Completely agree. I have two perfectly good but now unsupported 5K iMacs from 2015 and 2017 in my household, both don't get any more upgrades. Heck, I would even pay up to 100 EUR/USD for longer support. But that's probably not a viable business case for Apple anymore.
Have you tried to install some Linux distro (like Fedora or Ubuntu) on it? If your workflow allows it, of course. I found how well Linux works on my relatively old Apple hardware. And I can use it most of the time, just need to learn some new tools, as many I’m familiar with are macOS only.
I know my way around Linux, as a server OS at least. The issue with switching is more about my previous investment in buying and learning dozens of third-party apps. I also must say that I value the integration between macOS and iOS a lot.
Once my (i)Macs stop receiving security updates though, I might try a Linux distro, just to give them a second life.
By upgrades you mean upgrades that change the major OS version, right?
Those both should still be getting security updates. Ventura just updated to 13.6 this morning, Monterey updated to 12.7 a few days ago, and Big Sur updated to 11.17.10 a little over two weeks ago.
Big Sur is expected to stop getting security updates in a couple months. Monterey will probably get them until sometime in the last quarter of 2024, which would be the end of the line for 2015 5K iMacs. 2017 5K iMacs should get Ventura security updates through the last quarter of 2025.
Indeed, and I hope Ventura will get at least two years of security fixes.
It's still my impression, that the 2017 Macs (sold by Apple well into 2018), should have made the cut for Sonoma. I don't even care about any of the new features. I'm more interested in bug and security fixes. So hopefully I have more time to hunt for the perfect display that can adequately replace the 5K 27" of my current setup. And I know there is the Studio Display. But that one is too expensive for me.
The lack of an iMac 5K replacement is basically the reason why I'm preparing to leave Macs and the whole apple ecosystem behind.
As far as I'm concerned, when the main use of your computer is focused around text, because of Apple technological choice when it comes to scaling for HiDPI display you need a 5k27" display if you don't to want compromise in macOS. Otherwise with a cheaper 4k display your choices are between a much reduced workspace or get constant font blurriness.
Windows doesn't have this problem and I say that as someone who has historically prefered how macOS handle fonts (still do but only on capable hardware).
The way I see things Apple is completely responsible for this problem and should also be responsible for providing a decent solution at a reasonable price.
But currently the cheapest option (Basic M2 Mac Mini + Studio Display + Keyboard & Mouse) 2642€ instead of the previous 2100€ (inflation is unhinged in Apple land) and on top of being much more expensive for a way more locked down configuration (previously RAM was freely upgradable and SSD upgrade was involved but doable) it is not faster in a way that match the price increase or even better than what Intel has been doing. In fact the truly faster is mostly single thread performance (42% better), multicore is a just bit faster (21%) and GPU is actually slower (-14%).
In other words : for much more money you gain a bit not in way that is change what it possible to do with the computer but you also lose in a way that make some things you could do before worse (gaming and generally). That is on a
Lifelong customer, got my first own mac at 15, which was an ibook and also my first personal computer at all. I also bought the second gen ipod (first gen didn't get much availability in france) and even imported the first gen iPhone
I too have been looking into what can replace the 5K 27" iMac display, because my 2017 5K iMac display has developed a column of bad pixels about 30% in from the right side.
It's been that way for about a year and a half now and has not gotten any worse so I don't think I'm in any danger of suddenly needing a new Mac. The way my iMac happens to be on my desk I'm directly in front of a spot about 30% in from the left and most of my main focus is on the left side, so the bad pixels aren't too annoying.
The 27" 5120 x 2880 display has definitely spoiled me. I want something with a similar density and not much bigger or smaller than 27".
These seem to be the choices currently:
1. Apple Studio Display. As you've noted it is expensive. It also comes with a stand that does not have a height adjustment. Add $400 to get it with Apple's height adjustable stand. (Or for $0 get it with Apple's VESA mount adaptor instead of the standard stand, and buy your own stand. If you can find a VESA compatible height adjustable stand for less than $400 this is cheaper than buying Apple's stand).
One thing to not if like me you would really like a monitor that you can keep using for a very long time is that in 2021 Apple made a change to AppleCare. It used to be that you could buy at most a small fixed number of years of AppleCare. Now you can keep renewing AppleCare indefinitely.
For the Studio Display it is $49.99 per year. If the Studio Display is fine for someone except for the price, it might be worth considering if that plus $49.99 per year, which should let you keep it working for a long time, would make it worth it.
2. LG UltraFine 27MD5KL [1]. Supposedly this is the same LG panel that Apple used in the 5K 27" iMacs. Just under $1300. Seems to get good reviews.
3. Samsung ViewFinity S9 [2]. This is new. $1600 so same as Apple's price for the Studio Display, but the S9 is height adjustable and VESA compatible so no paying extra if you want height adjustability.
LG UltraFine 27MD5KL is on my shortlist. One downside is that it hasn't been updated in a while. Upside is, you can get them second hand for 30-40% less than it currently retails for.
The Samsung display seems nice. But how long is Samsung going to support the devices OS? The price is also not competitive in my opinion. For 1600 I would prefer the Studio Display, even if it's not height adjusted.
I will probably wait for the next Mac mini model with the M3 SOC. Luckily I'm not in a hurry.
I have used it before and, in my experience and everyone else I know who has used it, the vast majority of time the newer versions run absolutely fine with no issues. Occasionally some newer features don't work, but I'd but confident that 2015/2017 iMacs would be able to run the latest version no problem.
I used Dosdude's patches to install Mojave on a 2011 Mac mini. That worked well. Thanks for mentioning OpenCore-Legacy-Pather. I have it on my radar, just didn't have the time to look into it more thoroughly.
Old Macs are often perfectly usable in terms of hardware, but macOS security updates have left them behind.
As of today, it's likely that the 2016 Mac I'm writing this on (which can run Monterey but not Ventura or Sonoma) is out of support.
Of course the Mac apocalypse will be when x86 support is dropped, possibly starting in the next macOS release.