Originally Posted by uc50ic4more
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by maxdustington
Mac's don't count. A ten year old PC would be a lot worse.
Was going to post the same thing. Well, their life doesn't "age" the same as Windows-based PCs at least.
No, but when Apple decides you're not getting any more support or updates, which I believe they do with a shorter lifespan than Microsoft does with Windows, you're largely out of luck.
Not really that true-
Apple does sometimes seem to arbitrarily roll computers off support for a new OS. I have, for a while, been classifying OS X requirements into what I call "hard" and "soft" requirements.
As an example, while OS X 10.5(Leopard) came it, it supported all Intel models made, all G5s, and all G4s faster than 867mhz. The 867 mhz requirement is a "soft' requirement-it can run on any G4 powered computer, and in fact for most G4 systems it only requires using one of several tricks to bypass the installer check(some are a big more involved and require you to piece together platform support drivers, but it can still be done).
In most cases, a system will support an OS a few releases past where it it officially cuts them off.
One of the biggest hits recently was a OS X 10.12(2016), which requires a CPU that supports SSE4. Apple officially cut off stuff older than ~2010 or so, but it also made it impossible to install on computers released before ~2008 or so. The MacBook Pro 3,1(early 2007) and 4,1(late 2007/early 2008) rolled off the supported list with that version-the 3,1 is off completely, while the 4,1 and later can be made to run it.
The only computers that-to me-have really been shafted were the last PowerPC systems, some of which shipped as late as 2006(and could have been bought as refurbs into 2007). Those shipped with OS X 10.4, and were able to be upgraded to 10.5(2007). 10.6, released in 2009, didn't support any PowerPC systems. That meant that you may have only received 3 years of OS support on a new computer bought in 2006.