17.Like OS X Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion (technically OS X version 10.8) is being positioned as a minor upgrade over last year’s Lion release. Last year, Mavericks received it last non-security update - designated 10.9.5 - on Sept. Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks all reached x.x.5 and no further. That will be about half of Lion's share when Apple pulled its plug last year.Įl Capitan will be a free upgrade, and all still running Mountain Lion will be able to migrate to the newest OS X.īut the release of El Capitan will also impact the majority who run Yosemite, as Apple usually issues the final non-security update - one that repairs other bugs, delivers performance and reliability improvements, or even adds features - around the same time it retires Mountain Lion.Īpple issued the first public beta of Yosemite 10.10.5 late last week, signaling that the final non-security update is within sight. Most Macs - 60% - run the current Yosemite, while another 20% rely on 2013's Mavericks.īy the end of September, Mountain Lion's user share will be under 5%, assuming it continues to drop at the rate it has over the last 12 months. As of June, OS X 10.8 powered just 6% of all Macs worldwide, according to data from Web analytics vendor Net Applications. Mountain Lion's retirement will impact only a small fraction of Mac owners.

Instead, it leaves users guessing about when their Macs' operating systems fall off the support list.īut if Apple does send Mountain Lion to the old cats' home, it will have dropped the OS after three years, the same as Lion's stretch but less than a third of the decade Microsoft currently promises to support Windows with security patches. There's no guarantee that Apple will stop supporting Mountain Lion with security fixes: Apple, unlike Microsoft and other major software vendors, refuses to spell out its support policies. The year before, Apple issued the last security update for OS X 10.6, better known as Snow Leopard, on Sept. 17, although a special update was issued two weeks later, on Sept. Last year, Apple delivered the final normal security update to OS X 10.7, aka Lion, Mountain Lion's predecessor, on Sept. OS X 10.8's (Mountain Lion's) lifespan assumes a final security update in September 2015. If Apple continues that practice, it will retire Mountain Lion by serving it a final security update a month before El Capitan's launch, or in mid-September (assuming El Capitan debuts in October, as have the last two upgrades).Īpple has seemingly settled on a three-year support policy for OS X security updates.

Under the formula, El Capitan will be 'n' once it releases, Yosemite 'n-1' and Mavericks 'n-2.'

Os x mountain lion