With Mountain Lion reaching Gold Master status, it means Apple is almost ready to ship the latest version of Mac OS X to customers. Some older Macs, however, won’t be eligible for the upgrade.
According to Apple, your Mac has to be newer than one of the following models to use Mountain Lion. Most of the cutoff points are set at five-year-old computers, which is reasonable enough, but the poor Mac Mini has a low kill date of three years. If that tiny Mac of yours is older than three years, you’re not getting Mountain Lion. Here’s the list of computers eligible:
- iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
- MacBook (Late 2008 aluminium, or Early 2009 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
- MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
- Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
- Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
- Xserve (Early 2009)
Apple didn’t specify why computers older than the ones listed can’t get Mountain Lion, but Ars Technica speculates that it’s because of a graphics issue with certain 64-bit computers. Some of Apple’s older machines have 32-bit graphic drivers, and Mountain Lion won’t load them, which make those greying machines incompatible with Mountain Lion. Time to get a new computer! [Apple via Ars Technica]