“My MacBook has a Core 2 Duo CPU and features the Nvidia 9400M graphics chip, which is the cut off point for many Macs. If your Mac features the integrated Intel GMA950 or X3100, then you were already out of luck with the first Developer Preview of Mountain Lion,” Simon Royal reports for Low End Mac.
“With the release of Developer Preview 2 on March 16, another shock culling of Macs is proposed, and this time it looks like it includes mine, much to my annoyance,” Royal reports. “The latest requirement is that your Mac must boot into a 64-bit kernel. That’s okay, you might think, all Core 2 Duo Macs are 64-bit. Well yes, they [are], but not all can boot into 64-bit kernel. For whatever reason, Apple decided that some Macs around the 2008/2009 era can only boot natively into a 32-bit kernel.”
Royal reports, “To check if your machine is automatically booting to 64-bit, have a look in your System Profiler under Software and there is a line that says “64-bit kernel and extensions” – if that says Yes, then you are fine.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Time and technology marches on. Thank Jobs, Apple pushes the envelope. We much prefer that to stagnation.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sarah” for the heads up.]
Help. OK, I must be blind. First of all, I don’t have a System Profiler. I have “System Information” – same thing? Second, I can’t find the reference under Software that he mentions. Sorry, it’s probably staring right at me, but can someone point me to the right place to look? I have a late 2007 iMac, running Lion.
Atlanta, under the Apple Menu, select About This Mac. Near the bottom there, click, More Info. There are others ways to get there, but that may be the most straightforward for you. Then click System Support. Then click on the word Software at the 3rd carrot down the left column. Check where it says “64-bit Kernel and Extensions”.
Quite a few people commenting here are unhappy with Apple’s new business philosophy. Isn’t that one of the four warning signs that it is time to SELL? Get those sell orders ready!
As for me, I might hold my shares for another week or so. Or so. Or so.
Not really, because usually, the people who bother to comment are the ones who are upset about something. The people who are perfectly happy and content are mostly silent. So, your “quite a few” out of 10’s of millions is basically zero, statistically.
Also, Apple still only has about 10% of the PC market. Therefore, the majority of Mac sales going forward are (still) going to be to brand new Mac users. New Mac users will have no gripes about Apple moving the bar forward at a fast pace. In fact, new Mac users benefit from Apple making the “lowest common denominator” for Macs supported by Mountain Lion as HIGH as possible.
And finally, the growth story for AAPL (as a stock) is in iPads and iPhones going forward, not Macs. The Mac business just provides a solid foundation with steady (but not spectacular (growth).
I was kidding, Ken.
I forgot how many posters there are recently who do say that in seriousness so I should understand your confusion.
OK, but my points are still valid. 🙂
Yes. They are.
What a sour bunch some are. Apple’s success is not on corporate greed, that sells nothing. It is based on filling a need and doing the job better than any competitor allied to innovative technology, software and implementation of it in the most user friendly manner possible. Yes, I would like them to keep up with the consumer Side, i.e. iDVD for example, but you work out what you really get and then work out what it would really cost to match it in any other system, and there is not much in it, except for the lost time, and emulated software. All in all the reason why Apple is successful is BECAUSE it gives us what we want, not because of corporate greed.
I have the same laptop model that the author has (early 2009 MacBook). I have two external USB drives, one with Snow Leopard (10.6) and one with Lion (10.7). When I boot it up into Snow Leopard, the 64-bit line under software is not present, and the utility mentioned in the articule reports that I have a 32-bit kernel. However, when I boot it up under Lion, the 64-bit line under software IS present, the entry says Yes; and the utility confirms that I can boot up into full 64-bit mode. So Apple must have had a 32-bit kernel for certain older mac models in Snow Leopard; but a 64-bit kernel for Lion. While a Developer Preview isn’t definitive, my guess is that any machine that can boot up Lion will also run Mountain Lion.