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fearless fred

Q: With the coming of OSX Mountain Lion, will there be support for a late 2006 iMac  (currently running OSX Lion

With the coming of OSX Mountain Lion, will apple be supporting a late 2006 I mac currently running OSX Lion?

iMac (20-inch Late 2006), Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 9, 2012 9:27 AM

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Q: With the coming of OSX Mountain Lion, will there be support for a late 2006 iMac  (currently running OSX Lion

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Apr 9, 2012 9:33 AM in response to fearless fred
    Level 10 (271,174 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 9, 2012 9:33 AM in response to fearless fred

    Only Core 2 Duos with 2 GBs of RAM, minimum, are supported by Lion. However, Mountain Lion will only support Macs that can boot the 64-bit kernel natively, which omits the 2006 and 2007 models and some 2008 models.

  • by rkaufmann87,

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 Apr 9, 2012 10:08 AM in response to Kappy
    Level 9 (58,598 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 9, 2012 10:08 AM in response to Kappy

    Kappy,

     

    Actually all the late 2007 & 2008 iMacs were Core 2 Duos so assuming they meet RAM and HD specifications running ML should be fine.

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Apr 9, 2012 10:14 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 10 (271,174 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 9, 2012 10:14 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    They must be able to boot the 64-bit kernel or they won't be able to run ML. Here's the list of Macs that cannot run ML, and, yes, some earlier iMacs will be OK:

     

    • Late 2006 iMacs (iMac5,1, iMac5,2, iMac6,1)
    • All plastic MacBooks that pre-date the aluminum unibody redesign (MacBook2,1, MacBook3,1, MacBook4,1)
    • MacBook Pros released prior to June 2007 (MacBookPro2,1, MacBookPro2,2)
    • The original MacBook Air (MacBookAir1,1)
    • The Mid-2007 Mac mini (Macmini2,1)
    • The original Mac Pro and its 8-core 2007 refresh (MacPro1,1, MacPro2,1)
    • Late 2006 and Early 2008 Xserves (Xserve1,1, Xserve2,1)
  • by rkaufmann87,

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 Apr 9, 2012 10:23 AM in response to Kappy
    Level 9 (58,598 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 9, 2012 10:23 AM in response to Kappy

    Yup now I see what you meant now, I should have read your original post more carefully. Thanks for clarifying!

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Apr 9, 2012 10:33 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 10 (271,174 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 9, 2012 10:33 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    Ahhhh. Well, now you have earned a "Slap Kappy" coupon good for one slap. Expires in 30 days.

     

    The 64-bit kernel thing will leave a lot of use behind. My main machine is a 2006 Mac Pro on which I've spent some money putting in two 4-core CPUs and an ATI 5770 GPU in the past year. If I want to run ML I can't do so. The only options I have for a desktop Mac is either a newer Mac Pro model - post 2007 - used or refurbed or a recent or new iMac. This assumes the Mac Pro line may be dropped. Apple has been very mum on that.

     

    Clearly, Apple wants to get users of older hardware to buy new machines in order to run ML now and in the future. Because it is possible to boot the older models with the 64-bit kernel via some hacking, Apple might have been able to install ML on them by adding some code and retaining 32-bit drivers where needed, but they've chosen not to take that route. I think it's a bit of a marketing ploy to help drive up sales of new Macs, but I appreciate that Apple has chosen to abandon legacy support in the past in order to avoid having an OS like Windows - bloated by support for older and older hardware.

  • by rkaufmann87,

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 Apr 9, 2012 10:45 AM in response to Kappy
    Level 9 (58,598 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 9, 2012 10:45 AM in response to Kappy

    Yup I agree Apple wants us to upgrade our hardware. My iMac is a late 2007 machine that I'm scheduling to replace, I'm waiting for the next 2-3 months to see what happens with the line. While my machine will run ML it's getting a bit long-in-the-tooth and while it has served me well it's time to consider a new box which will be much better suited for ML.

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Apr 9, 2012 10:56 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 10 (271,174 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 9, 2012 10:56 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    Yes, I definitely concur. I'm also waiting to see what happens with the lineup this year. My MP still has plenty of life since the upgrade. It's not quite as fast as an i7 iMac, but it will give an i5 a run for it's money. Video performance is limited due to the PCIe 1.0 slot but seems adequate for my needs. I don't play games or do any video or photo work that requires a fast GPU.

     

    I need to consider what time it has left versus how compelling any new Mac hardware will be. Given the short time period since the release of Lion to the release of ML, I'm anticipating ML will not end up being a major move forward until the cat that follows it.