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OS X Mavericks: Will You Be Able to Run It?

Simon Royal - 2013.06.11

The long awaited Apple WorldWide Developer Conference 2013 kicked off yesterday, and what a roller coaster it was.

This article is regarding the next version of Mac OS X, 10.9.

Moving away from their big cat naming scheme, Apple’s upcoming version will be called Mavericks. I am not keen on the name, but it is only a name.

In the last few years, each new release of OS X has left behind a large amount of Macs. Shortly after the release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, I wondered which Mac might be cut lose with OS X 10.9, outlining that there was no clear cut off point this time round.

I sat on a knife edge yesterday waiting for system requirements – and while not announced at the WWDC, a few hours after the Developer Preview was out, it appears that if your Mac can run Mountain Lion, it can run Mavericks.

  • iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
  • MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
  • MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
  • Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
  • Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
  • Xserve (Early 2009)

Mountain Lion requires your Mac being able to boot to full 64-bit kernel and with a fairly high graphics card/chip. It cut out older chips like the GMA 950. Mavericks seems to follow the exact same hardware requirements.

This is a nice surprise for me, since I am still using a 2009 MacBook. I wondered if my Mac would be off the list. It is supported, although this could change with future Developer Previews, so I am not out of the woods yet.

I will keep you informed of further news and developments.

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2 thoughts on “OS X Mavericks: Will You Be Able to Run It?”

  1. The feature I’m most excited about is the “timer coalescence.” Whether or not this goes beyond the ordinary user and has battery-saving implications for folks doing “grown up work” with demanding IDEs or other content generating pieces remains to be seen.

    A friend was asking, “why not Linux?” at this stage in the game in Mac use. It’s exactly features like this, the kind that affect Mac’s mobile base, that resoundingly answer that question.

    The Mac Pro update – I don’t even know what to say about it! At first blush, I wonder if we’ve not all seen this before, and I know I’m not the only one thinking about the Cube. Of course, the Cube didn’t have Thunderbolt/Thunderbolt 2.

    Of course, like every other Mac Pro/PowerPC release, the price tag is such that outside of one rare Yosemite G4 acquisition back in the day, it will have to wait until it wears the “low end mac” appellation.

    All the best!

  2. The Cube didn’t have have Thunderbolt, but FireWire was the hot fast deal of the day, and very fast/low latency compared to what was available at the day.

    I believe it’s the very same situation. I’m waiting for a confirmation on the graphics card.

    I’d love a convection-cooled Mac Pro, though. =))))))))))))

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