Apple has revealed that some old Macintosh computers may not have support for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, even though they pack Intel processors, as listed in the requirements accompanying the first developer build released to developers yesterday. According to
the seed notes, “Lion requires hardware with a Core 2 Duo processor or better,” while “iMac (Late 2006) is not supported for this Lion seed.”
iMac (Late 2006) - Technical Specifications Admittedly, Apple specifically states that “this” initial Lion build is not supported on said iMacs, but given that Lion works well on even the lowest-specced Apple notebooks (e.g.: the 11” MacBook Air with 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor), how come the Late 2006 iMac, with its 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, doesn’t support Lion?
Most likely, the old nature of its CPU’s architecture is at fault here. Plus, the CPU’s on Apple’s MacBook Airs are specifically tailored to compute under Mac OS X.
Of course, there could be a multitude of reasons why Lion will not work on that particular iMac, some specific details regarding the architecture, to instruction sets and power requirements.
But it can also have something to do with the mile-long list of known bugs currently waiting to be ironed out in the months preceding its summer 2011 debut.
Then again, Lion is also very touch-centric. The OS will finally put Apple’s Magic Trackpad to the test. So far, it hasn’t been very popular among Snow Leopard users.
While the Magic Trackpad does work with iMac (Late 2006), the extent to which it will continue to work as advertised under Lion is unknown right now.
Further testing will need to be carried out, while Apple will most certainly prioritize Lion testing against the systems it currently offers support for.
There’s also a slight possibility that more old-generation systems will not be supported by Lion when it ships this summer.
Now it’s time for the readers to speak. What Mac do you own? Have you done any research to determine whether your Mac will be Lion-worthy?
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