Hey everyone,

In addition to my earlier post looking back at the community's all-time favourite versions of macOS (you can read/join that thread here), there’s another massive, much more urgent talking point from the WWDC reveal of macOS 27 (Golden Gate) that we really need to unpack: the total execution of Intel support. While we all knew it was coming eventually after Apple hinted at it last year, Golden Gate officially marks the hard cutoff. If you aren't running Apple Silicon, you aren't getting the update. The x86 era of macOS is officially dead.

I’m already seeing a massive divide in the community on this, and I’m really curious where everyone here stands.

The Argument for 'It's About Time'

On one hand, the M1 chip came out six years ago. Developers and Apple engineers have been dual-compiling and maintaining massive legacy codebases to ensure x86 compatibility for over half a decade. By cutting the cord completely, Apple can finally strip out the architectural dead weight. Golden Gate is supposed to be a "Snow Leopard" style performance and stability update, and a huge part of that is likely because the OS can now be optimized 100% for ARM and unified memory architecture.

The Argument for 'This is Artificial Obsolescence'

On the other hand, there are people still rocking absolute powerhouse machines like the 2019 Mac Pro or the maxed-out 2020 27-inch Core i9 iMacs. These are beautiful, highly capable machines with massive amounts of RAM and dedicated GPUs that can still handle heavy workloads today. Forcing them off the upgrade cycle feels incredibly premature to a lot of pro users.

It begs the question: Is a 30% speed boost worth turning perfectly good 2019 Intel hardware into e-waste, or was it time to finally cut the anchor?

Where do you sit on this?

• Are you glad Apple is finally looking forward without distractions?
• If you’re on an Intel Mac, will this be the final push you need to upgrade to Apple Silicon, or are you just going to ride out security updates on Tahoe until the wheels fall off?

Let’s discuss.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been thinking a lot about the evolution of Mac operating systems lately. We’ve seen huge shifts over the years - from the classic skeuomorphic Aqua design to the flat aesthetics of Yosemite, and more recently, the massive architectural leap from Intel to Apple Silicon.

It got me wondering: which single release do you think represents peak macOS?

Full disclosure: I never actually had the pleasure of using the classic Aqua design days through to Mavericks, so I missed out on that specific era of OS history firsthand. But I've read so much about it that I'm fascinated by how fondly people remember it.

Are you nostalgic for the rock-solid stability and legendary speed of Snow Leopard (10.6)? Do you think Mojave (10.14) was the ultimate sweet spot because it introduced a gorgeous Dark Mode while still supporting 32-bit apps? Or are you a fan of modern releases because of features like continuity, window tiling, and Apple Silicon optimisation?

From what I can gather, it seems incredibly hard to beat Snow Leopard. It didn’t try to blind everyone with flashy features; it just took Leopard and polished it to absolute perfection. It's often talked about as the snappiest, most reliable OS Apple ever made.

Which brings me to the recent WWDC reveal of macOS Golden Gate 27. Looking at what they've shown, it really feels like Apple is aiming for a modern 'Snow Leopard' spiritual successor. After last year's somewhat controversial Liquid Glass design overhaul in Tahoe, Golden Gate seems heavily focused on fixing performance, refining readability, and smoothing out underlying system bugs instead of just piling on flashy gimmick features.

Do you think Golden Gate will actually deliver that legendary stability we haven't quite seen in a while, or is it impossible to recapture that magic?

What about you guys?

• What version are you choosing as your all-time favorite?
• What made it so special (stability, design, specific features)?
• Do you think Golden Gate has a chance of becoming a new classic?

Let’s hear your hot takes and nostalgia trips!