XYMer's Home away from Home

I haven't checked all the lists of supported machines but Apple tends to only completely remove an OS version when a subsequent version will support all the machines the previous one did. So if HS was EOL for some machine Apple still makes it available.

I haven't tried this but I believe I was reading if you were trying to update a middle age machine to an intermediate OS where the newest would run, the App Store would not offer anything except the newest that would run. So if you have a computer with El Capitan and want to install High Sierra but the computer can run Mojave it will only offer Mojave. Is this correct?

I think it has to also do with if you "purchased" it before, (even the free purchases... lol).

I realized the purchased item rule was different, but even before Mojave came out there was discussion about some OS version or other (maybe it was Sierra) still being advertised by Apple as being available but some people couldn't find it in the Apple Store and it was bandied about this was because they had not "purchased" Sierra and could only now download High Sierra for that particular machine. Still, there were links like the one that started this topic that Apple had posted but you had to get the item through the link, it was not something the App Store offered unasked.

I temporarily moved my HS install in /Applications to the trash. Once I did that using the link, the app store page changed from open to download. But none of my machines will run 10.14, so not much of a test.

I meant to say that if you never did "purchase" it & a newer OS came out that your Mac would run, Apple would prevent you from getting the older one.

The thing is, Apple still mentions both Sierra versions. In fact they in their typical Apple non-threatening wording (the velvet glove hiding the iron fist) say "if you need the previous version" it is available. It isn't the same as for Mavericks and Yosemite for which there is no mention unless you have purchased them in the past.

How to download macOS Sierra
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202
"If you have hardware or software that isn't compatible with macOS Mojave or macOS High Sierra, you might be able to upgrade to macOS Sierra."
and
"For the strongest security and latest features, find out whether you can upgrade to macOS Mojave, the latest version of the Mac operating system. If you still need macOS Sierra, use this App Store link: Get macOS Sierra. To download it, your Mac must be using macOS High Sierra or earlier."

How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208969
If you have hardware or software that isn't compatible with macOS Mojave, you might be able to upgrade to macOS High Sierra.

How about somebody "needing" one of the Sierras because even though they may have a computer that can run Mojave it breaks a lot of their software but they still want something higher than El Capitan?. That was not the case with the run from Mountain Lion to El Capitan. You had to and still have to download the EOL (El Capitan) unless you "bought" one of the earlier versions. Now they seem to be making a full upgrade to the latest and greatest optional (at least so the wording reads). The specs for Sierra and High Sierra read the same so if you can now still download one of the Sierras on a computer that can support Mojave that's a departure from past pattern. In fact of you can still download Sierra when all the same computers can run High Sierra that's also a big departure. So I guess the question is, can you really? I don't know. I run a 2008 iMac with Mavericks so right now the only option it shows is El Capitan.

Thanks Limnos, did not know when it changed, I have 1 Mac that could run 10.13, but 10.12 is such a disappointment I gave up.

To me it looks gloomy. I wonder if we are seeing another of those walls that we saw with the OS9/OSX, or PPC/Intel. I've been reading things about 32 bit and 64 bit software. I've not been following many discussions so I don 't know where things stand on how much software Mojave breaks. Every OS causes a few things to break but there are defined mass extinction events during Apple's history. Sometimes Apple extends users a rope in the form of Classic but but I wonder if this time its in the form of saying, "Well, if you must run something old this is your last chance"?

I recently helped someone with their 2007 (or was it 2008?) Macbook Pro couldn't run newer version of an iApp in order to open someone's project. He was running 10.8 or 10.9 was confused by the whole "operating system" concept and really didn't like the "don't use it for 1-2 hours" idea. Also the battery in the system was dead, had been dead for a couple years, and didn't realize that it was possible to buy new batteries (keep in mind this was a pre-unibody MBP, so it was just a regular old battery pack in a bay that pops out).

Anyway he could run 10.11 so I suggested that maybe if he upgraded to that he would be able to download an iApp new enough to open the file. No guarantees but that's his best option short of buying a new system. The Mac App Store had big shiny Mojave downloads everywhere but it warned him that Mojave was incompatible and forwarded him to an Apple page that contained a link to download El Capitan. It seemed pointlessly complicated to take you to a page on the App Store that takes you out of the App Store into a web browser to click a link that takes you back to a hidden page on the App Store. But I started his El Capitan download, showed him how to pause it because zomg I can't stay here long enough to download it, and showed him how to resume.

3 days later I was walking past the front desk when he came in, front desk asked him if he had updated his system yet and he hadn't but he was going go do it really soon. Keep in mind the last time we saw each other I'd suggested starting to install it before he went to sleep that night and he thought that was a great idea.

The icing on the cake is that this guy came in the week that Mojave was released despite having had this issue for a month or two. If he had come in a week earlier El Cap would have still been in the store with fewer hoops to jump through to download it.

But I guess this is why I have some amount of job security.