If you’re still using an Intel Mac, do you know when its macOS support will end? Is it worth upgrading any more when most of the new features are for Apple silicon Macs?
T2
68K to PowerPC in 1994-1998, on to Intel in 2006-2009, and to Apple silicon from 2020. The 68K emulator, Rosetta, and Rosetta 2 that enabled backward compatibility.
From the original Macintosh 128K in 1984, through the divergence into SE and Mac II, then the unique Twentieth Anniversary Mac, to the first iMac in 1998, and its successors.
A round-up of firmware updates across 15.4, 14.7.5 and 13.7.5, prospects for future macOS and firmware updates, and problems updating to 15.4.
T2 Macs updated to 15.3.2 should have a newer firmware version than those who installed the Safari update for Sonoma or Ventura, but what is 14.7.5 and 13.7.5? Time to deconfuse.
Two important catches that can cause a macOS installation to fail in Apple silicon: using the DFU port, and not setting up ownership correctly. Both are explained here.
Some support USB4, others don’t. Some share the controller, others don’t. Some support DFU mode but then can’t be used to create a bootable external disk on Apple silicon.
Which versions of macOS can you ‘dual boot’, should you install them all on the internal SSD, or is a bootable external disk better, and when would you need to virtualise?
How FileVault and APFS Encrypted are enabled and managed differently, and details of how they work internally. Concentrates on T2 and Apple silicon Macs, but also covers older Intel models.
Did you spot the change that didn’t take place as expected in the 15.2 update this week? It marks the end of the Intel era for Macs.
The Eclectic Light Company 