I may need a new Mac Soon, Report Suggests
If this rumor becomes reality, the end is nigh for my trusty iMac.
I became a bit crestfallen today when I read this report by MacRumors’ Hartley Charlton, who cites a report from AppleInsider, that the forthcoming update to macOS—macOS 26; more below—drops support for five older Macs. Charlton says the 2017 iMac Pro, 2018 MacBook Air, 2018 Mac mini, 2020 Intel-based MacBook Air, as well as my aforementioned Retina 4K iMac, all are (purportedly) incompatible with the new version.
I’d love to know how many words I’ve churned out on this machine in the nearly 6 years I’ve had it. This iMac came to me in 2019, which feels almost quite literally like a lifetime ago now. It was a few months after I had a personal tragedy, and a few months into becoming a pig parent. The pandemic was several months away, unbeknownst to me and the rest of the planet. In 2019, I was covering Apple exclusively; the powers-that-be at Forbes at the time wouldn’t approach me about joining its invite-only contributor network until close to Halloween. At the time, I never would’ve dreamed I’d be on the verge of career opportunities that would eventually push my reporting into the stratosphere. My Forbes column opened those doors for me, and I’ll forever be grateful.
All the while, my iMac has been here to see me through it all.
I don’t mean to wax overly poetic about a computer. I know electronics have only a finite lifespan, and it appears increasingly likely that it will reach its end—defined by the stoppage of support for the latest software—which makes it befitting that I eulogize my iMac in advance. I’ve been thinking about upgrading my desk setup for some time now, especially lusting over the also-new-in–2019 Pro Display XDR with either a docked MacBook or perhaps a Mac mini of some sort. As someone whose work primarily involves videoconferencing and plain text files for writing, my spartan compute needs belie my nerdy desire for beefier hardware like the tricked-out Mac Studio my friend and former collaborator Federico Viticci has been testing lately. I’m still weighing my options for my next move, but suffice it to say I’ve greatly enjoyed the all-in-one lifestyle afforded by my iMac. I like that I have a central, dedicated location for work and thus I’m (tentatively) inclined to make a lateral move to the latest one. At the very least, I’m enthused by the prospect of using an Apple silicon-based Mac as my daily driver, despite my Intel iMac still being more than capable of doing what I need for my job.
Okay, about “macOS 26.” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has a helluva scoop this week in which he reports Apple plans to change the versioning scheme for its platforms to reflect calendar years instead of version numbers. Lots of people on the internet have taken umbrage over the decision, some asininely so, but I think the reaction is a show of humanity’s adverseness to change. As I said on Mastodon yesterday, EA Sports has used the decades-old practice, dating back to the heyday of the Sega Genesis, to use the upcoming calendar year for its games. For example, the company’s college football title, College Football ’26, is due to come out on July 10 of 2025 and no one is batting an eye. Ditto for its pro game, Madden ’26, out August 14. From an accessibility point of view, it should prove easier for those with intellectual disabilities to know their software is current because it’s based in years. Even for the “normal” non-nerds in people’s lives, the change should be easier to grok; not many of my family and friends are inclined to dive into Settings → General → About to see their iPhone is running iOS 18.5.
As for me, I’m inclined to say I’ll have a new Mac for macOS 26 when it drops this fall.
