How long will Apple support Tiger?

Now that Leopard has been released, I was wondering how long Apple will continue to support and update Tiger for. How long would it be before I would need to think about getting Leopard just to stay with a version of OS X that still receives security fixes and such?

I'm debating whether or not to take the "Leopard plunge" before I head off to university this September because of this uncertainty.

Why are uncertain about getting Leopard? This could be a question that could help us answer your question.

As far as how long they will support Tiger, I think you can be confident they will support fixing any major bugs until it is a third tier OS (i.e. until something like OS X 10.6 [insert exotic catname] comes out).

I personally upgraded because I knew they would spend more time updating and supporting Leopard so I actually feel safer now.

jdgti said:

Why are uncertain about getting Leopard? This could be a question that could help us answer your question.

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I'm uncertain because I'm a student with little money and I want to be sure I'm making the right decision before I purchase Leopard.

I think I'll wait it out and see how things go. If what you say about Tiger probably being supported until the next major release of OS X is true, I'm not too worried.

Thank you.

clint1986 said:

Now that Leopard has been released, I was wondering how long Apple will continue to support and update Tiger for. How long would it be before I would need to think about getting Leopard just to stay with a version of OS X that still receives security fixes and such?

I'm debating whether or not to take the "Leopard plunge" before I head off to university this September because of this uncertainty.

Click to expand...

Seeing that they still offer support for Jaguar (OS X 10.2) with updates, security fixes and overall technical support, I don't think they will end support for Tiger (OS X 10.4) any time soon.

D3v1L80Y said:

Seeing that they still offer support for Jaguar (OS X 10.2) with updates, security fixes and overall technical support, I don't think they will end support for Tiger (OS X 10.4) any time soon.

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Oh, I didn't know that! That's very helpful, thank you!

D3v1L80Y said:

Seeing that they still offer support for Jaguar (OS X 10.2) with updates, security fixes and overall technical support, I don't think they will end support for Tiger (OS X 10.4) any time soon.

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Um...no, they don't.

Support usually runs only as far back as the previous version. Right now, only 10.5.x and 10.4.x get updates. The last Security Update for 10.3.x was about the time Leopard shipped. Similarly, the last Security Update for 10.2.x was about the time Tiger shipped.

So, basically, Tiger will be supported until 10.6 comes out.

technologist said:

Um...no, they don't.

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Yes, they do. The Apple Support site still has its page up for Jaguar: http://www.apple.com/support/jaguar/

You can still download the updates for the 10.2 OS as well: Mac OS X 10.2: Chart of available Mac OS software updates
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106704

You can also visit an Apple Store and they will still give you support for your system.

So, until those pages are removed from the site, and until an Apple Genius refuses to assist someone with Jaguar, then officially Apple still supports it.

The update page in Jaguar was last modified on: December 14, 2007

Not bad then

DB, I think Tech is talking about Software Updates and Security Patches still being released for 10.2 and 10.3. 10.2 has not had an update come down in a while now and 10.3 the last I saw come down was late last year. Still very impressive and yes, you can still get support, just not anymore NEW security patches. Tiger is fully supported and probably will be till the next OSX releases which will be quite a while yet.

Also I am very impressed that Apple has decided to give Tiger users the new Safari. They did not do that with Panther. Very Happy.

D3v1L80Y said:

Yes, they do. The Apple Support site still has its page up for Jaguar: http://www.apple.com/support/jaguar/

You can still download the updates for the 10.2 OS as well: Mac OS X 10.2: Chart of available Mac OS software updates
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106704

You can also visit an Apple Store and they will still give you support for your system.

So, until those pages are removed from the site, and until an Apple Genius refuses to assist someone with Jaguar, then officially Apple still supports it.

Click to expand...

By that definition, you can still find "support" for Mac OS 8.x, and probably even older OS's.

The usual definition of "support" goes beyond archived articles and updaters.

Jaguar and (increasingly) Panther have serious unpatched security problems that Apple is no longer interested in resolving. Further, I doubt you could get anything more than basic help out of the average AppleCare phone tech, much less the average black-shirted Genius at a Store. They're certainly not trained in anything that old, and most likely were using Windows 98 at the time those Systems came out.

Well the bigger question here is... SHOULD you upgrade an OS simply because Apple stops releasing updates for an OS? It's not like the OS just up and stops working simply because Apple isn't updating it. If there are unresolved security issues when Apple does stop updating, you should weigh the likelihood of it actually being a real risk to you. I'm still using 10.3 on my Powerbook and see little reason to upgrade. Safari on 10.3 is a bit long in the tooth by today's standards, especially the newer Safari versions, so I just use Firefox instead. No biggie. It gets the job done.

I love Safari so upgrading to Tiger was a must for me. There are other things on 10.3 that get to me especially, with networking and storing the passwords for Windows shares as Networking is very important to me. Tiger does everything quite well though. One of the main reasons I upgraded most machines here to 10.5 was to help others and I do like Stacks, Spaces and Time Machine a lot plus I got a very good deal on a Family pack. Also since I love Spotlight and it's 10x faster in 10.5. That did it for me.

If none of that is important, than stick with Tiger. It's a fine OS. Panther for me is just getting a bit to old.

Thanks for all the feedback people, I'm gonna stay with Tiger and save myself some money.

Peace out!

I haven't switched to Leopard yet. My only issue with staying with Tiger (will be upgrading to Leopard very soon) is that the updates for many of the programs I have are designed to run on Leopard, which means the updated program won't work with Tiger. I almost lost Forklift to an update (well I'm glad I didn't empty my trash yet and was able to switch back).... I will definitely be switching to Leopard as soon as I can.