Apple Starts Alerting Users That It Will End 32-Bit App Support On the Mac (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Tomorrow at midnight PT, Apple will begin issuing an alert box when you open a 32-bit app in MacOS 10.13.4. It's a one-time (per app) alert, designed to help MacOS make the full transition to 64-bit. At some unspecified time in the future, the operating system will end its support for 32-bit technology meaning those apps that haven't been updated just won't work. That time, mind you, is not tomorrow, but the company's hoping that this messaging will help light a fire under users and developers to upgrade before that day comes. Says the company on its help page, "To ensure that the apps you purchase are as advanced as the Mac you run them on, all future Mac software will eventually be required to be 64-bit." As the company notes, the transition's been a long time coming. The company started making it 10 or so years ago with the Power Mac G5 desktop, so it hasn't exactly been an overnight ask for developers. Of course, if you've got older, non-supported software in your arsenal, the eventual end-of-lifing could put a severe damper on your workflow. For those users, there will no doubt be some shades of the transition from OS 9 to OS X in all of this.

Comments

Re:why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Applications without 64bit binaries available should be considered abbandoned or dead. Depending on this kind of software is irresponsible and should be avoided at all cost.

Re: why?

[guruevi]

Yes, your company should account for that when it purchases technology. Everything gets old and dies, from people to computer programs. Not accounting for that fact is a problem in your business model. Are you still using a PDP11?

Re:why?

[TheRaven64]

Everyone who buys a Mac is paying to subsidise the continued maintenance and support of the 32-bit versions of system libraries. Very few people are actually using these libraries. You seem to want other people to subsidise your purchasing decisions either way.

Re: why?

[Bert64]

Legacy unmaintained code is a significant security risk...

64bit is not a new thing, 64bit processors have been around for nearly 30 years and have been mainstream for more than 10, apple have not produced a 32bit mac for more than 10 years now, and they are just starting to deprecate 32bit support, so 32bit apps will continue to run and be supported for a few years yet.

If you're running software that hasn't been updated in such a long time then you should seriously be considering replacing it with something that is actively maintained for many reasons.

Re: why?

[phantomfive]

Games are an example of software that doesn't usually get updated, but you still want them to keep working.

Frankly I wish programmers like you (who don't have respect for backwards compatibility) would crawl into a ditch and die, but I don't get everything I want in this world.