Mountain Lion signals end of OS X support for older Macs

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014


In its announcement of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion on Thursday, Apple failed to mention that a handful of Macs that will be cut from the fold when the next generation operating system debuts this summer due to end of support for older Intel integrated graphics chipsets.



Certain Macs made from 2006 to 2008 that incorporate Intel's GMA 950 and GMA X3100 integrated graphics processors will not be supported () by Mountain Lion, which means that Apple's newest version of OS X marks the end of the software road for owners of these computers, according to French Apple blog MacGeneration.



Integrated graphics chipsets are used in power-critical applications like laptops that have run times limited to the size of their batteries. Some Apple laptops, and subsequently Mac mini and iMac models that use a reworked mobile logic board, incorporate the integrated graphics model to be more energy efficient. The trade off for this efficiency is processing power, as integrated solutions are not as fast as discrete power-hungry GPU's, and is most likely the reason why OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion no longer supports older models.



List of affected machines compiled by Cult of Mac:





Any Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook from late 2007 to late 2008 (Model Numbers: MB061*/B, MB062*/B, MB063*/B, MB402*/A MB403*/A MB404*/A, MB402*/B)

Mid 2007 Mac mini (Model Numbers: MB138*/A, MB139*/A)

Late 2006 polycarbonate iMac (Model Number: MA710xx/A)

Early 2008 MacBook Air (Model Number: MB003LL/A)







The cycle of ending support for previous generation machines is an inevitability with the ever evolving world of computing as new operating systems and software are simply too complex to run optimally on older hardware.



For example, when Mac OS X 10.7 Lion was released in July of 2011, the AirDrop file sharing feature was limited to modern machines due to WiFi hardware requirements.







[ View article on AppleInsider ]

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 121
    Fragmentation!
  • Reply 2 of 121
    My MBP is a 2009er!



    Winning!
  • Reply 3 of 121
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Shidell View Post


    Fragmentation!



    Dropping support for 4+ year old machines isn't fragmentation. Fragmentation is when the device you just got can't run the new OS to be released next month, or which was even released before you purchased. This is called keeping the OS lean and efficient by not having to support a million older configurations. IMO dropping new OS support for anything beyond 3 years is fair game and acceptable.
  • Reply 4 of 121
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    This information conflicts with the release notes which states that in order to install ML the Mac must run 64 bit kernel which excludes several other models including some Mac Pros
  • Reply 5 of 121
    My late 2008 aluminum MacBook (one of the first unibody models) is still supported!
  • Reply 6 of 121
    I'm finding it hard to believe they'll drop support for machines because of integrated graphics support. A 2008 Air is not so old in Mac terms. Can someone translate for me from the original links where Apple said this is a certainty?
  • Reply 7 of 121
    Arg. This old story. My poor 2006 iMac got cut from Lion (which was a good thing since it still runs all the software my new computer can't).



    I'm beginning to worry about my 2011 Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro 17"! I wonder if it will be supported by 10.9.....
  • Reply 8 of 121
    Same old story with Apple. If its over 3 years old they don't care, its time you spent some money with them again.
  • Reply 9 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleZilla View Post


    My MBP is a 2009er!



    Winning!



    Hmm... The MBP isn't even listed. Maybe this means even a Late 2006 might be ellegible to upgrade. Although it probably would be slowing the poor machine down.
  • Reply 10 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by timgriff84 View Post


    Same old story with Apple. If its over 3 years old they don't care, its time you spent some money with them again.



    The only thing that's the "same old story" here is this comment.



    Every time a new OS or program comes out and old hardware is deprecated we get people like this saying that it's a scam or that it has to do with politics or money and that they really could support the older hardware if they wanted to.



    The fact is though, I don't think there is a single documented case of this actually being true despite it being said every single time. It always turns out that there is a valid hardware-related reason for not supporting the old hardware, but that never stops folks like this from making this same "fantasy gripe" every single time.
  • Reply 11 of 121
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by timgriff84 View Post


    Same old story with Apple. If its over 3 years old they don't care, its time you spent some money with them again.



