Why Apple Doesn’t Support Your Mac… and How to Rebel

Ever wonder why your perfectly good Mac is "unsupported" for newer macOS updates? Discover the lesser-known reasons why Apple forces older Macs out and explore the underground efforts to bypass these restrictions. In this video, I delve into the truth behind unsupported Macs, reveal Apple's hidden motives, and show you how to keep your Mac running the latest software against all odds.

#TechEthics #AppleDocumentary #RightToRepair

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[AnsonAlexander]

IMPORTANT: LINUX is a very good option for your old Mac if you're ready to move away from macOS. Since Apple hardware is really only meant to run Apple software, it's more difficult to repurpose old Macs once Apple drops software support compared to other, less restrictive, hardware setups but, macOS is built on Unix, which is quite similar to Linux.

With a little bit of work you can also install Windows pretty easily on Intel Macs (not M series). I actually installed Windows 11 on this 2013 Macbook Pro as well - video is in my "Unsupported macOS Installations" playlist.

Side note: As some of you have noticed, I say "Big Sur" funny. We speak a lot of Spanish and Portuguese in my house and, well, "Big Sir" just doesn't sound right to me... Hopefully you can understand the rest - full English captions as well :)

[darylnielsen]

Apple should show a lot more loyalty to their customers who spend a ton of money on their products…shame on you Apple.

[drvoodoo]

I'm typing this on a 2012 Mac mini running macOS Ventura 13.6.7 via OCLP!

[RichardDanter]

One other point you didn’t mention is that using older machines is better for the environment. Even if you do get your old one recycled when you update it is not as good. Of course there has to be a point where you have to accept that the hardware is just too old and slow, but until that point it is reasonable to expect support for as long as possible.

[NathanGregoryAuthor]

I have several unsupported Macs, all the way back to 2009. When Apple no longer supports, I simply install Linux, and keep going. Ubuntu 24.04 runs quite nicely on my 2009 Macbook and does everything I need it to do.

[dars]

Mid 2012 MacBook with Catalina. It’s been a nightmare since I can’t use many of the lasted software updates.

[The_Digital_Arts_World]

As Anson points out, Apple deliberately makes moves to force dedicated product user’s to buy their newer products and unfortunately, that generally comes at a much higher cost than the Mac or other device being replaced. Yes, older Macs can be given a second life by switching it over to any Linux variant; however, it comes at a cost of loosing out on software only meant to run on MacOSes. I have 5 unsupported Macs, two of which are MacBook Pros with 17” screens. I love both of them and really dislike Apple’s move to decrease screen sizes as well as purposefully insuring compatibility with second source displays.

As a retired person; many of use still actively using their Macs can no longer afford the cost of buy Apple’s new Mac systems whose price tags are astronomical in many cases. Secondly, but off topic, Apple’s move to “solder everything in place” on everything, intentionally forces users to upgrade at higher costs to make sure their Macs have a potential longevity beyond their 7 year “guaranteed???” life expectancy, a.k.a., planned obsolescence. I vehemently oppose Apple’s locking down of Mac components so that technically capable users can perform their own memory, both RAM and HDD/SDD retrofits, along with things that typically fail like graphics chips in the MacBook Pro 17” (Late 2011).

So, I am looking at using the Open Source Legacy Updater to bring at least one of my Macs up to date even at a cost of loosing some functionality constrained by older or missing components like Metal. It’s a price that is paid by anyone venturing forward on unsupported OSes. It does not stop there though. One is forced to consider unsupported update vs. buying new equipment when software companies limit the span of MacOSes they will support. I think this is most significantly the case with Music Production and DAW software. i am in that group. I was really angry when Intuit would not provide TurboTax Deluxe after 2017 for Macs running MacOS 10.15 (Catalina). I will simply do whatever is necessary to give my Macs an extended life commensurate with the quality Apple puts into their products. I would love to hear Lewis Black do a Rant Broadcast on Apple alone. I am not alone in my view of the Tim Cook lead of Apple Corporate greed. Ask yourself this simple question. What would you do if major car manufacturer’s only supported their cars and truck costing upward to $125K+ were to redirect themselves towards producing vehicles whose life is only 7 years? Many car loans are now 7 years.

