Mac users left wondering if OS X Snow Leopard's retired
Apple's refusal to put into writing its operating system support policy leaves Snow Leopard users wondering whether their copy of OS X has been retired, security experts said today.
The question "Is Snow Leopard retired?" went legitimate as soon as Apple launched OS X Mountain Lion last week.
That's because Apple has always dropped security update support for one edition around the time it has two newer in play. If the current OS X is dubbed "n," then "n-2" support ends at the debut of "n." In other words, patches are provided only to the newest OS X and the one immediately preceding it. With Mountain Lion's debut last Wednesday, that informal policy -- Apple has never put its support practices on paper or its website -- means the two editions that will receive patches are OS X 10.7, aka 2011's Lion, and the brand new 10.8, or Mountain Lion.
