Apple blocking Mac OS X 10.8 installation on working Mac hardware | Hacker News Reader

Apple blocking Mac OS X 10.8 installation on working Mac hardware

krugazor.eu

7 pointsAissen8 comments

Apple haven't announced which machines will be compatible with the released version of Mountain Lion, so it's premature to say that Apple are "blocking" it. "Blocking" is also different to "Not Supporting"

Minimum specs have changed between beta and released version in the past. Apple has also released firmware updates to make machines boot in 64-bit mode as well. It is well within the realms of possibility that your machine could become "compatible" before 10.8 is released.

Secondly, as a point of reference the current MacBook Pro's do have upgradable hard drives and RAM. However the battery is not easily replaceable.

Another reason why I'm not using OS X anymore. It just took time to be a master with Linux, but it's worth it. The best support, works in almost every machine.

Are you using Ubuntu now? If you are, how easy/hard was it to transition from Mac OS, UI wise?

I've never used a Mac, but I get the feeling Canonical is mostly trying to be "inspired" by the Mac OS, rather than Windows. Because of that, as a Windows user, I found the transition to Ubuntu a bit frustrating, and I found Linux Mint much more natural to use - like I didn't really have to learn anything new. Surprisingly, I even find it a bit more intuitive than Windows 7. After years of using Windows 7 since beta, I still don't know where some stuff is located compared to XP.

Yes, Ubuntu.

I'm a kind of old Linux user. I've been using it here and there for the last 17 years. Nine years ago I bought my first Mac and finally found Linux again when I started to be good in programming.

My setup is very minimal. Using tiling window manager (xmonad) and set of my own widgets. Everything is Solarized and with my laptop all programs full screen.

At work I've been using this kind of setup (but without Apple hardware) for years.

For me, Apple (or Microsoft) doesn't provide as good UI as Linux does with my own setup. My config files are even in SVC, so when installing a new machine, all my stuff is there right away.

This guy's hardware is from 2008. I don't think refusing to support four-year-old hardware counts as forced obsoletion.

On a laptop and desktop it does. I would expect it to be relevant for a least 5 years and non-official support but still runs the latest, just maybe not that great, for a few more. We are talking about 4K laptops and desktops here not phones that get recycled every one to two years.

I think one has to consider the reasoning for not supporting it any more. The shift from 32 bits to 64 bits is a pretty big one. Prior to this being a requirement it was totally normal for Apple's older hardware to run the latest operating system version, and for people that have 64-bit capable machines, I assume that the same longevity will be seen. The change to 64-bit also affects the amount of RAM which may come into play here as well.

Sure I understand that, and if it is the case I hope it goes well for Apple. I know when we where bitten by a similar issue by Apple (the 68k to PPC transition) they lost a lot of customers for abruptly discontinuing support for systems that where not long dead. I know with that transition I had a 6k dollar brick after only 6 months of life. It took me a decade to come back to Apple and only after they switched to a process that was supported by other OS's, so that I would have a bail out plan. I understand they did what they had to do to survive back then, but when you eat 6K you don't have much appetite to do it again. I would hate to see a repeat of that, now that they seem to have gotten their act together, especially since they can't fall back on the we had to do it to survive excuse, which gained them a lot of forgiveness back then.

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