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MP 7,1 MP 7.1 end of macOS support
- Thread starter TobiasT
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How long would it take people to realise every brand new Apple device is doomed at the moment you bought it? All Apple hardware run through well planned obsolescence schedule. With the completion of transition into Apple Silicon, Apple's scheduled obsolescence scheme will be executed in more favour to Apple than to users, unlike during Intel era.
With that said, the transition away from Intel had been/will be slower than transition away from PPC. I said this more than two years ago. So MacPro7,1 likely will receive MacOS update until 2027/28.
It will be an unlikely stretch towards 2030. It all depends if big users of MacPro7,1 will backlash or not given the current Apple Silicon Mac Pro. Rumors said new x86_64 Radeon drivers are coming for MacPro7,1. Personally I think it's unlikely. If it happens, then it'll be a good sign of closer to 2030 perhaps.
With that said, the transition away from Intel had been/will be slower than transition away from PPC. I said this more than two years ago. So MacPro7,1 likely will receive MacOS update until 2027/28.
It will be an unlikely stretch towards 2030. It all depends if big users of MacPro7,1 will backlash or not given the current Apple Silicon Mac Pro. Rumors said new x86_64 Radeon drivers are coming for MacPro7,1. Personally I think it's unlikely. If it happens, then it'll be a good sign of closer to 2030 perhaps.
Agreed.
Usually, Apple gives macOS support for at least five years after the last sale of a device, often more. For example: The 2014 Mac mini was on sale until 2018. Its last official macOS is Monterey. That will be supported probably until 2024.
The Mac Pro has been sold until 2022. The upcoming Sonoma (macOS 14) works on Macs back to 2017/18. Sonoma alone will last until 2026 (if Apple sticks with its three-year-policy which has been very consistent).
It is very unlikely that macOS 15 will already drop support for all Intel Macs. And then, we are already in 2027.
My personal guess is that macOS 16, to be released in 2025, will be the last OS to support Intel Macs. But my guess is as good as yours...
Edit: I messed things up. MP7,1 has been sold until 2023, of course. Still, I would stick with the prediction of support until 2028. That would be the same as with the trashcan, sold until 2019, updates until 2024.
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For new releases, any time starting with the release of Mac OS 15 (presumably Q3 2024 unless there is a sudden outbreak of common sense and Apple dump this stupid 12 month release cycle). Thing is, Apple doesn't owe you any MacOS upgrades that weren't advertised when you bought your machine (bug fixes are another matter).
I'm not predicting that Mac OS 15 will drop Intel, but I wouldn't be shocked if it did. You can't really extrapolate from the dropping of PPC support from Snow Leopard (3 years after the PPC to Intel transition was complete) because they were on a slower release cycle then and the Intel transition was done and dusted in a year rather than dragging on for 3 years.
But that's not the point at which a Mac becomes obsolete. Personally, with Apple's abysmal record of buggy OS releases and some software houses taking forever to update their apps, I tend not to upgrade MacOS until something forces the issue.
On past performance, Sonoma will get 3 years of security updates and, possibly, driver updates for iDevices and services after that. Its also concievable that Apple will extend the support period for the last Intel-compatible version of MacOS rather than continue to include Intel code in new versions. After that, it depends on you - and the support status of software you depend on - as to whether you can keep using your Mac. Not every "security vulnerability" is an issue for every user.
I don't think Apple ever put their software support policy in writing, but I think the best clue comes from looking at this:
Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty - Apple Support
Learn about your options for getting service and parts for Apple devices that are past their warranty period.
OK, that's talking about "service and parts" but Apple couldn't really offer service on a device without a viable operating system being available.
So as to avoid history being rewritten here, the 2019 Mac Pro was a current product, being sold as a current product up to the time Apple announced the 2023 Mac Pro at WWDC 2023, and removed the 2019 from sale.
You just made me think of something. Dumping Intel *might* give us a really good version of MacOS for a while. IF they do spend the time to iron out the bugs past the usual 12 months, since it will be the last version forever that runs on Intel machines.
So considering that, maybe I should be hoping they will drop Intel support sooner rather than later. Lol. In all seriousness though, with the way they are stripping new features from Sonoma in the Intel version, they really might as well just get it over with soon.
At least Intel support won't end on Ventura... Apple would have a long way to go to iron out the bugs on that one.
Who cares? I still have a 2012 5.1 Mac Pro & it remains happy running Mojave, likely the optimal system for that box. In the case of my 7.1 Mac Pro, likely Monterey is ideal (even though I'm running Ventura at present). The rest of the OS upgrades are Apple BS & benefitting them more than me. Keeping the OS fixed at some 'ideal' also helps with Apple's OS breaking things and/or wanting new purchases of some plugin or other ... like WIN 11, rarely requires these constant updates from 3rd party apps, just keeps on going.
Here is something to consider… who cares about hew versions of macOS (other than bug and security fixes). Macos14 … I mean I’m embarrassed for apple. The new features are embarrassments of stickers and widgets. It’s a joke.
Ventura is a downgrade in so many ways…the system settings is a UI s*** smoothie. Atrocious. They keep making macOS 2 parts worse for every one part better. Not upgrading seems to really not be a drawback like it used to be.
Ventura is a downgrade in so many ways…the system settings is a UI s*** smoothie. Atrocious. They keep making macOS 2 parts worse for every one part better. Not upgrading seems to really not be a drawback like it used to be.