    They have been remarkably upgradable up to this point. Macs normally can run approximately 3-4 major revisions, which is way better than almost any Windows based computer.
  • Reply 12 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rabbit_Coach View Post


    Hmm... The MBP isn't even listed. Maybe this means even a Late 2006 might be ellegible to upgrade. Although it probably would be slowing the poor machine down.



    Yeah the article says macs with integrated gfx chips will not be supported... most if not all macbook pros use discrete gfx chips which is why they are not listed.
  • Reply 13 of 121
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    This information conflicts with the release notes which states that in order to install ML the Mac must run 64 bit kernel which excludes several other models including some Mac Pros



    Did they update EFI on those Macs?





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jamesmcd View Post


    I'm beginning to worry about my 2011 Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro 17"! I wonder if it will be supported by 10.9.....



    They are moving to a yearly update cycle. Do you really think that your 2011 MBP will not support Mac OS X in 2013?





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by timgriff84 View Post


    Same old story with Apple. If its over 3 years old they don't care, its time you spent some money with them again.



    You mean a couple 4yo Macs't, several 5yo Mac, most 6yo Macs, and no 7yo Macs will get the update? That sounds right to me and reasonable. It's longer than iOS gets updated for and without any feature loses. And it's certainly better than new Android and Windows updates.
  • Reply 14 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    Dropping support for 4+ year old machines isn't fragmentation. ....



    He forgot /S
  • Reply 15 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    They have been remarkably upgradable up to this point. Macs normally can run approximately 3-4 major revisions, which is way better than almost any Windows based computer.



    I have a PC from 2003 that I was able to install Windows 7 (32bit) onto. Arguably, it was a high-end machine. Also arguably, Apple makes ONLY high-end machines, correct? Originally, the computer had XP. (I didn't dare put Vista on the thing!) Apple is cutting off computers pretty much prior to 2006.



    Since 1998, there have been only four major Windows OS upgrades for consumers (not counting ME, since it was a downgrade.) Mac has had 9 major OS upgrades (9, 10.0, .1, .2, .3, .4 but not counting the PPC to Intel transition, .5, .6, .7) since that time. Just for comparison.



    <end troll>
  • Reply 16 of 121
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by timgriff84 View Post


    Same old story with Apple. If its over 3 years old they don't care, its time you spent some money with them again.



    Actually no, your current 3yo Mac will still run. They're not forcing you to upgrade. My Mac is 7yo and it works fine for me to a point.
  • Reply 17 of 121
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    Dropping support for a 4 year old machine seems a little much to me.
  • Reply 18 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post


    The only thing that's the "same old story" here is this comment.



    Every time a new OS or program comes out and old hardware is deprecated we get people like this saying that it's a scam or that it has to do with politics or money and that they really could support the older hardware if they wanted to.



    The fact is though, I don't think there is a single documented case of this actually being true despite it being said every single time. It always turns out that there is a valid hardware-related reason for not supporting the old hardware, but that never stops folks like this from making this same "fantasy gripe" every single time.



    well the really cool thing is that even all the old plastic black and white (albeit intel) MacBooks still work just great, with either leopard or snow leopard, so why would i even want to upgrade those. A 4 year cycle for your main PC in a business that evolves this quickly is really good.



    To all those that would have apple hinder new methods and performance just so it can run on your old hardware, please write to the RIAA and demand all turntable manufacturers put back 78RPM
  • Reply 19 of 121
    neo42neo42 Posts: 287member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleZilla View Post


    My MBP is a 2009er!



    Winning!



    Same here, except ars claims we are out:



    http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...m_campaign=rss
  • Reply 20 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SDW2001 View Post


    Dropping support for a 4 year old machine seems a little much to me.



    support, well i still get updates for Snow Leopard, so its not support they are dropping so much as just not developing new OS
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