How long does Apple support Mac firmware?
eclecticlight.co
eclecticlight.co
I doubt I'll be getting updates of any kind on x86 Macbooks for much longer, so I wanted to install NixOS on here like I had on previous Macs, and I did manage to get it installed, but the support for the T2 hardware is, in my opinion, not usable for daily use. Very basic stuff like suspending doesn't work, the audio sounds like crap, sometimes booting simply doesn't work, and the discrete graphics card doesn't work.
I don't blame the community for this, obviously. These are hard problems, and Apple worked pretty hard to make it difficult to actually sideload other operating systems on here. It's annoying that in another year or so, this computer might become increasingly less secure, because updates will cease.
I should probably just buy a Framework at this point and sell this Mac while it still has some street value.
- lose warranty, practically speaking
- pay through the nose for shipping through a middleman
Most companies ignore small markets because they won't sell enough to justify the costs. And it's not just Linux vendors.
Very large brands attract enough interest from Joe six-pack to sustain such import volume that you can go and buy a MacBook or a Lenovo for somewhat reasonable money (still much more expensive than in the US or the EU).
- Wacom EMR
- touch
- high resolution display
- decent performance
- decent battery life
I'd like to know of it so I can buy one --- the nearest replacement I could find for my Samsung Galaxy Book 12 was a Book 3 Pro 360, and it has me contemplating giving up the battery and high resolution and getting a Raspberry Pi 5 and Wacom One 13 Gen 2 touch screen.
Those of us that rather not deal with those issues any longer, buy Apple, Google or Microsoft, and run GNU/Linux on a VM, via whatever mechanisms they make available.
However buying Apple, Google or Microsoft, and then complaining they don't make hardware to run GNU/Linux natively on it, what is one naively expecting them to do otherwise?
Also, I haven't seen a single seasoned Linux desktop user that cares about the "year of the Linux desktop". It's a meme that's only being repeated by Mac or windows users that "will switch over right away when this particular thing gets fixed", always finding another reason to talk themselves from doing it for basically decades, or well known FOSS haters such as yourself.
When I really want Linux on a box, I care to find a OEM that makes it possible, regardless if the distribution is specific to them, like on Raspberry PI's case.
Just to be 100% clear, I'm genuinely not actually trying to condemn anyone here; I don't really blame Apple for not making it super easy to install Linux, and I'm certainly not blaming people donating their time and effort for not working fast enough to make my life easier. So much FOSS is a labor of love and so I'm not entitled to anything from them as a result.
Even then, you're getting Sequoia at least, a year of support for that, then another two (if memory serves) of patch(y) support.
Getting my work laptop upgraded from a 16-inch i9 to a 16-inch M2 Max has been a godsend to my ears. The fan noise was constant with an i9.
Your laptop isn’t the first to experience that stuff under Linux.
When reading something like this I can’t help but wonder what the big PC makers do, but figuring that out seems like it would be pretty daunting given the large number of models even a single vendor makes.
Having so few models, plus firmware updates in the OS, probably made figuring this out so much easier than it would be in PC land.
Also: poor 2019 iMac. It’s a nice model but came out right before the Apple Silicon transition. It’s lifetime was never going to be what it could have been.
Just some anecdotal evidence:
- Dell XPS 13 from 2014 was getting bios updates until 2019 when I sold it.
- Asus AM4 motherboard was getting updates for 4 years. Mainly for new CPU models.
- 1 year old AM5 motherboard from gigabyte has to be used with original firmware, newer is quite unstable.
- Minisforum miniPC gets about 1 year of updates. Firmware download is via Mediafire (file sharing service). There are no downloads for 3 years old device.
I do not thibg bios is too big issue, most things like CPU vulnerabilities are patched in linux.
These are another source of obselence. Intel generally sets an "End of Servicing Updates" date at seven years post-launch.
There was nothing stopping Apple from supporting it far longer. It's not like they're a start-up short on cash with limited budgets. It's their own HW for Pete's sake, not someone else's like Microsoft or Linux has to.
I find it interesting that seemingly every other vendor does their best to maintain backwards compatability or at least some support.
Apple: Nope, go buy our new stuff $$$ :)
Apple fans: okay :)
(Sent from my Intel NUC that stopped getting GPU drivers after a year.)
I'll promptly admit my bias: I've been on macs as my daily driver for 20 years. But that's for a reason — the hardware is great, the software is good, and the support for old hardware is honestly amazing. I do lots and lots of hand-me-downs to parents, siblings, the spouse, and lots of those devices still work, with the latest OSes, years and years down the line. I have a friend that just replaced an old 13" Macbook that was 12 years old and working great.
Find me a company that does that and is as good in terms of build quality and I'll be immediately interested.
Because Apple doesn't have to compete on merits (as your comment points out), they just have to convince you to upgrade on a regular basis. Their routine depreciation and deliberate gimping of old hardware is evidence that Apple does not want you to keep using their devices once they tell you its time to stop.
I disagree. As an example, Macs stuck on 11 (Big Sur) stopped getting updates in 2023.[1] That includes Macs released until ~2014-2015, which are still usable in terms of hardware.[2]
I wouldn't call that amazing at all.
Other than this, OCLP + Sonoma on the MacPro6,1 is fantastic.
Still works great, but is capped at Catalina. I’ll have to check when it got its last update.
I use it as a Zoom machine, and it still runs the latest version of that app, just fine.
I have a first-gen iPhone Xs Max, that I’m using to test my software on iOS18. I test iOS16, on an iPhone 8 Plus. I also have an original SE, but it’s capped at iOS15, so I don’t test against it, anymore (except when I want to test really tight screen layouts). Apple kit does tend to last.
I wouldn't use it for testing my software, though, as it's a bit too "edgy" for that, but it is a great way to keep your old kit going.
8 years seems like long enough. Did you actually buy 40 macbooks from different eras?