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by ccouzens 1684 days ago
The problem is they don't allow the latest MacOS on not very old hardware. If they allowed the latest OS there would be less call to keep the older versions patched.

> Name me one widely deployed OS that promises its users patches ad-infinitum.

> Microsoft certainly doesn't patch all older versions of Windows.

> Neither do all the widely deployed Linux flavours.

But the latest and greatest Windows and Linux releases are installable on older devices.

I extended the life of a 2011 iMac which stopped recieving updates from Apple by installing the latest Fedora.

Most Linux distributions draw the line at 32 bit hardware.

Windows 11 was controversial in that it dropped support for older computers. But this shows what the expectations are.
2 comments
josteink 1684 days ago
> But the latest and greatest Windows and Linux releases are installable on older devices.

This was certainly true until recently when Microsoft went all Windows 11, which only works on a small, whitelisted subset of X86-compatible CPUs and also mandated TPM 2.0.

Now only Linux offers semi-guaranteed support for older hardware.

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hu3 1684 days ago
To note: Windows 10 is still supported and will be up to 2025. And when that date arrives, Microsoft has a history of patching out of support Operating Systems. Mostly because they have large enterprise contracts which last longer than the EOL of their OS.

Also Microsoft provides an official guide on how to install Windows 11 on older hardware. My neighbor has Windows 11 on his 10 year old laptop running an i7 2500 and it's butter smooth.

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traceroute66 1684 days ago
> But the latest and greatest Windows and Linux releases are installable on older devices.

So is OS X Big Sur[1] and Monterey[2]

For the majority of people all they need to do is pull their finger out and upgrade the OS from Catalina to Big Sur or Monterey.

    [1]https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211238
    [2]https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212551
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ccouzens 1684 days ago
Those show about 8 years. My 2011 iMac was dropped by Mojave (7 years).

Modern computers should last a lot longer than that, especially if you can pass them on to users with less demanding requirements.

And fortunately Macs do last longer than that, but you have to install Linux or Windows to keep them up to date.

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