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I am so mad at Apple

Mikebike125

Mikebike125

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 25, 2007
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I have a Late 2015 27" iMac and just found out that because Apple won't let it upgrade to OSX 13 that I cannot run the current version of TurboTax. I am sure there are many more programs that will also be impacted. Now before you all get on me about this, realize that with my iMac I got the upgraded video card, have the 3TB Fusion Drive and added 32GB of RAM. I have no idea why this can't be allowed to download the newest OS. After thinking about it, I said, maybe I should just get a mini and use this iMac as a monitor, right? Wrong. Apple had a display port on the 2009-2014 iMacs and then removed it in 2015. My iMac runs perfectly and I just can't believe that with all the "reduce your carbon footprint" stuff that Apple won't even let me use this as a monitor.

Now I'm faced with just putting this in the closet to collect dust. This is such a WASTE.

I understand that Apple tests their new software with older Mac's and can see that the system may run slower or have some risks that we don't know about, but how about let us load it and give us a warning that we acknowledge that we are running it at our own risk? Or how about a version that has some of the features turned off? Or how about just using it as a monitor?

Come on Apple.
 
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Mikebike125 said:
I have a Late 2015 27" iMac and just found out that because Apple won't let it upgrade to OSX 13 that I cannot run the current version of TurboTax. I am sure there are many more programs that will also be impacted. Now before you all get on me about this, realize that with my iMac I got the upgraded video card, have the 3TB Fusion Drive and added 32GB of RAM. I have no idea why this can't be allowed to download the newest OS. After thinking about it, I said, maybe I should just get a mini and use this iMac as a monitor, right? Wrong. Apple had a display port on the 2009-2014 iMacs and then removed it in 2015. My iMac runs perfectly and I just can't believe that with all the "reduce your carbon footprint" stuff that Apple won't even let me use this as a monitor.

Now I'm faced with just putting this in the closet to collect dust. This is such a WASTE.

I understand that Apple tests their new software with older Mac's and can see that the system may run slower or have some risks that we don't know about, but how about let us load it and give us a warning that we acknowledge that we are running it at our own risk? Or how about a version that has some of the features turned off? Or how about just using it as a monitor?

Come on Apple.
Click to expand...
You can use TurboTax 'online' where you don't need to download the software.
 
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Apple wants people to replace Mac about every 7 years, when they usually declare them vintaged. You've squeezed about 10 out of yours. This is the Apple way. They want more money from their customers ASAP so they can pay their own turbo taxes and enjoy the net, faster and faster. I suspect they'd love to get Macs on the iPhone replacement schedule if they could pull that off.

As others have offered, your best option is use bootcamp to boot into Windows which should easily let you use TurboTax. Windows tends to support hardware much longer than Apple, so you might be good for another few years minimum. If I'm not mistaken, there's now a way to install the latest Windows 11 on that iMac. If so, you would basically be up to date with latest Windows.

However, if you have to have a Mac, Apple wants another big donation from you. And then start saving to do it again in about 2031 or so... UNLESS, the do- in fact- figure out a way to accelerate the upgrade cycle... perhaps with iPhone-like "long in tooth" mysterious slowdowns with each macOS update.

Else, you might consider trying the OCLP hack which- among other things- proves that vintage hardware can generally run updated macOS just fine. IMO, the main risk here is trusting what is basically a third party hack to not introduce brand new kinds of security risks not necessarily prevented by an updated macOS.
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
Apple wants people to replace Mac about every 7 years, when they usually declare them vintaged. You've squeezed about 10 out of yours. This is the Apple way. They want more money from their customers ASAP so they can pay their own turbo taxes and enjoy the net, faster and faster. I suspect they'd love to get Macs on the iPhone replacement schedule if they could pull that off.

As others have offered, your best option is use bootcamp to boot into Windows which should easily let you use TurboTax. Windows tends to support hardware much longer than Apple, so you might be good for another few years minimum. If I'm not mistaken, there's now a way to install the latest Windows 11 on that iMac. If so, you would basically be up to date with latest Windows.

However, if you have to have a Mac, Apple wants another big donation from you. And then start saving to do it again in about 2031 or so... UNLESS, the do- in fact- figure out a way to accelerate the upgrade cycle... perhaps with iPhone-like "long in tooth" mysterious slowdowns with each macOS update.

Else, you might consider trying the OCLP hack which- among other things- proves that vintage hardware can generally run updated macOS just fine. IMO, the main risk here is trusting what is basically a third party hack to not introduce brand new kinds of security risks not necessarily prevented by an updated macOS.
Click to expand...
I don't think Intuit looks to Apple for their software requirements. It's possible that Intuit sees some sort of security problem with any macOS prior to Ventura so that they draw the line there.

I am stating this because the OP was complaining about OS requirements for the new version of TurboTax.
 
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Yes, but if he could update that iMac to newer macOS- as he can with the OCLP hack- TurboTax would run just fine. Instead, Apple kills support at about the 7 year mark and one has to hack, go Windows or buy a new Mac.

We CAN put some blame towards Intuit for not running on older macOS versions but this could be easily remedied- as proven by OCLP- by Apple tossing the option to users if the want to install new version of macOS on old hardware. However, that's not nearly as profitable as moving them to buy again.
 
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haddy said:
Well is there a problem with just sticking to the version you can use?
I try to never update/upgrade from something that works.
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If TurboTax is like H&R Block, they have a 'new' version of the software every year. Makes you buy it annually, and is tailored to the tax requirements for that particular year. In other words, you can't use a 2022 tax software for 2024 year.
 
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10 years is a good run. Do the OCLP hack or just do your taxes via web browser. Don’t blame Apple for dropping OS upgrade support for a 10 year old machine, blame Intuit for requiring a newer OS version for simple tax software lol. I just do mine via their website, easy peesy and can always log in.
 
