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For reasons I am not sure about, When a new major version of macOS is released macOS developers seem obsessed with quickly releasing a new version of their app

For reasons I am not sure about, When a new major version of macOS is released macOS developers seem obsessed with quickly releasing a new version of their apps that will only run on the newest operating system. From then on any updates and bug fixes are only available on the latest macOS If you don't upgrade to the latest and greatest macOS you are out of luck. I fear the day when all new apps must target the M* chip and everyone on the x64 side has a paperweight This made even worse when Apple dictates when your computer is no longer allowed to run the latest and greatest OS¹. On the Windows side, a majority of applications tend to work on a wider range of operating systems. ¹ There are various ways of bypassing this and installing the latest OS in a most unsupported manner.

alt227 2y ago
> When a new major version of macOS is released macOS developers seem obsessed with quickly releasing a new version of their apps that will only run on the newest operating system. This is encouraged by Apple to help with their planned obsolescence of old OS versions. With new macOS versions there is often a requirement to rebuild your apps with the latest version of Xcode which ships alongside it. This is because Apple changes lots of its internal APIs etc between OS versions, and only the latest version of Xcode supports those changes. Also the App stores only allow new and update submissions for apps built with the latest SDK, which in turn must be coded on the latest version of Xcode, which itself cannot be run on older versions of macOS. Is this all a conspiracy to keep people buying new computers and phones? I cannot say, but if I wanted to keep people bying more of my product this is how I would do it.
- Bagged2347 2y ago
  I'm not a macOS dev, so not talking from direct experience, but you can select a minimum deployment target in Xcode as low as macOS 10.13, I believe. There must be a reason some devs choose not to support that.
  - seec 2y ago
    Well he explained the "reason": Apple makes it very easy for devs to choose the option they want, less work from the point of view of devs. All because they are constantly deprecating API/framework when in general they are just moving things around and nothing really changes. You have to be a hardcore believer to not find issue with the behavior, it's so convenient for their business model. Meanwhile on the Windows side you can find obscure software from the Vista era and chances are it will work without issues.
markus_zhang 2y ago
I think it's OK as long as I can keep my development tools and productivity tools. I'm intrigued by Apple products because my working laptop is a MacBook Pro. I'm thinking about buying one for studying MacOS internals and app development, so as long as I'm not forced to update XCode, homebrew, caffeine, sublime text and a few other tools, I think it's fine.

alt227 2y ago

> When a new major version of macOS is released macOS developers seem obsessed with quickly releasing a new version of their apps that will only run on the newest operating system. This is encouraged by Apple to help with their planned obsolescence of old OS versions. With new macOS versions there is often a requirement to rebuild your apps with the latest version of Xcode which ships alongside it. This is because Apple changes lots of its internal APIs etc between OS versions, and only the latest version of Xcode supports those changes. Also the App stores only allow new and update submissions for apps built with the latest SDK, which in turn must be coded on the latest version of Xcode, which itself cannot be run on older versions of macOS. Is this all a conspiracy to keep people buying new computers and phones? I cannot say, but if I wanted to keep people bying more of my product this is how I would do it.

Bagged2347 2y ago
I'm not a macOS dev, so not talking from direct experience, but you can select a minimum deployment target in Xcode as low as macOS 10.13, I believe. There must be a reason some devs choose not to support that.
- seec 2y ago
  Well he explained the "reason": Apple makes it very easy for devs to choose the option they want, less work from the point of view of devs. All because they are constantly deprecating API/framework when in general they are just moving things around and nothing really changes. You have to be a hardcore believer to not find issue with the behavior, it's so convenient for their business model. Meanwhile on the Windows side you can find obscure software from the Vista era and chances are it will work without issues.

markus_zhang 2y ago

I think it's OK as long as I can keep my development tools and productivity tools. I'm intrigued by Apple products because my working laptop is a MacBook Pro. I'm thinking about buying one for studying MacOS internals and app development, so as long as I'm not forced to update XCode, homebrew, caffeine, sublime text and a few other tools, I think it's fine.