Ars Technica:
The downside of new Apple software is that it usually displaces old Apple hardware. With rare exceptions, new versions of iOS and OS X usually don’t make it to a handful of older iDevices and Macs, leaving owners of those gadgets stuck with old software or pushed into upgrading.
Luckily, most iOS and OS X users are getting off easy with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. Any Mac that can run OS X 10.8 or 10.9 can also run 10.10, a list that includes Macs from as far back as 2007. Here’s the full list.
Always happily surprised to see how far back Apple provides compatibility for the latest and greatest OS.
I hasn’t always been that way. We’re only a couple of years removed from the time where you just got about 3 years of OS support from Apple.
Still, great to see. I bought a mid-2009 white MacBook(that I no longer own), and I’m greatly surprised that it would still be able to run the latest version of OS X.
I think this is also a sign of the times with regards to software. The big push in hardware has been efficiency and ability to hit low power states. Definitely on Intel’s side, maybe not as much on ARM’s side, where they’ve been focusing on increasing performance quite a bit.
Intel and AMD’s chips are past the point where we see 60-70% performance boosts every generation. Instead we’re seeing 10-15% performance boosts with 20-30% reductions in power used. Today’s Core i7’s are quite a bit faster than the original Nehalem Core i7 parts, but definitely not out of their league.
Anyway, software has had to deal with the fact that hardware speeds aren’t necessarily advancing at a lightning pace like the used to be. This is good since it allows us to run the latest Windows or Mac OS on older hardware.
I’m at something of a tipping point now with my iMac. Mine runs Mavericks just fine (and, by extension, evidently Yosemite), but it does not have the later-generation wifi card…so no AirDrop, and I expect no Handoff, and possibly no coordinated telephony with my iPhone (though I’m holding out hope that that one just works over regular wifi and not peer-to-peer).
Since I got this iMac (2009 model), my computer usage has dropped annually while my smartphone usage has risen. I now really don’t use the computer for that much any more, but I do like to keep up with the latest just in case. But I don’t really want to invest any money in new equipment, given my dropoff in use.
(if Photos management continues to evolve, that’s another thing that drops off of my iMac’s plate, to some extent).
So there will come a time…not now, perhaps, but maybe with OS X Oxnard or OS X Rancho Cucamonga or OS X Weed…where I will have reached the end of the line on this trusty iMac. There will have to be a choice then.
My mid-2007 iMac continues to plod along!