Tiger support until when?

[Sesshi]

It's something I've asked business sales but I'd also like to know people with experience of running old OS's on newer machines. How long would Tiger be OFFICIALLY supported on newer machines? I would assume that the next-gen Pro would support Tiger for business continuity purposes, but how about 2-3 years ahead in terms of models?

 

[irishgrizzly]

5 years?

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

i'd say until the next software comes out? 10.6? cheetah?

 

[WildCowboy]

Don't you have to jump through hoops to boot an old OS on a newer computer? I thought the new Santa Rosa MacBooks won't let you install Tiger...

 

[timestamp]

Don't you have to jump through hoops to boot an old OS on a newer computer? I thought the new Santa Rosa MacBooks won't let you install Tiger...

You can just hack the installer. You may have to drop some kexts in though.

 

[FF_productions]

I think we're talking about the Mac Pro.

Panther is barely supported, that came out in 2003. Considering the Intel Transition with Tiger, and the fact Tiger is about 2-3 years old, I would give it 4-5 years until its barely supported.

 

[WildCowboy]

You can just hack the installer. You may have to drop some kexts in though.

Sure, but he asked about "official" support.

 

[gnasher729]

It's something I've asked business sales but I'd also like to know people with experience of running old OS's on newer machines. How long would Tiger be OFFICIALLY supported on newer machines? I would assume that the next-gen Pro would support Tiger for business continuity purposes, but how about 2-3 years ahead in terms of models?

Tiger is not shipped on any new computers. And since Tiger for Intel processors was never sold as a retail version, you can't install Tiger on any new computer.

Apple has quite recently (maybe two months ago) released security updates for 10.3, I haven't booted into 10.2 recently so I don't know about that, but 10.2 might not be supported anymore. You should expect security updates for 10.4 for several years. There may be added functionality if Apple decides that it wants this functionality to be used by more developers.

In practice, what is important is whether new software in three years time will run on 10.4. I can only tell you what the state is right now: Writing software that runs on 10.1 and uses 10.2 or newer features is hard and nobody does it. You can write software that runs on 10.2 to 10.5 and uses 10.4 features if present (but no new Leopard features) quite easily, and you can write software that runs on 10.3 to 10.5 and uses Leopard features as well.

I would expect that for the next four years, writing new software that runs on Tiger is no problem as long as the market is there. On the other hand, people who still run Tiger in 2012 are unlikely to buy new software, so developers of new software don't care too much. For in-house development, Leopard is very much more powerful, so if I had to write an in-house application, I would ask for all users of that application to upgrade to Leopard.

 

[26139]

Supported

4-5 years more. I believe G3 and Jaguar support was just phased out recently, and those are at least six years old. I can't imagine them dropping support for even Panther for the next few years.

 

[Techguy172]

That is actually a very good question but the problem is that only a few people know. Here's what I think. It doesn't matter how long people want to keep it's how fast developers come out with leopard fixes. Take adobe for example they already have plans for leopard. Most people will buy it when they're software is compatible. Then there is a select few who won't upgrade for a very long time after.

We all know steve would love to go up there and leopard is perfect but he knows it's not and he should really offer a program like MS so you can still get the older os for developers and business people.

 

[Sesshi]

I'm still waiting for an answer on this, but the situation is that I need to know whether we need to buy now with the next three years or so in mind, or whether we can go on a 'on demand' basis. The current build of our apps won't work under Leopard for some reason and there's a dispute on the OS X development side at the moment with them actively blocking efforts on the Linux port side, to the end that we might have to engage in nasty business with lawyers. Obviously in this climate further development for full Leopard compatibility is not at the moment forthcoming.

Besides that, even just for the sake of stability I'd like to keep to Tiger on the workstations until we eventually move to Linux. On the Windows - and even on the emerging Linux - side, there is a degree of continuity that we can rely on. I've never really given serious thought to it on the Apple side because I thought it was a given - but it may not be as given as I thought. I do expect an answer from my rep, but if anyone else has something to add it would be appreciated.

 

[yippy]

You will need to buy now. From what I have seen Apple has never supported downgrading a machine from the OS that shipped with it. So new Mac Pros (when they ship) will come with Leopard and probably not be capable of running Tiger and Apple definitely won't support downgrading to Tiger on them.

 

[72930]

i'd say until the next software comes out? 10.6? cheetah?

Mac OS 10.0 was Cheetah

 

[Techguy172]

You will need to buy now. From what I have seen Apple has never supported downgrading a machine from the OS that shipped with it. So new Mac Pros (when they ship) will come with Leopard and probably not be capable of running Tiger and Apple definitely won't support downgrading to Tiger on them.

They really should Let you downgrade I mean if need a new computer and need a certain piece of software that isn't compatible Your screwed.

 

[TDM21]

I know Apple will continue to release security updates for Tiger until 10.6 comes out. So that's around 2 years of support.

 

[gnasher729]

I know Apple will continue to release security updates for Tiger until 10.6 comes out. So that's around 2 years of support.

Security updates will be available longer than that. However, at some point in the future (maybe in four years) it could happen that if some feature in Tiger is found to cause security problems, then a security fix could disable the feature instead of trying to keep it working and making it secure. It depends on how important the feature and how dangerous the problem is.

 

[gnasher729]

They really should Let you downgrade I mean if need a new computer and need a certain piece of software that isn't compatible Your screwed.

Difficult. The original shipping Tiger doesn't know about the hardware in a newer computer, so someone at Apple has to spend time on supporting new hardware that could better be used somewhere else. And someone needs to test it.

If you need a new computer and need a certain piece of software, then eBay is your friend. (Depending on where you work, getting your company to buy something from eBay might be a major PITA though).

 

[gnasher729]

The current build of our apps won't work under Leopard for some reason and there's a dispute on the OS X development side at the moment with them actively blocking efforts on the Linux port side, to the end that we might have to engage in nasty business with lawyers. Obviously in this climate further development for full Leopard compatibility is not at the moment forthcoming.

Does "our apps" mean "applications that my company purchased from a third party and paid good money for"? Right at this point of time, I would expect that any software company that is not run by morons would _increase_ and not reduce their investments in the Macintosh platform. That excludes obviously companies like Quark.