Picture: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
The upcoming macOS 26 Tahoe is the final improve that shall be suitable with Macs operating Intel processors, Apple revealed at WWDC on Monday. The corporate continued to make OS upgrades for computer systems operating these chips a few years after the discharge of the final one, however that’s coming to an finish in 2026.
It’s the tip of the road for Intel Macs and macOS updates
The final macOS fashions operating an Intel chip launched in 2020, and Apple introduced the Mac’s transition from Intel to Apple silicon that very same yr. The final Intel-based MacBooks had been discontinued in 2021. By 2023, the only remaining Intel-based pc nonetheless in Apple’s lineup was the Mac Professional from 2019, and it bought the axe when a mannequin with a M-series processor launched at WWDC that yr.
Nonetheless, Apple continued to make every successive macOS model backward suitable with Intel Macs. That’s additionally true of macOS 26 Tahoe, which was unveiled at WWDC on Monday. However that follow ends in 2026. And it’s not a rumor or leak, however an official assertion by an Apple government.
Talking at the WWDC25 Platforms State of the Union, Matthew Firik, Apple’s Senior Director, Developer Relations, informed third-party app builders, “We accomplished the transition to Apple Silicon throughout our whole product lineup two years in the past, so your apps can now rely upon and construct upon these options, too. Apple silicon permits us all to realize issues that had been beforehand unimaginable, and it’s time to place throughout our focus and innovation there. And so, macOS Tahoe would be the ultimate launch for Intel Macs.”
These units gained’t be suitable with the working system model launched in 2026… which can apparently be named macOS 27 underneath Apple’s new naming system. On the opposite aspect of the coin, it’s seemingly that each Mac operating an M-series processor will be capable to run subsequent yr’s model, together with the fashions that got here out in 2020.