It's always a drawback, because software stops working on older versions of MacOS. You're stuck on old versions of software forever because developers don't want to struggle to keep things working across many multiple versions of the OS. Yeah you can just freeze your computer in time and never try to update anything again, but that's basically retrocomputing. Nothing wrong with retrocomputing... I have an Apple IIgs and Atari ST on my desk right now... but it's a lot less fun when it's something only 5 years old instead of 35.
kind of disagree. Newer software in many areas is meaninglessly updated. Pages is 20 years old and still can’t do a table of authorities or custom paragraph numbering (ie stuff ms word could do in 1985). Keynote hasn’t been meaningfully updated on the Mac in over a decade.
Software has stagnated a lot. I don’t feel I’d miss out on much with new features being tantamount to “dark mode 🙄 stickers and widgets”
My point is for many software packages the updates themselves have become marginal.
But I concede you do make a good point that eventually the base OS will get too old For updates. It will likely get updated for another year or 2 after the newer software comes out.
At this point I just never upgrade my OS on any of my devices. On my linux desktop because I don't want something to break my experiments or software package dependencies. On my MBP and phone because every update destroys my battery and makes them both slower only for the "updates" to be stickers and widgets like @ZombiePhysicist mentioned. Snow leopard days are long gone
Well if all you are using is Pages and Keynote, it won't be a problem. Lol.
Xcode on the other hand makes it impossible to stay behind on an older OS for very long.
Even web browsers become a problem fairly quickly because the internet keeps changing.
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Metal is a good reason to stay up to date (assuming one is doing graphics related stuff.)
Metal has changed significantly between OS updates with more optimizations and bug fixes. Newer Metal features are also only available on newer versions of macOS. It would be unwise to stay on old Mac OS versions if you're doing anything GPU related - unless your workflow is really locked and perfect. There is a lot of pressure to dump old macOS versions because no one wants to support older and slower Metal.
Even Ventura had good advancements in Metal - and Sonoma certainly does as well.
Agree. My point isn’t that it’s all perfect to ignore updates, just that they Are far lesser than they’ve ever been, imo. As always, ymmv. That said, if you use Firefox as your browser they are updated for many years on older software.
Depends how many years "many years" is. Accessing the internet on Mavericks is pretty much broken beyond usefulness, regardless of what browser you use. I know Mavericks is 10 years old at this point, but imo it's pretty ridiculous how bad it is trying to just download software from the internet in Mavericks.
Really I could swear they just put out 'legacy' update or something like that...
Firefox Mac OS X 10.9, 10.10 and 10.11 users move to Extended Support Release | Mozilla Support
Firefox 78 was the last supported version for Mac OS X 10.9, 10.10 and 10.11. Users were moved to Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR).
support.mozilla.org
So 10.9 users are on the "Extended Support Release" version 78.
I mean, that's pretty good considering the age, ie, a 10year run. And I readily concede, that lack of support can only go so far until you are in retro-land... BTW, if you are still a NeXTstep user, some of the users have gotten SSL to kind of sorta work with some of those ancient browsers!
Also, I argue the rate of change 10 years ago, vs, 20 years ago, was faster/more substantial than now on many of the standards. So there may be a chance that things frozen now, may have a longer runtime too.
I admit I haven't tried that official Firefox release, but I've used several fork builds that are supposed to be fully functional on Mavericks still and they just don't work right with a lot of things, including the collapsed links on Github for releases.Really I could swear they just put out 'legacy' update or something like that...
Firefox Mac OS X 10.9, 10.10 and 10.11 users move to Extended Support Release | Mozilla Support
Firefox 78 was the last supported version for Mac OS X 10.9, 10.10 and 10.11. Users were moved to Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR).
So 10.9 users are on the "Extended Support Release" version 78.
I guess we'll have to see... but I suspect it will actually be way worse with the abandonment of Intel support. Also, Apple seems to be pretty aggressive with major changes right now like with the switch over to SwiftUI for development, causing it to be a lot of work just to make something that runs on anything earlier than Ventura. It makes cross platform development between iOS and MacOS much easier, but it means we're already entering into an era where a lot of stuff will run on Ventura and newer only. If they do this kind of thing again after Intel MacOS is dead, it will be a huge problem for compatibility. We also have VisionOS compatibility to consider, so I suspect there will be major changes coming. So for all these reasons I believe Intel MacOS is going to be in retro-land a lot sooner than most people think.
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While I hate to agree, I do have to agree. In a couple of years there's no intel support no more from Apple co. Maybe some security updates, to the latest of things, but that's it. This is why I couldn't and can't jump on the 7,1 wagon. The moment they released ASi I went on to the hold.
Now I have jumped over to the dark side. Last few decades on teh Mac though, like what, 3,5 decades or so.
🥲
It really seems like a good bye now with the latest Mac Pro.
Now I have jumped over to the dark side. Last few decades on teh Mac though, like what, 3,5 decades or so.
🥲
It really seems like a good bye now with the latest Mac Pro.
The counting seems wrong to me. If Mavericks is the last supported OS on your Mac, then up to now, you get a good run of 16 to 17 years run. By any measurement, 15+ years is a good run for a piece of consumer electronics.
Watching from the sideline of Apple Silicon seems like a good strategy at the moment.
The era of Intel Mac will be largely proven to be the better years of Mac. More open and inclusive. Mac users rip the benefits of both PC world and Mac garden. Returning back to proprietary Mac still sounds chilling to me. I do understand now is not 80/90s or early 2000s. But with Apple Silicon, users are locked AirTight inside Apple's walled garden.
Buying a MacPro7,1 makes some sense if you plan to use it for 5yrs with MacOS. Turn it into a Linux or Windows machine after MacOS support ends.
Personally though I've chosen a different path. I started a MacOS VM project as a toy three years ago. Been toying with it regularly without much use. Recently I turned this MacOS VM into a daily driver. Hey. The experience is pretty good. The urge to jump on Apple Silicon is much alleviated.
Sent from my MacOS VM /s