The most likely cause for this decline in support for latter-day Intel Macs is also the simplest one: It's simply in Apple's business interests to do so. Most cynically, if your old Mac gets fewer years of software updates, you have one more reason to buy a new Mac.
At least for me, one of the reasons I buy Apple hardware (e.g. iPhones) is that they’re supported longer than the competition. So I think if Apple are doing the above then it’s short-term thinking.
My Dad bought an 5K iMac in 2017. He just used it for browsing, email and YouTube etc. It works well. Very fast. Fantastic screen. Doesn’t support the new OS coming out in a few months (but presumably will still get security updates to its existing OS for a few years). There is no reason to fill our landfills with powerful machines like that! (I would say I regret telling him to buy a Mac, but Windows 10 will stop getting security updates in a few years too.)
My main issue with apple is the lack of backwards compatibility. They sort of plugged that hole, but I was running mountain lion for a good chunk of time and over time things just stopped working. Mostly internet things like a simple web browser. Whereas, I could run the same programs up into windows 11 and who knows how far into the future.
Unfortunately, at the time, I needed to run legacy programs and apple just left a lot behind.
Simple web browsers stopped working everywhere (android, windows) because the web moved on : root certificate lists, cipher lists, web standards.
I’ve had old tablets and windows installations stop working (as well as macs and ios) for that reason. A new Firefox installations on Windows and Mac got the web working for a while more.
Yeah that's the big rub. Once apple abandoned their 32bit systems so did all the developers including mozilla. I was able to find pale moon. That worked for a time, but even those guys gave up support.
It sucks because perfectly good software just was abandoned almost overnight.
Edit: I'd like to add that I have gotten to a point where I felt comfortable upgrading to apple silicone (3 years in), but now I am experiencing the opposite problem. Where the same develpers were more than happy to drop support overnight; are now slow to develop for the new chipset.
I don't use it much but I picked up a 16" MBP as I expected to use it as a not-Mac. Use as a Mac is far better on an M1/M2. I already have too many machines inside the house and when I go out, I tend to use my Surface Go m3.
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At least for me, one of the reasons I buy Apple hardware (e.g. iPhones) is that they’re supported longer than the competition. So I think if Apple are doing the above then it’s short-term thinking.
My Dad bought an 5K iMac in 2017. He just used it for browsing, email and YouTube etc. It works well. Very fast. Fantastic screen. Doesn’t support the new OS coming out in a few months (but presumably will still get security updates to its existing OS for a few years). There is no reason to fill our landfills with powerful machines like that! (I would say I regret telling him to buy a Mac, but Windows 10 will stop getting security updates in a few years too.)
My main issue with apple is the lack of backwards compatibility. They sort of plugged that hole, but I was running mountain lion for a good chunk of time and over time things just stopped working. Mostly internet things like a simple web browser. Whereas, I could run the same programs up into windows 11 and who knows how far into the future.
Unfortunately, at the time, I needed to run legacy programs and apple just left a lot behind.
Simple web browsers stopped working everywhere (android, windows) because the web moved on : root certificate lists, cipher lists, web standards.
I’ve had old tablets and windows installations stop working (as well as macs and ios) for that reason. A new Firefox installations on Windows and Mac got the web working for a while more.
Yeah that's the big rub. Once apple abandoned their 32bit systems so did all the developers including mozilla. I was able to find pale moon. That worked for a time, but even those guys gave up support.
It sucks because perfectly good software just was abandoned almost overnight.
Edit: I'd like to add that I have gotten to a point where I felt comfortable upgrading to apple silicone (3 years in), but now I am experiencing the opposite problem. Where the same develpers were more than happy to drop support overnight; are now slow to develop for the new chipset.
Macs never had particularly long support cycles for their OS.
Windows 10 will have ended up getting 10.5 years of support that isn't bad at all.
Linux.
I don't use it much but I picked up a 16" MBP as I expected to use it as a not-Mac. Use as a Mac is far better on an M1/M2. I already have too many machines inside the house and when I go out, I tend to use my Surface Go m3.