If you're still using 10.5.x, this security update is actually not your biggest problem.

You do what you gotta do. 10.5.8 is the last OS X version which supported PPC.

Run Linux or one of the *BSD's on it?

Would that I could.

And any Mac software you buy that still supports PPC is almost certainly not vendor-supported with security updates.

Luckily PowerPC exploits were pretty uncommon even back when it was current, partly because it was more difficult to create than x86 exploits.

How so? Do you just mean fewer people knew PPC? I'm not sure I follow this.

Yea, partly, but also because PowerPC shellcode is more difficult:

http://uninformed.org/?v=1&a=1&t=pdf

It's a dream compared to x86...

Split I&D caches on the PPC complicates things.

What is their biggest problem?

Support has stopped. The latest update was 5 years ago. Most software doesn't support it anymore, including Chrome and Firefox.

There's a fork of Firefox ESR that supports OS X versions 10.4 and up: http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

That your computer is so old that you no longer look hip in Starbucks. Plastic MacBooks are so noughties!

>That your computer is so old that you no longer look hip in Starbucks. Plastic MacBooks are so noughties!

I was actually thinking more in terms of security and support.

PPC architectures are not very well supported nowadays, and haven't been for over 5 years. Perhaps longer. Sure, you can still run your machine on 10.5 and it might run really well still. That's no reason to trust it for mission critical tasks. God forbid if someone was using a OS X Server 10.5 and users trusted it with their credentials.

Vanity was pretty low on my list, but I understand everyone's priorities are different.

I was mocking the consumer perspective but obviously HN is too sensitive...

Not sure I trust Apple with longevity. Windows XP from 2002 just hit the dust and I've got a decade out of RHEL. For something from 2007 to be a write off is not good IMHO. I thoroughly regret my MBP purchase for theae reasons.

By the time Apple drops support for your hardware you have a decent chance of being able to install a current Linux distribution with no hiccups and full hardware support, so all is not completely lost.

Possibly right but I don't see how a piece of hardware that is pretty much glued together (as of recent MBA and MBPs) is going to survive that long to be honest.

Conveniently enough, so is this Slashdot post.

Turns out if you missed the 10.5 -> 10.6 or 10.7 upgrades, you appear to be hosed unless you can find some physical media for those releases, you can't go 10.5 -> 10.8 (never tried ->10.9, would not expect it to work).

Apple still sells 10.6 (the physical DVD) online (at it's original price, $20) for anyone still stuck on 10.5. Once you're at 10.6.8, the Mac App Store is available for further upgrades

Get hold of a 10.9 installer on a USB stick from a friend with a 10.9 Mac & restore /Users from backup after a wipe & fresh install of 10.9?

I think this issue is that it might be the case the hardware isn't even supported on newer OS X releases.

Yes they stopped building PPC support after 10.5

Not just PPC. They also stopped support certain intel hardware too.

That's true. The latest OSX releases won't install on some of the early Intel Macs. I've heard it's possible, with a certain amount of hacking, to get an early Intel MacPro for example to run 10.8 or maybe even 10.9 but it's unsupported.

That works but it's not exactly an easy upgrade path.

10.6 and previous are out of support. Apple seems to support n and n-1 only by and large with n-2 updates if it's bad enough.

Especially now that new versions of the OS are going to be free.

Where does Apple announce it when they stop supporting something? 10.6 still got updates in 2013.

Apparently not affecting 10.7 and earlier either.

Are you sure? The change log mentions 10.7.x for a couple of the items.