Sunsetting macOS Support: A Difficult but Necessary Decision

Sunsetting macOS Support: A Difficult but Necessary Decision

After careful consideration, we have decided to sunset support for macOS in our project. This has been a challenging decision, but it’s one that has become increasingly necessary due to a variety of factors that have made maintaining the macOS version unsustainable.

The Challenges We’ve Faced
From the beginning, we’ve done our best to support macOS, despite the many obstacles Apple has placed in our path. Our development and testing have largely been done on virtual machines, which has been a frustrating and often painful experience. The situation worsened with Apple’s introduction of mandatory code-signing and notarization requirements. These changes have led to an influx of user feedback about difficulties in launching the application, and the notarization process has made it nearly impossible to distribute unnotarized versions of the software.

To make matters worse, maintaining compliance with these requirements comes with a hefty price tag—$99 per year—an expense that is particularly burdensome for a free application like ours.

The Impact of Apple Silicon
The recent introduction of Apple Silicon processors has further complicated matters. Unlike previous macOS versions, the Apple Silicon version cannot be run on a virtual machine, forcing us to purchase real hardware just to continue development and testing. This is an expense that, frankly, we cannot justify.

Lack of Support and Contributors
Another significant factor is the lack of a culture of support for free software projects within the Apple ecosystem. This, combined with the expensive hardware and certificates required, has made it increasingly difficult to justify continued macOS support. The macOS port, which relies heavily on the Qt library, is particularly expensive to maintain. Moreover, the percentage of macOS users in our community is relatively small—around 20%—and we have seen a lack of contributors willing to help with the macOS port. All these factors together have made it unbearable to continue supporting macOS.

What This Means for You
As a result of these challenges, we will not be releasing the next version of our software for macOS. The current version will remain available, but no further updates or support will be provided for macOS until we can find a way to overcome these obstacles.

We understand that this may be disappointing news for our macOS users, and we regret any inconvenience this may cause. However, we believe that this is the best course of action for the long-term sustainability of our project.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.