[Development] Dropping official x86_64 macOS support

[Thiago Macieira]

On Tuesday, 6 October 2026 16:34:49 Pacific Daylight Time Tor Arne Vestbø via 
Development wrote:
> Of those, these are the Intel ones:
> 
>   *   MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
>   *   MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
>   *   iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)
>   *   Mac Pro (2019)

I've been trying to get that MacPro for a while, but no one seems to have one 
around here that they are no longer using. It would buy me a couple more years 
of security support and a more recent Xcode. Plus, it's a better machine for 
compiling anyway.

> We generally require that Qt is built against a recent (if not latest
> available) SDK, as that allows us to take advantage of new features. Though
> we sometimes add #if QT_APPLE_SDK_EQUAL_OR_ABOVE(MACOS(26)) checks, since
> our CI typically lags one Xcode release behind, and hence one SDK version
> behind. That requirement applies regardless of architecture.

I am using the latest SDK from the latest Xcode available for the Mac machine 
I have. I haven't checked which macOS version that SDK targets, I'll take a 
look in the office tomorrow.
 
> Whether you have that Xcode version available to you depends on your
> hardware. If you have one of the above mentioned Intel Macs you should be
> able to run Xcode 26.6, which comes with Clang 21:

No, it's a Mac Mini from 2018 I think, so stuck with the older Xcode and with 
macOS 15.8.
 
> Cross-compiling x86_64 on an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 27 and Xcode 27
> is also an option.

That indeed is a solution for some people, and possibly also for the CI if the 
interest is just ensuring things compile, without testing.

For me, I'm not just not interested in cross-compiling, from anything to 
anything else.
 
> If you’re talking about patches to support building against older SDKs to be
> able to keep building for x86_64 I will likely be more conservative, since
> it adds some overhead for the active maintenance of Qt for macOS, but it
> will need to be considered more closely when and if such a patch appears.

This might be more of the issue than the x86-specific fixes, not because it's 
x86, but because Apple hasn't made the latest SDKs available to be used *on* 
x86. People and companies who have an install base of Intel Macs may still 
want to use them and not invest on replacing them with new Apple silicon just 
yet.

That is my case. I will definitely not be able to convince my department to buy 
Apple Silicon for me, nor will I even ask. So as soon as this Mac Mini stops 
being able to build Qt, I'll be forced to test macOS the same way I test QNX 
and INTEGRITY: throwing stuff into the CI.

-- 
Thiago Macieira - thiago.macieira (AT) intel.com
  Principal Engineer - Intel DCG - Platform & Sys. Eng.
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