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Turbo tax never worked well for me in parallels or VM. I have windows boot on my Linux work station for something like turbo tax. Try windows using boot camp.
BeatCrazy said:
You can use TurboTax 'online' where you don't need to download the software.
Click to expand...
Good luck filing taxes online if you have your own LLC or self employed or have anything nonstandard other than w2 and simple investments.
 
Newton1701 said:
10 years is a good run. Do the OCLP hack or just do your taxes via web browser. Don’t blame Apple for dropping OS upgrade support for a 10 year old machine, blame Intuit for requiring a newer OS version for simple tax software lol. I just do mine via their website, easy peesy and can always log in.
Click to expand...
Every one needs to vent. Let OP have his rant, reasonable or not. Taxes are painful as such.
 
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TechnoMonk said:
Good luck filing taxes online if you have your own LLC or self employed or have anything nonstandard other than w2 and simple investments.
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There are numerous scenarios available for filing online with TurboTax. It’s up to you to decide whether to pay the up-charges for such. If your situation isn’t covered in their online offerings, there are other companies who may be able to help. TurboTax isn’t the only option.

You even use the word nonstandard. TurboTax online is for lowest common denominator, Bob Everyman.
 
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I’m gonna play devil’s advocate here and say that it’s not just trying to push new hardware, but holding their entire computing ecosystem to a certain standard of performance, so that their customers get a consistently positive experience. They don’t want tons of 10+ year old macs floating around running the latest OS -slowly-, just because it could in theory. It would be bad for their reputation, and I guess by their math worse than the reputation hit of ending support after ~7 years. Even 1 extra year of OS support is a lot of additional SKUs and compatibility they need to maintain

They also sell a luxury oriented product, and they know that -most- of their customers can afford to upgrade after ~7 years. Why invest tons of capital to maintain OS compatibility for hardware that old, for a small percentage of customers, that will perform increasingly poorly, and potentially damage their reputation? Where do they draw the line? It has to be drawn somewhere…

I’d think most of us would rather those resources go into bug fixes on more recent hardware? But maybe that’s just me

edit: Also in Apple-land, paying for upgrades such as RAM, graphics, etc etc rarely gets you longer OS support. They drop support by model/year typically. I’m curious to see if this changes with Apple Silicon and Pro/Max/Ultra versions of chips, but I’m not betting on it
 
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hmmmm,
I am mad and Microsoft for their hardware requirements for Windows 11 upgrades. My perfectly capable work PCs, 5-6 years old, cannot be upgraded to Win11. Due to end of W10 support, they need to be thrown away this year.
Another choice is Linux. That will work for me. But I suspect there is no TurboTax for Linux. If there was, it would likely require some very specific version of Linux, so likely also issues/problems.
Great, so we are mad at the two companies dominating OS market and open source software is also not solution.
Not sure there is solution for our madness - is the madness worth it in that case?

Get new Mini M4. It is amazing device, I mean it, you can run both MacOS and Windows 11 (in VM) at the same time and break all speed records - and the base memory of 16GB is perfectly fine for that. There are convertors between different video connectors and USB hubs with various ports, you know?
 
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sw1tcher said:
Placing the blame on Apple when it's Intuit who came up with those system requirements.

H&R Block requires macOS 12 or higher and can be purchased for half (or less) of the price of TurboTax.
Click to expand...
And let's all remember all these creeps have been spending millions on lobbying to make sure the IRS doesn't let you do this for free: https://directfile.irs.gov/
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
Apple wants people to replace Mac about every 7 years, when they usually declare them vintaged. You've squeezed about 10 out of yours. This is the Apple way. They want more money from their customers ASAP so they can pay their own turbo taxes and enjoy the net, faster and faster. I suspect they'd love to get Macs on the iPhone replacement schedule if they could pull that off.
Click to expand...
If that were the case, they would be focused on shipping a Mac today that would meet the needs of people from seven years ago. :) In a lot of ways, a Mac user from seven years ago, depending on what they did with their Mac, might be better off with a PC that allows them, for example, to run the Windows apps that they used to run or upgrade storage and RAM like they used to be able to. The fact is that Apple only needs to sell a few more than 20 million Macs a year in order to make it worth their time to continue making them. As seen from people in this forum, there are plenty of people that have Macs older than seven years old and Apple is still selling 20+ million a year, likely roughly half of those going to people that have never owned a Mac before. So, out of the millions and millions of Macs out there, only around 10 million of those people in a given year have to upgrade for Apple to meet their goals.

10 million is a decent number of people, but it’s a small slice of all the Macs in use.
 
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You have a right to be mad. Let me tell you the solution.

Install Windows in a Boot Camp partition.

I had a mid 2010 MacBook Pro that would not run software because the OS was “out of date,” yet I ran the exact same software on my Windows partition. Same computer.

It’s a pathetic state of affairs.

I hope that advice helps. You’ll obviously need a Windows copy of TurboTax. Idk if you buy the Windows version and Mac version separately or if it’s a license for either. Good luck.
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
perhaps with iPhone-like "long in tooth" mysterious slowdowns with each macOS update
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Already happens. Sierra (10.12) turned my mid-2010 MBP into a paperweight years ago. Installing an SSD brought it back, thankfully. But the point is, the computer was fine until the update. Huge mistake.

Edit - Want to hear something else about iPhone updates? My mother’s iPhone 7 Plus battery life did not see a noticeable improvement after replacing the battery at the Apple Store. Seriously. Its percentage was like in the 70’s prior to the replacement. Now it’s at around 100%. Hardly a change in battery life. What does that tell you?
 
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