Aurich Lawson
When macOS Ventura was announced earlier this month, its system requirements were considerably stricter than those of macOS Monterey, which was released just eight months ago as of this writing. Ventura requires a Mac made in 2017 or later, no longer supporting a wide range of Monterey-compatible Mac models released between 2013 and 2016.
Undoubtedly, this seems more aggressive than the new macOS releases just a few years ago, where system requirements would tighten approximately every two years. But how bad is it, really? Will a Mac purchased in 2016 receive fewer upgrades than one purchased in 2012, 2008, or 1999? And if so, is there an explanation beyond Apple’s desire for more users to switch to the shiny new Apple Silicon Macs?
Using data from Apple’s website and EveryMac.com, we gathered information on more than two decades of Mac releases, almost everything Apple has released between the original iMac in late 1998 and the latest Intel Macs in 2020. We recorded when each model was released. , when Apple stopped selling each model, the latest official version of macOS for each system, and the dates when these versions of macOS received their latest point updates (i.e. 10.4.11, 11.6) and your latest regular security patches. (I made some notes on how I chose to streamline and organize the data, which I put at the end of this article).
The end result is a spreadsheet full of dozens of Macs, with multiple metrics to determine how long each received official software support from Apple. These methods included measuring the amount of time between when each model stopped manufacturing and when it stopped receiving updates, which is especially relevant for models like the 2013 Mac Pro, the 2014 Mac mini, and the MacBook Air. 2015 which were sold for several years after they were sold. introduced for the first time.