The end of all OS X Lion support, patches included, is likely just weeks away

54 Comments

“Apple is working its way toward releasing OS X Mountain Lion [sic Mavericks] 10.9.5, very likely the last non-security update for the 10-month old operating system,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld.

“While Apple hasn’t said — it never does — when it will release Mavericks 10.9.5, it’s almost certain to be the last update that includes non-security bug fixes, the kind of performance and reliability improvements that Mac owners hunger for, or changes to existing features in the OS,” Keizer reports. “Both Lion (OS X 10.7) and Mountain Lion (10.8) reached x.x.5 and no further, for instance… [It’s] likely that Apple will deliver Mavericks 10.9.5 some time in September.”

“More important than the delivery date for the last non-security Mavericks refresh is the fact that the same day will also mark the end of security patches for 2011’s Lion, or OS X 10.7,” Keizer reports. “Halting patches for OS X Lion customers would, of course, be painful — and potentially risky — for them, but Apple probably won’t blink an eye. As of July, Lion accounted for just 10% of all versions of OS X in use, according to metrics company Net Applications. By the end of September, Lion’s user share will be about 8%, assuming it continues to drop at the rate it has over the last six months. That will be less than half of Snow Leopard’s share when Apple pulled its plug last year.”

Read more in the full article here.

54 Comments

    1. XP is still today on a higher percentage of Windows PC’s than Lion & Mountain Lion combined are on Macs. MS was forced to support XP because they couldn’t produce a worthy successor.

      Reply

        2. When Apple pulls support for a three+ year old OS they no longer care a rat’s ass about, what choices are available for a loyal customer?

          Fork up more bucks to the richest company on earth or become obsolete in the shortest amount of time of any tech company in history?

          Obvious your definition of a loyal Apple customer is to take it up the arse every time Apple makes a dumb move in the holy name of PROGRESS and PROFIT.

        4. Good for your 7-year old Mac. Not at all what I am talking about. THE LOSS OF SUPPORT for computers and OS only a few years old that have NO reason to upgrade.

          XP support 14 years. Apple, what a joke.

        5. Why would someone with a 4 year old Mac choose to complain about no support when continued support merely requires a free upgrade? I have no idea what you are complaining about. How much is that XP upgrade?

        7. Um, your own words:

          “THE LOSS OF SUPPORT for computers and OS only a few years old that have NO reason to upgrade.”

          In reality, these users have little reason NOT to download a free upgrade.

        8. A free upgrade does not guarantee older software will work. On older computers, Microsoft has always been BETTER THAN APPLE REGARDING LEGACY SUPPORT.

          Please Apple trolls, get a grip.

        11. Hmmm, I think you are thinking of Microsoft when you say Profit. “How to monitize it” .

          PS, please remember that not updating the software does not make it non functional. I am still using 10.5.8 and 10.6.8 on several systems that run just as good as they did when support stopped.

          Just saying.

    2. Interesting revisionist history….

      Microsoft supported Windows XP for 12.6 years after its release (NOT 14), and then only because many, many major corporations (including many of the major defense contractors — you don’t change OSes during a war) went to Microsoft and effectively demanded that Microsoft extend the support period *multiple* times.

      The first viable successor to Windows XP was/is Windows 7. Don’t even try to get people to believe that Vista was a viable successor. The records that Vista set for its poor adoption are still holding. And if you dig into Window 7 you’ll find that it really is Vista 1.1 (actually Windows 6.1).

      So Microsoft supported Windows XP for 4.7 years after the shipment of the first *viable* Windows OS after XP.

      The second viable version of Windows after XP was/is Windows 8.1. (Again, don’t try to bring up Windows 8. It has been called “Vista 2.0” by many because of it’s horrific uptake rate and customer backlash.) So XP support was discontinued less than 0.5 years after the second viable successor.

      How many viable successors of Mac OS X have shipped since Lion was shipped? Two. Just like Microsoft.

      Oh, wait. It’s NOT just like Microsoft. Before Lion support is dropped, we’ll get Yosemite — a THIRD viable version of Mac OS X since Lion shipped.

      Should everyone be complaining that Microsoft is not supporting XP until, at the very least, Windows 9 ships (assuming it’s a viable version)? That is likely not to happen until sometime in 2015, and given how Microsoft’s OS schedules routinely move to the right shipment of Windows 9 might not happen until 2016.

      I won’t even get into the percentage of the user base (which is *NOT* the same as “market share”!!) that was abandoned by Microsoft when they dropped XP support. It was much, much higher than 8%.

      Reply

        1. We seem to be missing the bit in the article about how this will be the last update to include “non security bug related fixes”. XP has been on life support since ’08 (1 yr after vista). To your credit, the article is a little misleading as it makes it sound like all lion support is going away. Reading is hard though.

    3. Just because Microsoft kept XP on life support ENTIRELY too long…oh, that’s right…because Vista was such a disaster that even Microsoft themselves (implicitly) agreed that people were better off staying with XP…

      Microsoft has attempted to end support for XP several times before they finally did pull the plug on it. Massive protest from its user community (read: businesses) was the only thing that stopped them.

      And for the record, mainstream support for XP ended FIVE years ago, on April 14, 2009.

