So a friend's iMac is no longer will no longer accept OS updates...

[RAMd®d]

...It's old, Jim.

I don't know it's vintage.

He went to Costco and got new Mac iron:

iMac 27"
Intel Core i5 3.3 GHz
8GB Memory
512GB SSD
4GB Radeon Pro 5300 Graphics

I've no idea exactly what Mac this is, but assume it's the last of the Intel Machicans, and the basic Tier 2 iMac.

We haven't talk yet about the hows and whys of this Mac, but I know it's 27" or nothing, 23" and a half just won't do.

Overall, I'm sure it suits his needs, except his previous iMac had a 1T spinner.

My question is — will this iMac have the same useful Apple lifespan regarding updates that it would have had if Apple stayed with Intel architecture?

I don't know what he knew/knows about the M1 line up, and guess if he did, waiting around for the 27" version and whatever price that be, wasn't an option.

His new iron is several incremental steps up from the old, no new tech, just freshened up tech.

Ok the SSD will bring the snappy, but it seems his main concern was keeping up with all the OS updates.

So color me curious.

Will Apple support this Mac as for as long as the recent 24" M1 iMac?

He may be getting one of those for his wife, I haven't heard.

[jdc]

Should provide many years of useful OS updates. Its technically only 1 year out from M1s.

And nothin says that you need to run the latest and greatest forever. Are you thinking of "security updates" like 5+ years from now? Cause Im pfffft with that. User is the biggest security risk, not the OS...

First thing is add at least an *additional* 16 GB of ram to it, for a total of 20 GB.

[ka jowct]

jdc wrote:
Should provide many years of useful OS updates. Its technically only 1 year out from M1s.

And nothin says that you need to run the latest and greatest forever. Are you thinking of "security updates" like 5+ years from now? Cause Im pfffft with that. User is the biggest security risk, not the OS...

This. He can do the security updates, and forget the OS updates until his back is against some arbitrary Apple wall. He doesn’t need to use Safari, especially since Apple unhelpfully ties Safari versions to OS versions. He can use Firefox as long as it continues to get updated for whatever OS he is running.

If he visits sketchy web sites all the time, a new machine running MacOS Burbank isn’t going to protect him against his ID-10-T errors.

[C(-)ris]

I guess it isn't horrible. The processor is a 10th Gen i5. So around a year and a half old. Could be worse I suppose...but any M1 will run circles around it.

[RAMd®d]

Should provide many years of useful OS updates. Its technically only 1 year out from M1s.


Good enough.

Thank you, jdc.