A portion of those machines, however, will be capable of running Chrome, as they boast 64-bit CPUs, even though they're powered by out-of-date operating systems. Opera Software's Opera also comes in a 32-bit edition.Īccording to Internet metrics firm Net Applications, just under 13% of all Macs ran Snow Leopard, Leopard or an earlier OS last month. Mozilla's Firefox, for example, includes both 32- and 64-bit versions in each OS X edition's package.
Owners of older Intel 32-bit Macs still running Snow Leopard - or even earlier versions, like 2007's Leopard or 2005's Tiger - will have to either risk running an unpatched Chrome 38 or switch to a different browser. OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, which was released in August 2009, was the last edition to support 32-bit Intel Macs. The MacBook Air has always featured 64-bit processors.
Apple stopped selling 32-bit iMacs in September 2006, and shifted to 64-bit for the Mac Mini in August 2007. That means Chrome users with older Intel-based Macs - those sold between January 2006 and August 2007, at the latest - will not be able to run the new browser.Īpple shifted its lines from 32- to 64-bit at different times: The MacBook Pro, for instance, went 64-bit in October 2006, while the less-expensive MacBook switched to 64-bit in November 2006.
