This week, millions of Intel Mac users running macOS Tahoe began seeing an unexpected notification.
If you launch an app that runs through Rosetta 2, the translation layer that keeps Intel software alive on Apple Silicon, macOS Tahoe 26.4 will tell you the app will no longer be supported after macOS 27 ships in September 2026.
Apple’s position is that developers had plenty of time, and the fault lies with them. That argument would be more convincing if Apple had actually used those five years to apply any pressure.
The App Store kept approving Intel binaries the entire time. Apple collected its 30 percent from every subscription renewal, every purchase, without ever making non-compliance uncomfortable enough to matter.
The people absorbing the real cost are running audio plugins from developers who retired with no successor, scientific tools that universities licensed years ago with no upgrade path, and software from studios that no longer exist.
Rosetta was the only thread keeping any of that functional. Apple is preserving legacy games, which matters, but a beloved niche creative tool and an unmaintained game are not so different when the developer is equally unreachable.
Apple spent years mocking Microsoft for clinging to backward compatibility, framing it as a sign of a company too timid to move forward.
The $2,400 Intel MacBook Pro, which was still selling in 2023, suggests the real reason Apple likes making hard decisions is that it rarely has to live with the consequences.
