“Apple on Tuesday made it clear that it will no longer patch OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, when it again declined to offer a security update for the four-and-a-half-year-old operating system,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld.
“As Apple issued an update for Mavericks, or OS X 10.9, as well as for its two predecessors, Mountain Lion (10.8) and Lion (10.7), Apple had nothing for Snow Leopard or its owners yesterday,” Keizer reports. “Snow Leopard was also ignored in December, when Apple patched Safari 6 and 7 for newer editions of OS X, but did not update Safari 5.1.10, the most-current Apple browser for the OS. Apple delivered the final security update for Snow Leopard in September 2013.”
“Traditionally, Apple has patched only the OS X editions designated as ‘n’ and ‘n-1’ — where ‘n’ is the newest — and discarded support for ‘n-2’ either before the launch of ‘n’ or immediately after. Under that plan, Snow Leopard was ‘n-2’ when Mountain Lion shipped in mid-2012, and by rights should have been retired around then,” Keizer reports. “But it wasn’t. Instead, Apple continued to ship security updates for Snow Leopard, and with Tuesday’s patches of Mountain Lion and Lion Tuesday, it now seems plain that Apple has shifted to supporting ‘n-2’ as well as ‘n’ and ‘n-1.’ (In that scenario, Mavericks is now ‘n,’ Mountain Lion is ‘n-1’ and Lion is ‘n-2’)… With Snow Leopard’s retirement, 1 in 5 Macs are running an operating system that could be compromised because of unpatched vulnerabilities.”
“Snow Leopard was the last version of OS X able to run applications designed for the PowerPC processor, the Apple/IBM/Motorola-crafted CPU used by Apple before it switched to Intel in 2006,” Keizer reports. “Snow Leopard, while requiring a Mac with an Intel processor, was the latest edition able to run the Rosetta translation utility, and thus launch PowerPC software.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Nothing lasts forever.
Apple will not be stuck in a rut like Windows supporting 12 year old systems. Move forward to the present, not keep in the past. 10.6 had its time were now 3 OS’s higher and it is time to move on.
I read somewhere that 10.6.8 was not vulnerable to the gotofail flaw. Anyone else read the same? In any case going forward, SnowL is one less cat Apple will support.
Haven’t read it, but pointed it all out to my wife, who uses a 10.6.8 machine at school. She tested at gotofail.com with Safari and it said she was fine.
Windows NT was abandoned by Microsoft. Guess what, no one went after NT. XP was too big and too easy a target to bother with NT.
Snow Leopard won’t be targeted either.
Snow Leopard and Safari didn’t/don’t suffer from the goto bug.
Snow Leopard was not updated because it was not vulnerable.
You can prove anything with facts. Tech writers prefer to rely on instincts, and blind prejudice.
What? They all hate Apple? Stupid unless they say something positive about Apple? Then they’re geniuses?
…and FUD checks in the mail!
Snow Leopard was the apex of OS X. Bertrand took his leave of Apple and has moved on- those behind him have yet to fill his shows.
correcto mundo.
+1
I run Mavericks but would go back to Snow Leopard in a second, it was the best OS X by far. The Finder was much more useful then, and snappier too.
Rarely access the Finder window.
Path Finder is so much more versatile. Takes awhile to understand your options you want and get in the groove, but it facilitates quick file work.
I’m also running Path Finder. Far superior to Finder.
Worth every every penny, can’t recommend it enough.
I have a sweet setup that lets me see full sized images and I have the Sidebar, Recents, Trash, Size and Preview enabled in the left and right drawers.
..left out in the snow.
Anyone use PureBasic ?
There was a company that did a BASIC to C converter called FutureBasic , but it only works on carbon.
To me, that’s one of the coolest ideas out there.
Write in BASIC, use a BASIC to C converter, and it works like…
you wrote it in C, in the first place.
Is there an App like that for Mavericks, or has anyone used PureBasic?
I think you’re at the wrong blog.
The chances of upgrading my 10.6 iMac to newer OS are slim at best.
Easier and low $s to just buy an “older” Mac on eBay that already has Lion or Mountain Lion on it for a fraction of new price.
What hyperbolical bullshit.
– Snow Leopard was updated 5 months ago. That’s still an extremely recent for out-of-date OS. It could still be getting once a year updates, which would be more than suffecient.
– What vulnerability would they be patching anyway? That big “gotofail” flaw never affected Snow Leopard. They need to give at least one specific, real example of something left unpatched for the premise of this article to make any sense.
Poorly crafted headline MDN.
Apple has no current press release, or other official communication that announces end-of-life for Snow Leopard support. No other obvious communication that would support this end of support reporting frenzy. Not that I could find, as officially sourced from Apple.
