What is the support life cycle for OS-X

There is an approximate time-line for almost every Mac OS X;

with a few exceptions. The longest lag between new versions

may have been the time between Panther and Leopard (Tiger)

as that also was a very refined version due to many updates...

• OS X versions and builds included with Mac computers - Apple Support

Mar 24, 2016 - Learn which OS X versions and builds originally shipped with

or are available for your ... iMac, Date introduced, Original Mac OS X included

This may not answer your question; while there are a few other Support

articles that had covered approximate dates of inception, MacTracker.ca

application has a software section that has dates for each OS X. Also a

few pages in EveryMac.com likely has some information. ~Wikipedia?

• OS X - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to Release history - ... support, Kernel, Date announced, Release date, Most

recent version ... Tiger did not support 64-bit GUI applications, only 64-bit CLI app-

lications. ... With the exception of Mac OS X Server 1.0 and the original public beta,

OS X ... Prior to its release, version 10.0 was code named "Cheetah" ...

OS X El Capitan · History of OS X · OS X Yosemite · OS X Mavericks

+Older articles from third-party sites, suggest about five years including

supported updates from Apple. Subject to change (& more recent fact)

• osx - What is Apple's policy for supporting security updates on older ...

So there is some information out there on this topic.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

There does not appear to be an openly available updated source

for information that you seem to be asking; however a few other

sources have information that may be helpful. ~ For a time...

Here's one worth a look, from third-party reputable source:

• Mac OS X Version Compatibility Guide for Mac Models:

https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility

Searching through past incremental online histories of each one

can yield clues about how long the official security/update/upgrade

paths of each full system time-line duration were realized.

Perhaps someone can cite a link to some official documentation

from an open legitimate source, one not confidentially held.

Or maybe Developer databases may yield clues in this regard.

If you join, they have their own discussions forum, too.

• Apple Developer Library - Mac:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/navigation/

The 'Version Compatibility Guide' seems to cover some of your question.

Good luck in this matter! 🙂

Apple has the final word on the support life cycle for a given OS X release. Attempting to extrapolate from past Apple support behavior, or other patterns is mere speculation about future support commitment intervals.

On January 27, 2016, after a long interval of support dormancy, Apple issued an update for the OS X App Store on OS X 10.6.8 (from 2011). That update was waiting in my OS X App Store Updates for that release of OS X.

Apple does not communicate its support intentions for past OS X operating system releases. Their commitment will be renewed by their activity as it materializes in your OS X App Store Update panel. The most likely activity is based on the need for security updates to counter the very active, and evolving threats on the Internet.

VikingOSX wrote:

Apple has the final word on the support life cycle for a given OS X release. Attempting to extrapolate from past Apple support behavior, or other patterns is mere speculation about future support commitment intervals.

I totally agree. Like probabilities, past events have no effect on future events.

When part of the open-ended discussion (as viewed by yet unknown parties, at later date)

could include other users, whose fairly new or aging product could include those presently

supported, there are other considerations.

Of course Apple has the final word.

Even if or when there is no word at all, that is a default communication.

For a futuristic answer without speculation one may seek a crystal ball or mystic incantation.

Not that would be a closer idea of how things have been, to then extrapolate a path

ahead based on previous methodology. [This is only practical for someone who has

a need to know from a historical point of view.] I've pointed out a fair site to see how

things are up to now (El Capitan) support in Mac OS X based hardware, from OWC.

To keep tabs on regular or probable announcements, one can frequent those sites

who report information from the official sources; usually after major release events.

If you have a business relationship with Apple due to being certified as a technician or have

help desk level supportin place, then you will get pre-announcements of which products &

software are announced to go into non-support before the time arrives.

{Others who happen across older Apple Macintosh hardware that may need to see

some kind of upgrade path, and seek to learn of that information, may not see any

of the topics covered in official Apple support documents. ~ Or I should say, it may

take quite a bit of extracurricular reading to locate all OWC has condensed in theirs.}

In any event...

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

alex7375 wrote:

Hello,

What is the support life cycle for OS-X versions?

Apple has never published an official answer to this and I suspect they never will as this gives them more control and flexibility. However in general the following seems to apply.

• The current version of OS X (obviously) gets updates to address security issues and bugs
• The previous version of OS X also gets security updates and might get some bug fixes
• The previous - previous version also gets security updates and is unlikely to get bug fixes
• Older versions are unlikely to get security updates and will not get bug fixes

Therefore with the current version being El Capitan, the previous version being Yosemite, the previous - previous version would have been Mavericks and anything older than that is not going to get updates. Based on this trend which has applied for the last few versions of OS X it would imply that once macOS Sierra is released updates for Mavericks will cease.

Currently the average is for a new version of OS X nee macOS once a year, this therefore means a supported life-span of three years for each version.

The case referred to previously in this discussion about Snow Leopard getting an Apple App Store update was I suspect to both address a security issue and more importantly to ensure Snow Leopard could still access the App Store so as to be able to download an update to e.g. El Capitan.

Life cycles for Mac computer models is a totally different issue and was not referred to in your original post.