How long will the 5K 2017 iMac be realistically usable for?

[Champs007]

Budget (including currency): £1200

Country: United Kingdom

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Video Editing, Light Gaming, Photo Editing, Programming

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

Just watched the latest LTT video and saw Linus mention that Intel iMacs will only be supported by developers for 1-2 years after Silicon comes out - do you think this is true? I don't mind if Apple stops updating the software but what I really want to know is how long certain programs such as Premiere, Chrome, VS Code etc will be supported on Intel Macs for as I'm planning on buying a used 5K 2017 iMac but if it won't be useable for too long, I shall have to join PCMR.

 

Thanks

(If this is in the wrong section, please let me know and I will happily move it)

[DrMacintosh]

18 minutes ago, Champs007 said:

Just watched the latest LTT video and saw Linus mention that Intel iMacs will only be supported by developers for 1-2 years after Silicon comes out - do you think this is true?

Linus has no basses to make such a claim. Apple said Intel Macs would be supported for years to come. That does not translate to 1-2 years. Further more, once the machine stops receiving software updates does not mean it does not continue to function. Apple has still released security updates to Macs that can no longer run the latest OS. 

 

 

[Eigenvektor]

20 minutes ago, Champs007 said:

but what I really want to know is how long certain programs such as Premiere, Chrome, VS Code etc will be supported on Intel Macs for as I'm planning on buying a used 5K 2017 iMac but if it won't be useable for too long, I shall have to join PCMR.

Your guess is as good as that of anyone else. I'd assume big companies will continue to support their software for quite some time. Especially software that is used by other companies for productivity like Premiere.

 

Software that is multi-platform already (Chrome, VS Code) might be supported even longer. I'd be more worried about software from independent developers. They might not have the time or motivation to keep their software updated on two different platforms.

[Electronics Wizardy]

If you take a look at PPC to intel as a timeline for this.

 

the last firefox version to run on PPC systems ws 3.6.38, which came out in march 2012, about 6 years after the last ppc mac. 

 

My guess would be something like 6-8 years of software support from apple and other large devs, and after that that will be support dropped. That is simmilar to what current intel macs software lifespan is like(for example 2012 macs are non longer supported by new versions).

[GhostRoadieBL]

only Apple will know how long they plan to push support for the current Macs. Could be a year, could be 10 years. it's likely 2-3 years depending on their preferred upgrade path. it also depends on what you call support, will your current gen software run in 10 years if you freeze the computer in time and stop it from updating? yes, the current software works on the current machine and none of that will change in the future if you stop it from updating. 
will there be security flaws and other compatibility issues over time? yep, and since it's apple pretty huge ones. (try running a classic ipod without a legacy version of itunes simply because arbitrary support was taken away for the bare minimum of organizing files.)

 

personally I suspect, based on the current lack of apple upgrade sales compared to a few years ago, when the new iMac and and iMac Mini come out the support for the previous gen will have a 2-3 year clock max before nothing is supported anymore. This also allows Apple to completely destroy the hackintosh community. 

[Video Beagle]

Based on my 40 years of using Apple products, I'm gonna say 5 years from now for active software software support, and then indefinitely until things stop working.

My 13 year old Macbook pro still gets security pushes, and it got left behind in the OS upgrade cycle like 3 or 4 OS's ago. All the software I used on it.. Photoshop the main one, still works as it always did. The machine is mainly a bed time browsing machine these days, as I have newer machines to do work on.