Gregg Keizer for Computerworld:
Apple kept to past practice yesterday when it said virtually all Macs able to run the current version of macOS will be supported by the upcoming upgrade, dubbed “Catalina,” when it ships this fall.
Apple has relied on an odd-even cycle for its macOS upgrades’ system requirements. The cadence has alternately retained the prior year’s models on the new version’s support list (odd-numbered years, like this one, with odd-numbered editions, as in 10.15) and dropped models from the list (even-numbered years, even-numbered editions).
In 2016, for instance, macOS Sierra (10.12) struck 2007’s, 2008’s and some of 2009’s Macs from support. Meanwhile, in 2017, High Sierra (10.13) stayed with the same models as Sierra. Then in 2018, macOS Mojave dropped a slew of Macs — all those introduced in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
So it was no surprise that macOS Catalina (10.15) retained most Macs that had been able to run last year’s Mojave.
MacDailyNews Note: Here’s Apple’s official list of Macs that support macOS Catalina:
• MacBook 2015 and later
• MacBook Air 2012 and later
• MacBook Pro 2012 and later
• iMac 2012 and later
• iMac Pro 2017 and later
• Mac Mini 2012 and later
• Mac Pro 2013 and later
I have three Macs and only one isn’t supported by Catalina. My old 2009 iMac Core2Duo will stay at Snow Leopard forever (It’s too slow on Mountain Lion). My other Macs are currently running the latest version of Mojave and they’re running wonderfully. I can’t wait to get the release version of Catalina. I should be getting a new iMac this year and that will probably be running Catalina right out of the box. If Catalina is anything like Mojave in terms of reliability, I’ll be one happy camper. Mojave has been very stable for me and hasn’t given me any problems, at all.
“all those introduced in 2009, 2010 and 2011.”
Typing this on an early 2009 Mac Pro running 10.14.6 beta 18G29g. Mojave flies on this and I have done nothing but keep it at 12GB RAM and added a Sapphire 580 card. I did have to flash from 4,1 to 5,1.. but that was really not a big deal.
Hope I can test Catalina on it! I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t work if Mojave does. There aren’t that many significant changes to the core OS.
I should have checked before I posted…. Catalina support goes down to Early 2009 4,1 Mac Pros.. so this Mac even without the EFI flash. Nice!
Mac OS Catalina does not support 5,1 or 4,1 Mac Pros. You need a hack to run it.
I wish Apple would stop giving me an excuse NOT to buy a new iMac….I was hoping my 2012 model would be EOS LOL
I saw in an article online that in the Catalina beta Dashboard has gone missing which is unfortunate since I use Dashboard regularly. Unfortunately they never seem to solve the problems of the moving icons in Dashboard which was suffering from NTSP – Never Twice Same Position.