Some Macs are getting fewer updates than they used to. Here's why
it's a problem
by Andrew Cunningham, Jul 1, 2022
- https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/some-macs-are-getting-fewer-updates-than-they-used-to-heres-why-its-a-problem/

"When macOS Ventura was announced earlier this month, its system
requirements were considerably stricter than those for macOS
Monterey, which was released just eight months ago as of this
writing. Ventura requires a Mac made in 2017 or later, dropping
support for a wide range of Monterey-supported Mac models released
between 2013 and 2016.
This certainly seems more aggressive than new macOS releases from
just a few years ago, where system requirements would tighten
roughly every other year or so. But how bad is it, really? Is a Mac
purchased in 2016 getting fewer updates than one bought in 2012 or
2008 or 1999? And if so, is there an explanation beyond Apple's
desire for more users to move to shiny new Apple Silicon Macs?
Using data from Apple's website and EveryMac.com, we pulled
together information on more than two decades of Mac
releases--almost everything Apple has released between the original
iMac in late 1998 and the last Intel Macs in 2020. We recorded when
each model was released, when Apple stopped selling each model, the
last officially supported macOS release for each system, and the
dates when those versions of macOS received their last point
updates (i.e. 10.4.11, 11.6) and their last regular security
patches. (I've made some notes on how I chose to streamline and
organize the data, which I've put at the end of this article).
The end result is a spreadsheet full of dozens of Macs, with
multiple metrics for determining how long each one received
official software support from Apple. These methods included
measuring the amount of time between when each model was
discontinued and when it stopped receiving updates, which is
particularly relevant for models like the 2013 Mac Pro, 2014 Mac
mini, and 2015 MacBook Air that were sold for multiple years after
they were first introduced." ...

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