Firewire support in the near future?

Gatonauta wrote:

Hello, Apple, please bring back FireWire support for Tahoe. There are millions of devices that can still work for many years, and millions of users who can continue using them. There's no need to pollute the planet by removing FireWire support. Come on, Apple, you can do better. Thank you.

And the next version of macOS will no longer run on Intel Macs either. And sometime after that Rosetta 2 will probably be removed and Intel coded apps will stop running as well on modern Mac as well. Long time Apple user have been through this before when Apple switched from Power PC to Intel cpu based hardware.

And of course you should know that older PCs cannot run Windows 11 and that Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10 this past October.

Time marches on and if you are using antiquated hardware and software for a living you will eventually hit a brick wall. I know a professional photographer who actually hit that brick wall when he started having issues getting film for his ancient but expensive camera.

Vinyl LPs gave way to tape, tape gave way to CDs, and CDs are giving way to digital streaming.

FireWire is fully deprecated, and there is no reason to anticipate that will change.

It makes my otherwise functional 15 GB Dock Connector iPod sad, but that’s life.

FWIW, this is not a soapbox forum. Feel free to share your thoughts with Apple.

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For filmmakers that still want to use mini-DV handy cam, this is terrible news.. I can't comprehend why they have the need to discontinue this support when that doesn't bother anyone.. This is planned, unnecessary obsolescence. Very disappointed.

I believe it’s not more unprofitable than the money apple would loose from all of us audio users who will prioritise upgrading our interfaces over upgrading to latest silicon platforms… My new RME would cost me 1500£ so bye bye m4 mini which I wanted to get as backup…

leonidas153 wrote:

I believe it’s not more unprofitable than the money apple would loose from all of us audio users who will prioritise upgrading our interfaces over upgrading to latest silicon platforms…

I'm not sure Apple would notice. They shipped approximately 5.5 million Macs in the first quarter of this year. I'm guessing the number of users wanting Firewire support is negligible.

I'm in your same exact boat. I use MiniDV cameras in my creative workflow that until the latest update worked perfectly fine on macOS. I have all the adapters, which are a little cumbersome, but it works great. To just disable the feature is a real bummer -- now I need a second computer just to capture footage?

Hello, Apple, please bring back FireWire support for Tahoe. There are millions of devices that can still work for many years, and millions of users who can continue using them. There's no need to pollute the planet by removing FireWire support. Come on, Apple, you can do better. Thank you.

It's a slow march. For $15, I can apparently still read 'floppy disks' on my Mac.

At least the 1.4 MB 'high capacity' not-really-floppy kind. Who knows, maybe there's a 5.25" or even 8" floppy drive out there. I wonder if the hole punch trick to make the disks double-sided still works...

neuroanatomist wrote:

It's a slow march. For $15, I can apparently still read 'floppy disks' on my Mac.

At least the 1.4 MB 'high capacity' not-really-floppy kind. Who knows, maybe there's a 5.25" or even 8" floppy drive out there. I wonder if the hole punch trick to make the disks double-sided still works...

Only if they are formatted using FAT, not if they are formatted using HFS ("no +"). Apple dropped all support for HFS ("no +") in Catalina, which can screw you if you are trying to read an old Mac CD or hybrid Mac/PC CD. on a modern or recent Mac.

As for 400K and 800K disks, forget them. Apple used a chip (the IWM or Integrated Woz Machine) to pack more data on them than PC users got on similar 360K and 720K floppies. It's like CLV (constant linear velocity) versus CAV (constant angular velocity) in LaserDiscs. No third-party floppy drive is able to read those discs.

Same case here. FireWire Nikon film scanner. If there's NTFS for macOS as an add on, let's hope it's also possible with FireWire. Otherwise I'll need to keep a Mac on Sequoia.

That's an interesting workaround -- will have to look into it as an option. Thanks for the suggestion.

you're welcome. and if you run into issues, you can start another discussion. there are many people here that could help you with that. :)

I actually bought a tool made for notching those disks. It’s likely way in the back of a drawer somewhere.

Fond memories of the Apple II Disk II floppy drive.