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I have noticed that many Apps require at least Mac OS X 10.7.4 to be installed on an apple mac and some apps even require Mac OS X 10.8 to be installed. Cant apps be made backward compatible for those users who may well be on earlier versions (ie Snow Leopard & Leopard). Is this also therefore a very good reason to upgrade to the latest version of the operating system ?

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The main reason is that the OS changes. This means that there are new functions that are available in the new OS to the developer. If the developer makes use of them then it is not possible or at least much harder to write the code to support the OS.

One example is the Mac App Store to be able to use this you need a newish version of SNow Leopard and it is not possible to provide a way to use in in Leopard.

So a developer has to make a choice, provide some functionality that only works on a new OS or write code much more quickly that only runs (or is tested under the new OS) or invest time (and thus money) in supporting the old OS but make the app available to more users.

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  • Should Apple users therefore always upgrade to the latest release of the operating system, or at the very least be only one version behind.
    – Simon
    Commented Nov 24, 2012 at 13:09
  • @Simon depends :) If you have working apps why do you need to update. Do you want to take the risk of something breaking - which is why organisations are slow to update, example is Windows XP but idea is the same for OSX.
    – mmmmmm
    Commented Nov 24, 2012 at 13:20
  • Well i'm currently on Snow Leopard at the moment, and your right for the moment I am perfectly satisfied, however there are a few apps I have seen which require being on Lion or Mountain Lion.
    – Simon
    Commented Nov 24, 2012 at 13:39
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    @simon If you depend on your machine to earn your living, you should never update your OS until you are totally sure that you will still be able to do everything you need to do. It would be a mistake to assume apple has tested an upgrade to ensure it doesn't break some app or font or other feature that you must have for your work.
    – Tom Gewecke
    Commented Nov 24, 2012 at 14:25
  • @Tom I bought my Mac primarily to learn & to try something new & supposedly different :). Thx for the advice though
    – Simon
    Commented Nov 25, 2012 at 11:59

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