Americans need to stand up to corporate greed, and product planned obsolescence.

[dougwwectebow]

Upgraded my mid 2012 MBP to Ventura yesterday. Sonoma wouldn't work correctly due to a graphics card issue. But it's running Ventura like a champ. Really appreciate these videos you are putting out. Thinking about doing my 2014 iMac now. Which I my primary machine so that's why I'm still thinking about it. My MBP will see more use now for sure as it now has a new lease on life and still looks and runs like new.

[TechGameDev]

when mac os will be exclusively compatible with mac arm t all mac intel will be obselete impossible to make it compatible with open core legacy because architecture is x86 and the boot instructions are different

[desertvoyeur]

I have a 27 inch Mac pro. It’s beautiful! But sadly, not only unsupported, but not even replaceable by an equivalent newer model. What a shameful waste. Why not sell a new motherboard replacement? I feel so betrayed by technology. My most productive software no longer works on the new machines. Maybe AI can produce emulations of older machines, so nothing goes out of date, including us.

[thetdchannel]

The biggest great effect is saving the environment. There should be an international law requiring Apple, Dell, and all machine makers physically take back old computers. The international law should require all of them to environmentally dispose of old machines.

The cost of that process would make it cheaper to support old machines and encourage customers to maintain them. People will still buy new machines but the environment wins with this scenario.

I keep my old MacBook Pro 2009 because I don’t want it in some landfill polluting the earth.

[peterjackson]

Planned obsolescence should be illegal. Manufacturers should be obliged to support their products for much longer.
I have just bought a Windows 7 laptop. It's brilliant. Fast, massive storage, versatile. It even looks good.

[senzen]

The smart move would be to offer extended support for security updates (not OS updates), charging for it and pointing out the limitations (my 2014 macbook pro's fans spin out of control with the wrong browser). It would be a service no Windows or Android machine could match.

[geoman]

All my older Macs run latest MacOS with Opencore and Linux Mint on a seperate partition... My MacMini (2014) also run Win11 on a third partition...

[RocktCityTim]

I'm running Sonoma 14.5 on a 2013 i7 15" Retina Mac Book Pro - totally seamless and everything works.

[judgewest]

As a Windows guy I used to scoff at the lack of support for older hardware in the Apple ecosystem... till Microsoft aggressively prevented perfectly good PC's from running Windows 11 thus condemning more than a billion machines to landfill. Now I'm just disillusioned in general.

[jimrogers]

I installed Mac OS Monterey on my 2013 (mfg in 2017) Trash can Mac and am very happy that I did. Nice video...

[DonaldChapman]

Yeah, but when your brand new laptop crashes every week and you report it over and over (25+ times) and nothing gets done. I'm pretty sure I will leave Apple after this "smooth user experience". Apple has been turning to crap over the last few years. Time for new leadership!

[ashleyvanderhaar]

I did the Sonoma upgrade on a 2012 Macbook pro fully upgraded SSD HD and 16MB Ram to Macos Sonoma 14.5 worked well initially and everything seemed ok and then after a coupla days it freezes and has the proverbial spinning wheel of death when it goes into sleep mode or the lock screen is activated and it happens now more frequently than anything to the point that it has become unusable. I'm downgrading back to Catalina and using it for my music playback. Linux I'm afraid is unable to run anything I need or want it for. I have a raspberry pi for that. So will enjoy the last of this Macbook in all it's ancient glory.

[nomore]

The shift to 64-bit architecture did NOT mean that Apple had to stop supporting 32-bit applications. 64-bit Windows runs 32-bit applications just fine, with no changes. Apple simply didn't want to support 32-bit applications. Instead, they wanted to force people who wanted/needed to use a 64-bit application to buy a new computer because that is more profitable for Apple.