Metro Weekly

Not all Macs will be able to run Apple’s OS upgrade, Mountain Lion

Os x mountain lion

Wondering whether or not your Mac will upgrade to Mountain Lion when Apple releases their latest OS later this month? The company has published a list of which systems will run it. They are:

iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)

Is your Mac an older model and not on the list? There’s likely a good reason, as CNET reports:

From what we understand, the likely reason for the incompatibility is that Mountain Lion is a 64-bit operating system. While some of these incompatible Mac computers have 64-bit-capable processors, their EFI firmware, which handles the boot-up process, remain 32-bit and will only work with a 32-bit OS kernel. Therefore, if the system is unable to run a 64-bit kernel and the extensions, it cannot run Mountain Lion.

Also, the drivers for the older Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics found on a number of these incompatible Macs, are still 32-bit versions. Given that they probably won’t be able to handle the more graphics-intensive Mountain Lion too well, Apple probably doesn’t feel it’s worth the time and resources to support them.

To find out if your computer will work with the upgrade, as well as instructions on how to upgrade, go here.

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