When Apple discontinued making computers based on the Intel chipset, in favor of their own Apple silicon chips, it was clear that the days for Intel-based Mac products were numbered.
The previous macOS release, macOS 26, “Tahoe”, was the last version of macOS that could be installed on an Intel Mac and, although macOS 27, “Golden Gate”, can use “Rosetta” to support Intel-based applications, Rosetta will be removed in macOS 28.
It’s already the case that some significant tools, like Homebrew, have discontinued support for Intel-based Macs. And recently, GraalVM followed suit.
This puts our SaxonC product line in something of a bind. Ideally, we’d time any change in platforms or architectures to line up with a full release. But GraalVM’s rather abrupt decision to discontinue support for Intel-based Macs means we either have to avoid upgrading the version of GraalVM that we use (sacrificing potential performance gains and possibly leaving systems vulnerable), or we have to acknowledge that we can no longer distribute SaxonC products (including Python and PHP) for Intel-based Macs.
The current plan is that Saxon 12 will continue to support Intel-based Macs, but that could change if it became necessary to upgrade GraalVM for that release. In some near-term Saxon 13 release, we’ll be upgrading GraalVM and discontinuing support for Intel-based Macs.
Not because we want to, but because there’s no practical way to continue delivering it.