 2008 unibody 15" MBP
1st Gen 2010 unibody 13" MBP
1st Gen 2012 redesigned MacBook Air
1st Gen 2016 13" MacBook Pro
These were all great machines. The latter two are still in service.
I used to use a lot of virtualization and Bootcamp that really hasn't been the case in 5-6 years.
Apple's marketing and communication is excellent. They've provided you a minimum figure of two years to rely on. It appears you don't like the two year figure which is understandable. This is why buying an intel mac now is really an investment into "legacy software" like being able to run windows. If you want to invest in future support the choice is obvious.
it wouldn't matter... Apple's gotta do it at some stage, and always gonna cause issues. 'How few', doesn't factor in.
Yea, bt your only prolonging this delay. Eventually your Intel Mac is gonna be slow and you wanna upgrade.... cant buy it anymore except on eBay, refurbished store doesn't list the models anymore.... This may be 6+ years away.
How much time do you need again
Agree completely. I bought the first generation ipad pro and it was one of the best investments I've ever made. 1st generation apple pencil. I suspect people touting the "wait for 2-5 years now" are rationalizing a non purchase in either direction, or were never in the market to begin with.
...and in a few years will complain about a lack of innovation : )
If your Mac is working fine you don't need to buy a new one. My iMac is 7 years old and going strong.
I will buy an Arm Mac as you can be sure Apple is working on some exciting protections and functions that are simply not possible with Intel.
There's a whole new world of under the hood customisation that will open up.
I will buy an Arm Mac as you can be sure Apple is working on some exciting protections and functions that are simply not possible with Intel.
There's a whole new world of under the hood customisation that will open up.
Jeez, I'm glad I don't need Windows. Not even at work. My office is all Mac, no dual boot anything. They just keep one Windows station over in a corner in case a client sends us something where we need it. That machine probably cost the company a thousand bucks. There's one guy at the office who deals with its usual Windows issues so I don't have to bother, and the thing mostly just sits there.
They've turned it into a word: https://developer.arm.com/architect.../introducing-the-arm-architecture/single-page
Personally I still like ARM better.
Just copying Apple's marketing material doesn't make a good article.
Good machine for ML? Who is the target group here? Nobody does ML on their desktop (except developers who have access to much more powerful machines anyway for model training).
Powerful graphics, huh? Yes, (much) better than Intel's built-in stuff, but certainly not competitive when it comes to dedicated hardware.
Security.. security and encryption is already good enough for 100% of the people. The only difference will be a locked down computer even for the users themselves.
Good machine for ML? Who is the target group here? Nobody does ML on their desktop (except developers who have access to much more powerful machines anyway for model training).
Powerful graphics, huh? Yes, (much) better than Intel's built-in stuff, but certainly not competitive when it comes to dedicated hardware.
Security.. security and encryption is already good enough for 100% of the people. The only difference will be a locked down computer even for the users themselves.