The upcoming macOS 27 will remove the Rosetta 2 translation layer this fall, with a complete phase-out scheduled for 2027, officially ending the Mac's Intel era.
Apple is starting the final countdown for its Intel-based Macs. At its recent WWDC, the company confirmed that macOS 27, arriving this fall, will not run on any Intel hardware.
In a move that accelerates the transition, the new OS will also actively uninstall the Rosetta 2 translation layer that keeps older, Intel-based apps alive on Apple Silicon machines. This signals the final phase of the company's six-year shift to its own custom processors.
The message for developers and users of legacy software is unequivocal: the future of the Mac is exclusively Apple Silicon, and the software ecosystem must now follow suit.
The first major step begins this fall with the public release of macOS 27. The new operating system will be available only for Macs running an M1 chip or newer, officially leaving all Intel-based Macs behind.
Crucially, the installation process will automatically remove Rosetta 2. This action is Apple's most forceful push yet to get the entire Mac ecosystem native on its own processors, impacting everything from major software suites to niche utilities (think older versions of Adobe Creative Suite, specific audio production plugins, or un-updated Steam games). While Apple will permit users to reinstall Rosetta 2 if necessary, the company frames this as a final warning before support is dropped entirely.
The final cutoff is scheduled for Fall 2027 with the launch of macOS 28. As confirmed by Apple, this version of the operating system will not support Rosetta 2 for most applications.
Once a Mac is updated to macOS 28, apps built for Intel processors will simply no longer function. Users will have two options: update to a native Apple Silicon version of their software or find an alternative.
Apple is making a minor concession for a specific category: Rosetta 2 will remain available exclusively for certain older, unmaintained games that cannot be updated. For all other productivity and creative software, the transition will be mandatory.
While new feature updates for Intel Macs have already ceased, Apple will continue providing security patches for macOS 26 Tahoe, which was released last year. The company has committed to three years of security support for that operating system.
This sets the final date for all official Apple support for its Intel-based machines at approximately September 2029. After that, the hardware will still work, but it will no longer receive security updates, officially ending the Mac's Intel era.