      Now, note that, Microsoft was STILL SELLING Windows XP up until June 30, 2008 (17 months after Vista’s release), so based on THAT date, Microsoft only fully supported XP for 10 MONTHS, not 14 years. So, it depends on when you bought it. And actually…(thanks, Wikipedia)…Windows XP was still being sold for “ultra low-cost computers” (ie. netbooks) even up until October 22, 2010.

      Also, consider the percentage of installations for the product when it was pulled….”According to Net Applications, Windows XP market share is of 25.27%, as of May 2014″, versus Lion’s 8% of Mac installations (not overall computers…just 8% of MACs).

      And while I’m at it…

      One reason Microsoft was pressured so greatly to continue XP support for so long is because it’s a BUGGY, VIRUS-PRONE PIECE OF GARBAGE.

      Add that to the fact that Microsoft charged (and still do) over $120 for a Windows license (vs. the $29 that Apple charged for Lion), and sorry bub….you MORE than got your money’s worth on Lion, so either STFU or go see if you can find an available seat on the SS Microsoft…plenty of rats have already jumped ship, so there should be some available for any rat stupid enough to climb aboard now.

      Reply

    4. So, in short, your claim that Apple has made obsolete any four-year-old Macs (or limited its ability to run up-to-date software) has been thoroughly established to have been a lie on your part. At least you’re good at moving goalposts — maybe there’s a job for you in the Republican party!

      Reply

      1. Well, customer satisfaction for Apple products in general, as well for every product line in particular, are still highest in the industry, and not going down, so I don’t know where you’re getting your facts.

        When XP came out, Apple was still making PowerMac G4 (and delivering it with OS X 10.2 Jaguar!). Are you suggesting that Apple should continue to support those users? If not, then how many models back? How many OS versions back? What is the correct criteria for support for old hardware / OS? How many users should there exist for Apple to be expected / required to support them? If not the number of users, how many years back? Six? Eight? Ten? Twelve (like XP)? Even if nobody is still using the OS / hardware?

        Your statements would sound much more reasonable if they were backed up with some specific numbers.

        Reply

        1. Simple answer. If Apple has always been the BEST OS on planet Earth, and I firmly agree with that. Longer than XP!!! Longer than 12.6 years. Got it, Apple Trolls???

        2. 12.6 years (presumably, the period since the release of WinXP) is an arbitrary number for Mac OS; even so, I’m pretty sure there is practically nobody who still uses Mac OS X 10.2 (which was released at the time of XP). It would be fiscally irresponsible for Apple to spend resources to develop patches and support for an obsolete OS with negligible user share. Apple is a publicly traded company, owned by its shareholders, who require responsible use of its assets and resources. Support for products that are no longer used is NOT responsible.

          User share is quite relevant, by the way; in order for Apple to deliver proper support to the users of current (or more current) version(s) of its products, there must be a line somewhere, so that those users get proper support. Apple has vast amount of resources, but no amount of resources should be dedicated to ancient systems and ancient hardware. That is just foolish.

      2. Actually I do not think you have seen the day. A big business company, yep with a market cap of 600 billion and 150 billion in the bank.!! But still the worlds best customer service.
        Just saying.

        Reply

  4. While I continue to run Snow Leopard on my 2009 MacBook, I note that even though I am no longer receiving any updates, I am also not experiencing any Malware, security exploits, crashing, networking or Internet errors, or other system issues typically encountered by Windows XP users.

    Reply

  5. While I can see why someone would run Snow Leopard (Rosetta support), why would anyone with a machine that supports Mountain Lion still be running Lion? How many Macs that are still in service could run 10.7 but not 10.8?

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        5. So in other words, you can’t defend your BS statement about obsoleteness with any facts. You cannot even name a SINGLE SOLITARY bit of software that worked in 10.7 and will not work in 10.8 or 10.9 to support your claims. Tell me, how long have you worked for Faux Noise?

        6. If those software apps are actually worth bothering with, they’ll have had their devs working to produce updates ready to install on or just after the latest OS release. If they haven’t, the ‘ware involved isn’t interested in the Mac platform enough to continue support.
          If you were actually using your supposed ‘thousands of dollars’ worth of software in a professional capacity, then you’d be perfectly aware that professional level software gets upgrades to maintain it’s use on the latest OS version.
          The fact that you don’t actually seem to be aware of this tells me that you’re just a whiney little bitch who gets off on trolling Apple news sites.
          I think I hear your mom calling, it’s past your bedtime.

        7. Not sure how many people have paid thousands of dollars for third-party software, but yes, in most cases, these tend to work with latest updates to the software.

          As always, there will be cases where third-party software hasn’t been updated to work with the most recent version of OS. Such software usually doesn’t cost thousands of dollars, though.

  8. Apple is releasing and obsoleting operating systems too quickly. Putting an OS on a schedule is a bad move. You can’t schedule ideas or creativity and thinking you can do so is foolish.

    Mavericks felt like an early beta when it first came out and and 10.9.2 should have been the earliest public release. The same with iOS, 7 wasn’t reasonably stable until the current version.

    Go back to the earlier system when I didn’t feel like a beta tester for half the life of the OS.

    Reply

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