Apple has already announced this falls update to MacOS. It is looking like they will call MacOS 11.  After about 15 years running MacOS 10, we will finally see the version number clock click over by one.  But what does that really mean to you?  It may well mean your Mac will be left behind.

Apple had also announced that they will be moving to new Apple Silicon processors and ditching the intel processors being used today.  But MacOS 11 “Big Sur” will be running on both the new processors we will see later in the year and on the Intel processors we have. But not all machine running 10.15, “Catalina”, will be able to run the new OS.  Here is what Apple’s website says about this falls update compatibility.

What you will notice is that across the board, most machines have been increased by 1 year.  Where this year, the compatibility date was generally 2012, next year, it moves to 2013 or newer.  That seems reasonable.  SO where do you look to see which machine you have?

Go to the apple Menu, and select About this Mac.  You should see a dialog similar to this one.

This will tell you if your machine will be able to move forward to the new features of MacOS “Big Sur”.

If your machine is older than this, it might be time to begin the thought process of planning for a replacement.