Will Intel binaries become junk once Rosetta is discontinued?

Mikelis Bickis wrote:

I ported some Applications from an Intel iMac to a new M4. They seem to run fine using Rosetta. What will happen once Apple discontinues Rosetta? Will this software continue to function since Rosetta is installed on my computer, or will Rosetta cease to function? (I bought a perpetual licence on the software, but I have to pay big bucks to download a newer version that is native to the new iMac processor.)

Perpetual licenses are perpetual on the hardware and software the license was purchased for.

They’re not perpetual across arbitrary new operating systems nor across newer hardware. (That’s usually a subscription license.)

One of the usual cases for these threads are the Adobe apps, and there are some fine alternatives available for those.

Find newer app alternatives you can afford, or prepare to entrench yourself with the older hardware and software.

If you want to discuss app options and alternatives, what are the apps?

If running some Intel only apps are critical for you and the vendor never makes it/them Apple Silicon native, then in whatever OS name comes after Tahoe, you'll have to install the free version of VMware, and install Tahoe or other previous macOS within that to run those older apps.

"Will Intel binaries become junk once Rosetta is discontinued?"

Yes, just like PowerPC binaries became junk when the switch to Intel was made in 2006. Apple believes it is in both its users and corporate interest to move forward. Continued support for legacy hardware and software becomes harder and more expensive with time.

As has been pointed out Apple has already announced that macOS 26 Tahoe is the last to support Intel hardware and that Rosetta 2 will be deprecated in 2027. The argument is why not just keep Rosetta 2 indefinitely for those Intel binaries. Answer is Apple wants to put pressure on developers to update their code and leave legacy behind.

Also remember there are plenty of Windows users who are upset that their older PCs can’t run Windows 11. Time marches on and you either move on or stay where you are. Your choice.

That's the age old complaint of progress, dating back millennia... the old way worked, why do I need something new.

No one is telling you that you have to upgrade. Indeed, we told you that you have at least two more years to hang your hat on the Rosetta peg, and possibly more.

You do have to think, though, at some point, whether a new machine with the latest technologies doesn't have at least something to offer over a 20-year old machine running a 15-year old OS. After all, you don't see many mainframes sitting around on people's desks...

As for the pain of upgrading, Apple's Migration Assistant does a pretty decent job of moving over all your files, settings, and applications. Of course, this is easy between consecutive releases, and gets harder and harder the more versions it has to jump over, but it's not that bad, when all said and done.

Camelot wrote:

There are still people around running MacOS Lion (10.7), introduced in 2011*, albeit with limits on what that hardware can do, and with no security updates or upgrades in the past 10 years, so it's not necessarily recommended :)

Snow Leopard, the first Intel-only version of macOS, was also the last to support Rosetta 1.

Lion devoured Rosetta 1. Reportedly, Apple licensed part or all of Rosetta 1, and their license didn't extend past Snow Leopard. With Rosetta 2, I believe that Apple owns the rights, so can't blame the planned discontinuation upon a third-party license.

Rosetta 2 was introduced in 2020, with the first of the Apple Silicon-based systems.

Apple has announced that Rosetta 2 will be discontinued in MacOS 28, due in late 2027, and the default (minimum) OS version for all new Macs in 2028-onwards.

Therefore your Intel-based apps will continue to run until at least 2028, and beyond that as long as you don't upgrade your machine to MacOS 28, or replace it with a newer system that requires MacOS 28 or later.

There are still people around running MacOS Lion (10.7), introduced in 2011*, albeit with limits on what that hardware can do, and with no security updates or upgrades in the past 10 years, so it's not necessarily recommended :)

* (and I'm sure there are people running on far older systems they still consider 'servicable')

If you don't upgrade the OS, Rosetta will remain on the system; it's a future release which will disable it.

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