Declining support for Intel-based Macs
- June 7, 2023
- 0
With the Apple Silicon Mac Pro is the complete power shift in chipland from Apple. In the meantime, there are no longer any devices with Intel in the
With the Apple Silicon Mac Pro is the complete power shift in chipland from Apple. In the meantime, there are no longer any devices with Intel in the range. This also applies to support.
Apple recently started rolling out macOS14, better known as Sonoma. This is bad news for devices still running on an Intel processor. Support for these devices will gradually disappear as macOS 14 rolls out.
T2 is number one
Ever since the American company started baking its own chips, the Apple T2 has been the processor that defines the current Mac offering. While support for devices still running on Intel will not be eliminated immediately, it will be severely limited.
Sonoma will continue to support some current Intel Macs, but generally pre-2018 devices or those without a T2 will not benefit from the new update. Devices in this category include all versions of the 12-inch MacBook, 2017 MacBook Pro, 2017 MacBook Air updates, and 2017 iMac.
Macs after 2017 usually have the T2.
Exceptions determine the rule
However, there is one pre-2018 Mac that is supported and that is the iMac Pro. It was released in December 2017 and was the first Mac with a T2 under the hood.
A second curiosity is the iMac from 2019. It doesn’t run on a T2, but uses the same firmware as the T2 Macs.
Security remains important
According to some studies, support for Intel-based Macs has declined at a faster rate since the introduction of Apple Silicon. In principle, releases between 2009 and 2015 could still expect seven or eight years of macOS updates, but for devices from 2016 or 2017 this number drops to six years earlier.
However, Apple also provides two years of security updates for older macOS releases. Generally, users stuck on macOS 12 Monterey or macOS 13 Ventura will continue to receive updates and patches for the most dangerous vulnerabilities in Safari even after the release of Sonoma.
For those still working on macOS 11 Big Sur, it’s time to update the operating system or hardware. Or daring ones can take the risk and move on without new patches.
Source: IT Daily
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