ANyone still using OS 9 Does TIGER X.4 have CLbuttIC 377
Can you point to a reference?
Going by the "forced obsolesence" of recent Mac OS X releases, there has been at least a four year window back to the point at which support for a model was dropped.
Panther was released October 2003, requires built-in USB. This dropped support for the following models which ran Jaguar:
PowerMac G3 "beige": last model discontinued January 1999. PowerBook G3 Series "Wallstreet" 2nd revision: discontinued May 1999.
Tiger was released April 2005, requires built-in Firwire. This dropped support for the following models which ran Panther:
iBook (original): discontinued September 2000. iMac (350 MHz or slower): last model discontinued February 2001. PowerBook G3 "bronze keyboard": discontinued February 2000.
Looking at the other end of the scale, the oldest model still supported by Tiger is the Blue & White PowerMac G3, discontinued August 1999.
buttuming Leopard continues the pattern, we should expect support to be dropped for some models which were discontinued up to the end of 2002.
As an educated guess, I would almost certainly expect support to be dropped for the following models:
PowerMac G3 (Blue & White) PowerBook G3 (Firewire) iMac G3 (all models) iBook G3 (all models)
Some iBook G3 models were discontinued as recently as October 2003. I think it is likely that Apple will drop support for all models with a G3 processor, even though it might orphan some three year old iBooks.
Yes. Absolutely! I've got my system as close to problem-free working order as I probably ever will. I've come to accept the very few problems I still experience with it because a...
If they require a G4 as a minimum, that leaves the oldest model as the PowerMac G4 with PCI Graphics. All other G4s (all product families) have AGP graphics, so they might drop support for the PCI Graphics model as well.
They could use an arbitrary cutoff point such as graphics hardware which supports Quartz Extreme, which would draw a line somewhere around early PowerBook G4 models but still potentially allow the PowerMac G4 (AGP Graphics) given the right video card.
Requiring video hardware which supports Core Image would be a bit of a stretch. I don't have an easy way of pinpointing that, but I think it cuts out too many old models.
If they went as far as requiring built-in USB 2.0, it would orphan several models discontinued as recently as 2004 (including all PowerMac G4 models), which seems less likely.
My recollection is that early Mac models with built-in USB can't boot from it at all. This feature was added around the Sawtooth G4 and iMac DV...
None of these are particularly easy points for a non-technical person to identify, so I hope they do something simple like requiring a G4 processor (excluding processor upgrades), AGP graphics and a minimum amount of RAM.
I have a purely selfish reason for this - both my newest Macs (PowerBook G4 DVI and PowerMac G4 QuickSilver 2002) were discontinued in 2002, so I'm in danger of being orphaned by Leopard if they are too strict. :-)
-- David Empson