Hacker News Reader

Comment by mgleason_3 | Hacker News Reader

Haha, I'd be more nostalgic if I hadn't bought a 68000-based Mac just before the announcement that Apple was transitioning away from Motorola in the 90’s. Same baloney about releasing additional (Motorola-then / Intel-now) models during the transition. It very quickly became an expensive boat-anchor. I think I was still paying on the loan I'd gotten it since I was a poor college student working auto repair to make ends meet.

I'm excited about the move to the new processor. Also super glad my 2013 MBP has had a good run. It's still totally adequate. 'Course that's a problem isn't it?

It'll be interesting to see how the year turns out for Apple - seems like you'd be nuts to buy an Intel Mac now, right?

View on HN

They first announced the PPC transition in 1993. It was at least 3 or 4 years after the PPC Macs were introduced in 1994 that they dropped support for the 68K.

Heck the first version of Office that was PPC only was released in 1999.

Just think how pissed you'd be if you just dropped 6k on a new Mac Pro that will be obsoleted in 3 years. Not speaking from experience, no sir.

Apparently Marco from ATP fame did just that.

Marco buys computers like most people buy shoes.

But just because Apple comes out with a computer based on a new processor doesn’t mean your current computer stops working or stops getting updates.

The Apple // line was still getting software updates in 1991 and the Mac was introduced in 1984. Heck Apple sold the //e compatibility card in 1992 for Macs.

Apple supported 68K Macs for five years after the PPC Macs were introduced. They also supported the PPC Macs for either 5 years (10.7 came out in 2011) or 8 years (10.6 wasn’t classified as unsupported until 2014).

I hope to be proven wrong, but I have my doubts that Apple will support Intel beyond a year or at best two after the hardware transition is complete.

I'm sure someone will provide responses to the contrary, but hasn't Apple been pretty good about providing support for quite a reasonable period of time for both their software and hardware? Apple's own recent announcement indicates that they supported various bits of "vintage" hardware (hardware support only) that was first introduced between five and seven years ago: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

The same KB article indicates that what they consider to be obsolete (not at all supported) is hardware that is about 8 years or older, with most of it being 9+ years since first introduced.

For the most part yes.

Except for the original iPad. That still stings a little. They released it in 2010 and dropped support in 2012. But it was basically unusable with iOS 5 in 2011.

I bought three of the first four iPad models (I was working at a big cellular provider, so I got them at a significantly reduced price) -- each of those early models made substantial performance gains. The fourth model they shipped (the second with the retina screen) was the first one I'd feel comfortable about recommending to friends and family -- it held up well, the screen was unlike anything else on the market at the time, and it didn't weigh a ton.

I'm not sure why anyone would be pissed. If you need the Mac Pro then you're happy because you have a Mac Pro. If you don't need it then why did you buy it in the first place? People don't randomly buy a Lamborghini when what they really want is a Toyota Prius.

That's a terrible analogy, and regardless, buying any of the Intel range of Apple machines today is going to see them being literally incapable of running macOS once Apple decides to dump support. With some work you can run Catalina on a 2008 machine, 12 year old machines can still be coaxed into staying relevant. I expected that a 2019 Mac Pro would last more than (at best) 5 years, but given how Apple treats pros these days I fully expect them to drop Intel support completely in 3-4 years.

PowerPC Macs were able to run the latest MacOS for 4 years, after the announcement, then Apple provided security updates. Your Mac Pro will be a useful device for over a decade, just like my 2009 iMac.

And it’s much more likely that Apple extends this period for x86 than shortens it, given they might not be able to support Windows on Apple Silicon. And because they might need more than 2 years to build Apple Silicon Macs with performance as high as the Kac Pro.

You mean PowerPC. Motorola->Power switch is mid-1990s.

Yes, thanks for clarifying!

> seems like you'd be nuts to buy an Intel Mac now, right?

Not as bad as yesteryear. Can still run Windows or Linux on it after Apple stops supporting it. Am currently running Ubuntu Mate on an old 2007 iMac given to us for free and it is nicer than expected.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com