Will Mac OS X Mountain Lion work on your Mac?
With Mac OS X Mountain Lion coming to a Mac App Store near you within a week or two, you might want to make sure your Mac can even handle the new roar.
A Golden Master of the next-generation Mac operating system was released to developers this week, and along with it came a list of system requirements. Apple is officially starting to drop some of its older 64-bit Macs. To take advantage of Mac OS X Mountain Lion, you must have one of the following Macs:
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer); MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or early 2009 or newer); MacBook Pro (mid/late 2007 or newer); MacBook Air (late 2008 or newer); Mac Mini (early 2009 or newer); Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer); and XServe (early 2009).
Why has Apple decided to drop some early 64-bit Macs? Ars Technica delved a little deeper into the situation. Apple declined to give a specific reason why they’re leaving models out for upgrades to Mountain Lion.
“Information included with the first Mountain Lion GM now corroborates the connection to 32-bit graphics drivers as the culprit. While Mountain Lion is compatible with any Mac capable of running a 64-bit kernel, the kernel no longer supports loaning 32-bit kernel extensions.”
It doesn’t seem too out of this world that older Macs are being left out of the Mountain Lion party. This is a typical play out of Apple’s playbook.
As devices and computers get older, Apple needs a way to phase them out. With each new software update, the device (think of the iPhone 3G running iOS 5) slows down significantly. Apple wants you to upgrade that iMac or MacBook Pro thats nearly five years old.
Mountain Lion is expected to be released July 24, although that is not confirmed. The new operating system will bridge the gap between iOS and the Mac operating system, bringing familiar apps like Reminders, Notes, Notification Center and Game Center.
