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Xlue058 t1_iuqsc9r wrote

Reply to comment by drtitus in Apple to Mark Several iMac Models as Obsolete Later This Month. by SUPRVLLAN

To be fair in my experience in enterprise IT support Apple computers last a lot longer then most windows machines

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drtitus t1_iur96qy wrote

In my experience something as basic as Firefox stopped working on an old Apple because it couldn't be updated to the latest OSX, so I ditched OSX, installed Linux and the latest Firefox had no problems. There was no good reason that Firefox *couldn't* run, but Apple decides when your software becomes outdated, because most developers only support the most recent versions of OSX. Windows (and Linux) are generally very backward compatible. That's the difference. A similar thing happens with Photoshop and most other Apple software. It's very much a "latest hardware only" platform.

Apple do make great hardware - I'm not claiming they don't - and it does last a long time (I've still got a 2008 Mac Mini with Firewire that I use for Renoise which *does* support old versions of OSX, but it can't browse the web), but it's the software compatibility [planned obsolescence] that lets it down. Almost any Intel machine can run Windows 10, which will run almost any Windows app available. That's been Microsoft's strength and why they've stayed the market leader for so long. You don't generally get locked out of new software just because you haven't got the latest machine (with some exceptions due to CPU instructions being available for particular bits of software).

Feel free to make your own decisions, I'm not stopping you, but I refuse to buy Apple for this reason.

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shofmon88 t1_iuyhfl3 wrote

That was on Firefox, not Apple. Apple doesn’t dictate which OS versions 3rd party software supports.

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drtitus t1_iv2arbz wrote

You're correct, but Apple dictates which versions of OSX they'll support on which hardware. Windows just runs on any hardware and continues to update. As does Linux. Apple decides it's not worth their effort (but really just want you to buy a new computer). Anyone who's owned an older Apple knows the drill.

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shofmon88 t1_iv2bd3e wrote

I have a MacBook Pro from 2009 and a mid-2014 iMac. I don’t have issues with either even though they aren’t supported anymore. I challenge you to find a Windows laptop from 2009 that still works.

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drtitus t1_iv2k93g wrote

Challenge accepted - I've got a Thinkpad T400 here, although I think it's from 2008, so technically it's not from 2009 as required.

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shofmon88 t1_iv2qdwt wrote

And it can run Windows 11?

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