[rgovostes]

The last released Macs that were not 64-bit use Intel Core Solo or Intel Core Duo processors, and those haven't been able to upgrade past Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, released over a decade ago in 2009. According to Apple's definitions of "vintage" and "obsolete", this puts these Macs well into the "obsolete" category.

The upside to removing 32-bit is shrinking the size of the system, removing complexity, shrinking the testing matrix when modifying system frameworks, etc.

The writing has been on the wall for 32-bit apps for a long time, including warning users when launching a 32-bit app that it would cease working, and showing users a list of incompatible software when upgrading to Catalina. App developers were incentivized to release updates to their apps (using 64-bit toolchains that have been available since 2007 and before), and users were given warnings about upgrading if they need 32-bit compatibility.

Meanwhile, over the past decade there has been significant improvement in virtualization technologies, which allow you to run 32-bit operating systems with great performance. You can run Windows XP in a VM or WINE in a Docker container (which runs inside a Linux VM on macOS).

[fredsanford]

If only we could have had this conversation for all the software we use over a lifetime and get used to or very productive with...

<< Hello, Mr/Ms Shoestring Budget software developer in 2003... Could you write your (MIPS simulator, CAD app, VLSI Design System) in 64 bit code so when Goobuntu, Crapple and Microslop remove support for 32 bit apps I'll still be able to use your software? Pretty please? >>

[tinus_hn]

A conversation requires not just a request but also a response. Here it is:

<< No thanks, we’re not interested in investing effort in making sure you can use our software on operating systems newly released 17 years from now. Please fund our efforts by purchasing a new version once every 10 years. >>

[fredsanford]

That doesn't help if the company went out of business in the meantime.

[tinus_hn]

What does it matter? Companies don’t build software to last forever and they especially do not care about what happens after they go out of business.

Things don’t last forever. Software vendors won’t support everything forever. Middleware and operating system vendors won’t keep the albatross of supporting old things around forever.

If you want, you can keep running an old version of Mac OS X as long as you want. Just don’t expect Apple to support it.