macOS Tahoe is the last big update for Intel Macs
It wasn't mentioned at the WWDC keynote, but it may have been obvious. Apple has now made it clear that macOS Tahoe is the end of the line for Intel Macs.
The Mac Pro was Apple's last Intel-based Mac that it sold in 2023
Admittedly, I missed my guess on this a bit. I though that September 2025 was probably be when Apple cut off support for Intel Macs in new versions of the operating system. This was until our very own Marko Zivkovic discovered an early compatibility list including a bunch of Intel hardware still.
Just the same, the writing has been on the wall. Apple's Intel-powered Mac days are coming to a close.
There will probably be security updates for a few more years. There will be folks hanging on to hardware for a while after that, but probably not as long as they are now.
The reveal was made at the State of the Platform discussion a few minutes ago. We've already seem some aghast folks on social media talking about it, and some others sad to see it go.
For the last Intel Macs released about this time of year in 2020, that means that there will be full support through September 2026. There are a few hangers-on from before 2020 this time around, but not a lot.
Macs that Apple has cut off from support, including the last few original cheese grater Mac Pro aluminum towers have been able to install modern operating systems through OpenCore. The release of macOS 26 in September of 2025 will likely pose some problems for them, as every supported Intel Mac that remains has a T2 chip.
That T2 greatly complicates looking at the OS code to figure out how to shoe-horn it on an older machine, unless Apple has made some interesting encryption choices. They've done an amazing job over the years migrating GPU drivers and providing support on a very low-level for other hardware, but it looks like those days are about over.
Presumably, the shift to all Apple Silicon code in September of 2026 in macOS 27 will cut some bloat, but also completely cut out every vestige of Intel code.
And, maybe even Rosetta 2. It didn't take that long for PowerPC support to get cut out of the then Mac OS X. We'll see how that goes.
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Many Mac users still have older Macs that can do various tasks. I still use a MacBook Air 11" 2012 with Catalina for general use, with a new battery and 1TB SSD. Super lightweight and doesn't need to run the latest OS for general use stuff. My iMac 27" 2020 will still run macOS 26 for years, even after support ends, and I can still run Parallels with Mac OS X Snow Leopard with Rosetta and macOS Mojave for Mac 32-bit apps that never got updated for 64-bit, and Windows 10 x86. I also have a MacBook Pro 13" i7 with Catalina and Windows 10 in Boot Camp. People still find ways to use older Macs. I still make music CD-Rs for the car and a vintage 100 CD changer using a Power Mac G5 and an older version of Toast Titanium.
Apple Silicon Macs have fallen faster in value because people bought 8/256 configurations, realized they cannot upgrade them, so they sell them for next to nothing to get rid of them. Facebook Marketplace has become more popular than eBay. No fees to deal with.
I came back to say the same thing. PowerPC got Tiger and Leopard, and that was it. The last PowerPC iMac, the iMac (iSight) in late 2005, only got Tiger and Leopard and that was it. Cut off with Snow Leopard, 3 years after the transition to Intel. But Apple finished the Intel transition to all Macs in 270 days, not 3 1/2 years for Apple Silicon. At least Intel Macs, which there were probably far more in circulation in 2020 than PowerPC Macs in 2005, got Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma, Sequoia, and now Tahoe. Granted, I would rather have a more robust macOS with a two year release cycle than this fast pace one year cycle and more bugs in the OS. We still have a lot of Intel Macs at work that will run macOS 26, so those won't be replaced any time soon.
We had 3 years between Snow Leopard (2009) and the end of PowerPC Mac sales (2006). This transition is worse than the transition from PPC.
And Rosetta 2 won't be part of macOS 28 (2027). There will be no way of running Intel-applications on a new OS just 4 years after the last Intel Mac was sold.
With the previous transformation Apple gave us 5 years.
I'm OK with this. What I would like to see from Apple is a clear promise to keep computers bought in 2023 safe to at least 2030.
They might have sold old stock of Intel Mac Mini's into 2023, however, it was originally released back in 2018. Bearing in mind that one could buy an Apple Silicon Mac Mini in 2020, well, the writing was clearly on the wall for anyone that bought one of the inferior Intel models after that date.
Apple will maintain security updates on Mac OS Sequoia for another 3 years, so, your Intel Mac Mini would be good up to 2028. Not a bad run at all for a machine originally sold in 2018!
Gives me plenty of time to save up the money to replace my 2020 iMac.
I figure it will cost me $5K for a Mac Mini, Studio Display, and a 4TB external SSD.