At the risk of defending a megacorp: Apple has always been great about supporting their devices for a long time.
My iPad is too old to upgrade to the new OS, but yet no software is available for it in the store, because all new apps are encouraged to be re-released for the newest version of the OS.
My device is completely frozen in time from whatever software was installed on it when it went out of support.
However, I do suspect app developers don't want to be on the hook for supporting old versions, should they continue to serve things in need of security fixes etc etc. I don't entirely attribute it to malice.
https://appleinsider.com/inside/ios/tips/how-to-get-apps-for...
Your link is very helpful, but also notes some of the limitations. Namely, this doesn't work if the software has been purged due to not being updated recently, and it doesn't really work to find new-to-me software (that I haven't purchased previously).
Even if it's technically possible to reinstall software that I've previously purchased, it is very limited in its ability to install new-to-me software.
That's the deal, pray Apple doesn't alter it further.
My own MBP from the same era as yours succumbed to a logic board long before then, and I replaced it with a late 2016 MBP, which came with a touch bar + butterfly keyboard, had terrible performance, stopped receiving updates after Monterey (2021), no longer receives security updates, and (obviously) can't run modern ARM-based Mac software. (Incidentally, it was also the single most expensive computer I ever bought, even to date!) Not a very solid run, I'd say.
Personal anecdotes aside, I don't think it's too disputable that Mac has never taken backwards compatibility or computer longevity anywhere as seriously as Windows or Linux have.
Ah, yeah, I do recall the horror stories about the butterfly keyboard ones. Sorry to hear it. I was able to skip that entire generation because mine ran like a champ.
> Personal anecdotes aside, I don't think it's too disputable that Mac has never taken backwards compatibility or computer longevity anywhere as seriously as Windows or Linux have.
I think this is probably true. Unfortunately, the reason I moved to MacBook's in the first place was because I had a terrible run of Windows PCs & laptops. I think I had 4 or so between 2002 and 2012, but only 1 between 2012 and 2021. I suppose that's why I'm partial to Macs.
Please don't do anything security critical with them.
Other OS providers do support the devices longer. At least for core OS updates.
9 years of OS support seems pretty good to me.
Microsoft is abandoning 63% of its user base later this year, with an untold amount of those users unable to update to Windows 11 due to the requirements of a processor released after 2017. Keep in mind that with how the average Windows user buys their device, it's common to see brand new computers with two years old CPUs. With the pandemic having forced everyone to scrape the bottom of the barrel for laptops, there are so many people getting bitten by Microsoft right now.
Apple has done a good job of supporting old devices with new OS releases; they also subset old OS’s. That seems like a fair trade.