OverDrive drops support for Mac

[pwalker8]

Oh come now, that's absurd. You think that Apple should support 32 bit forever and a day? Why stop there? By your logic they should still be supporting the old 16 bit programs, I mean it's only been 28 years (1991) since they went 32 bit.

Apple rolled out their first 64 bit machine in 2006. The last 32 bit machine was discontinued in 2010, almost 10 years ago. Yea, it's not out of character for Apple to drop support 32 bit a decade after the last 32 bit machine. I'm surprised they supported it this long. They have been warning developers that 32 bit was going away for a couple of years now.

I have two applications on my machine that at 32 bit, an old, old copy of Adobe reader and an old copy of the Kindle app. I have the 64 bit version of both as well. Didn't cost me a dime to upgrade them. Some of my 64 bit apps are over a decade old.

If you want to keep using 32 bit apps, the answer is simple, don't upgrade. Apple didn't drop support for Yosemite (released in 2014) until this year, so odds are they will continue to support Mojave for another 5 years.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Oh come now, that's absurd. You think that Apple should support 32 bit forever and a day? Why stop there? By your logic they should still be supporting the old 16 bit programs, I mean it's only been 28 years (1991) since they went 32 bit.

Apple rolled out their first 64 bit machine in 2006. The last 32 bit machine was discontinued in 2010, almost 10 years ago. Yea, it's not out of character for Apple to drop support 32 bit a decade after the last 32 bit machine. I'm surprised they supported it this long. They have been warning developers that 32 bit was going away for a couple of years now.

I have two applications on my machine that at 32 bit, an old, old copy of Adobe reader and an old copy of the Kindle app. I have the 64 bit version of both as well. Didn't cost me a dime to upgrade them. Some of my 64 bit apps are over a decade old.

If you want to keep using 32 bit apps, the answer is simple, don't upgrade. Apple didn't drop support for Yosemite (released in 2014) until this year, so odds are they will continue to support Mojave for another 5 years.

The way it works is you have a 32-bit OS. That 32-bitOS supports 16- and 32-bit programs. You move to a 64-bit OS and that OS supports 32- and 64-bit programs. That's how it is supposed to work. But Apple has decided that in order to get people to dump perfectly working Apple hardware that they are going 64-bit only. That's the reality.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

... Apple didn't drop support for Yosemite (released in 2014) until this year, so odds are they will continue to support Mojave for another 5 years.

Where are you getting this data?

As much as I'd like to think High Sierra has 4 more years ahead of it, as far as security updates go, Apple seems to drop support after roughly 3 years. The last security update Yosemite received was Sept 2017. The last security update El Capitan received was July 2018.

The most recent macOS security update, released 9/26/19, included only Sierra, High Sierra and Mojave.

At this rate, Mojave only has 2 more years, and High Sierra will stop receiving security updates next fall.

But I'd like to be wrong about this since I'm clinging to High Sierra.

from Apple Security Updates

[haertig]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Apple rolled out their first 64 bit machine in 2006. The last 32 bit machine was discontinued in 2010, almost 10 years ago. Yea, it's not out of character for Apple to drop support 32 bit a decade after the last 32 bit machine.

I thought I was clear before, but maybe not. I am talking about dropping support of 32-bit software, which is entirely different from dropping support of 32-bit hardware

I agree with you - if someone is still running on 32-bit hardware, then it is appropriate to recommend that they simply not upgrade the OS.

But in the case of software, we are talking about a 32-bit program ... Overdrive ... that is not available in 64-bit. This is not something that a user is going to be able to fix. And it really is not appropriate, IMHO, to tell users that they simply should not update the OS in this case. Sure, that would "fix" the problem, but it's a pretty rude "slap 'em in the face" fix. It's not like Apple has to add support for these older programs. They already have it. What they are doing now is taking away that support. And my question to Apple is, "Why?" You would have to work to find many prominent 64-bit OS'es that don't continue to support 32-bit software (again, different from hardware support). What is Apple's reason for wanting to be the Black Sheep in the bunch? Maybe it's a good reason. So why don't you tell us what that reason is, Apple?

[JSWolf]

This is just one more reason to go Windows.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

This is just one more reason to go Windows.

I'm not sure I'd want to jump out of a boat I was starting to dislike into a swamp full of demons that were hell bent on my destruction. I think I'd take my chances sticking with the boat.

For someone planning on abandoning a MAC, Linux or a *nix OS makes sense, Windows does not.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Where are you getting this data?

As much as I'd like to think High Sierra has 4 more years ahead of it, as far as security updates go, Apple seems to drop support after roughly 3 years. The last security update Yosemite received was Sept 2017. The last security update El Capitan received was July 2018.

The most recent macOS security update, released 9/26/19, included only Sierra, High Sierra and Mojave.

At this rate, Mojave only has 2 more years, and High Sierra will stop receiving security updates next fall.

But I'd like to be wrong about this since I'm clinging to High Sierra.

from Apple Security Updates

I went by the wiki listing of when support was dropped. I do know that Sierra is still supported since I'm still running a machine with it and still get security updates.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by haertig

I thought I was clear before, but maybe not. I am talking about dropping support of 32-bit software, which is entirely different from dropping support of 32-bit hardware

I agree with you - if someone is still running on 32-bit hardware, then it is appropriate to recommend that they simply not upgrade the OS.

But in the case of software, we are talking about a 32-bit program ... Overdrive ... that is not available in 64-bit. This is not something that a user is going to be able to fix. And it really is not appropriate, IMHO, to tell users that they simply should not update the OS in this case. Sure, that would "fix" the problem, but it's a pretty rude "slap 'em in the face" fix. It's not like Apple has to add support for these older programs. They already have it. What they are doing now is taking away that support. And my question to Apple is, "Why?" You would have to work to find many prominent 64-bit OS'es that don't continue to support 32-bit software (again, different from hardware support). What is Apple's reason for wanting to be the Black Sheep in the bunch? Maybe it's a good reason. So why don't you tell us what that reason is, Apple?

No, I get that you are talking software, but software runs on hardware. Once 64 bit hardware reaches a critical mass, developers start releasing 64 bit software for it. It's really not a huge deal to update your software to 64 bit. Most Mac developers did that years ago.

You are complaining that Apple won't continue to support old obsolete software forever. My answer is why should they. If Overdrive is still 32 bit software a decade after the last 32 bit hardware was discontinued, then that's on them, not Apple. Go complain to Overdrive.

[Steerider]

The new M1 Macs can run iOS apps, so you should (I haven't tested this) be able to run the iOS Libby app directly on an M1 Mac