Instead, because the Safari in Snow Leopard was not updated yesterday, every blog that repeats other blogs, rumors, or media referred sources are simply spamming the world that Snow Leopard Support has ended. Based on guessing, or at best faulty logic.
I suspect that when this end of support for Snow Leopard becomes a reality, Apple itself will make it official. Then the supposition frenzy will end.
Complete BS!
I service a few print shops in my area that still use some older gear that still works amazing and would cost more than a car to replace. But they can’t move on from snow leopard as the drivers haven’t been updated. I know people will say it’s not apple it’s the manufacture of the gear but I disagree. I feel that apple must have a. Responsibility to its customers to follow up. With security updates for the OS the machine ships with for longer than 4 years. This isn’t good at all. Now they will have to purchase another system for Internet access as they will no longer feel safe using system critical machines online that have unmatched vulnerabilities. And I can only imagine with. Such crappy support from apple, they might choose windows as microsoft has a way better track record in this regard.
It’s too bad. I’m an apple user and tech for years and years. Since before the first mac. But I don’t see this as good at all. They. Have. A massive staff and to just leave. So many business screwed isn’t. Good
Double-spacing is not. Good. Ever.
I
agree.
This atrocity
must
stop.
“leavings 1 in 5 Macs…” — was the headline written by Skwisgaar Skwigelf?
——RM
I’m still using an early 2006 15″ MBP with 10.6.8 and it still performs pretty well. That was a great OS. The best OS X ? TBD as I’ve only been using Mavericks a month or so on a newer machine. It’s had more RAM and a 500GB 7200 rpm drive in it for about 3 years and I’m toying with the idea of putting an SSD in it to speed it up some. The 1.83 GHz CoreDuo is pretty old but I think they still sell PCs with that in it? As long as you’re not doing video on it, it’s pretty good.
And my 2004 PowerMac G4 running 10.4 has never been attacked, a
Though it’s not used much.
No more vulnerable than they were,…., yesterday.
Further, the fact that it’s running on fewer and fewer machines makes it even less vulnerable because hackers aren’t interesting in writing code that only attacks a small number of ancient machines that are being phased out by their users on a daily basis.
Anyone know how to upgrade the software on an iPhone 4s from iOS 6.1.3 to 6.1.6? The only upgrade I see is to iOS 7.0.6 which I’d rather not do. Thanks!
These are my reasons for believing that Apple hasn’t stopped supporting Snow Leopard just yet:
1. 10.6 was not prone to the “Goto fail” (as mentioned above) so nothing needed to fixed/updated
2. Apple still sells 10.6 (even if its just a middle step during updating to the latest) so I don’t see them jeopardizing themselves that way.
3. They still provide iTunes and Printer Driver updates for 10.6, so why would they even bother doing that if 10.6 was retired.
4. (also mentioned above), 10.6 is a special case of Mac OS X, its an operating system that was very stable and the last to run PPC apps. Tons of people still use on a daily basis (as evidence of it placing second in the most used Mac OSs’) so it would be in Apple best interest to publicly note that they are indeed retiring it, which they have not as of yet said.
5. Didn’t Apple a year or two ago provide a security patch for 10.5 (dealing with a Java Trojan)?
I’m sure there are many more points too, that I have missed.
Mavericks is free.. No one needs to worry about being left behind!
The best upgrade from any version of OS X is to install 10.6.8. Definitely the peak of Apple’s desktop OS performance and stability.
Shame Apple, your now doing what you do to customers in store when they bring in a 2 year old mac, insult them by calling it vintage, hoping to shame them into buying a new machine. This is now becoming a critical problem for customers with older Carbon software. The geniuses at Apple unable to provide a new Rosetta emulation so that software like accounting software, Golive and many others can continue to work let alone provide simple internet security updates. This seems a typical human response too becoming rich and not giving a dam about the mates you use to love and respect. It is not just a matter of upgrading osx or the cost of upgrading to a new Mac but the added cost of software. The only solution for all seems to use an emulator but this is dogged with Apple EULA bs and software restrictions that make it near impossible to get this solution working. For instance to get Osx 10.6.8 running on Vmware’s “Fusion” you need Snow Leopard Server. I found restrictions on what models it will run on and it stalls if you don’t have a cdrom drive. Virtualbox although slower does not have version restrictions but is not as fast or as finished as Fusion, but I did need to use a original cdrom.
“Apple if your not going to support it at least get out of the #%@&$ way and let it be emulated.”
Agreed. New OS versions are all well and good, but user investments in software that is not upgradable is a fact of life.
Bring back Rosetta!
““Snow Leopard was also ignored in December”
So, this story is two months old?
Can’t move off Snow Leopard Server! It’s not perfect at all but it is head and shoulders better than the Server toy available on Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks.