Second macOS Tahoe 26.4 Beta Now Available for Developers

Is it just me, or is it kind of disappointing Rosetta is scheduled to go away with the next major OS release? I feel like that's essentially just decreasing compatibility with existing apps and doesn't really benefit anyone except Apple's own devs having less code to maintain?

We've seen it before where Apple tries to force everything to move forward, and what end-users really get is a shortage of working programs. (EG. I bought the "Metro Exodus" video game a while back because it was one of the few titles at the time that performed well on an M series Mac. But pretty sure it relies on Rosetta to run and the small developer who made it isn't going to do a full rewrite to keep it working. No money in it for them.)

I avoid apps that require Rosetta like the plague. Honestly, it's been over 5 years, and I think macOS will run better if they can jettison support for obsolete hardware and software. This has happened before with old PPC apps too, etc... Maintaining old code is a distraction from fixing more current pressing issues too.

Some essential applications I use still are Intel-coded. It's not as simple as that. I think there is a large number of Intel applications, probably even larger than PPC applications, due to the popularity and length of Intel on the Mac.

I've worked in the computer industry since 1992. Yes, there are a measurable number niche cases where some end users, but mostly businesses, need to keep specific secondary computer(s) running older software... and that's fine. That's what they should do if they need older apps.

I work in a research lab where we use a laser that is dependent on software that hasn't been updated since 1986! In addition to the 80's PC that runs it we also have a Pentium 4 desktop running Windows XP with software needed to extract the data from the measurement PC and its 5.25" disks. I have a USB floppy drive for my 14" M1 MacBook Pro running Tahoe that I also keep around for accessing some of the data. Talk about a house of cards!

Releases:
iOS 26.4 beta 2 (23E5218e)
iPadOS 26.4 beta 2 (23E5218e)
macOS 26.4 beta 2 (25E5218f)
tvOS 26.4 beta 2 (23L5219e)
visionOS 26.4 beta 2 (23O5220e)
watchOS 26.4 beta 2 (23T5221e)

Source ('https://developer.apple.com/news/releases/')

Then I'll leave Mac for Linux.

Okay?
Not sure why this is said like some type of “gotcha”, you should use the OS that makes you happiest.

Some essential applications I use still are Intel-coded. It's not as simple as that. I think there is a large number of Intel applications, probably even larger than PPC applications, due to the popularity and length of Intel on the Mac.

Exactly! It's easy to say from purely a technical standpoint that the "old code needs to go". But reality is, Apple is still only selling computers to a pretty small percentage of the computer-buying public. They don't have enough influence to force the hand of developers who aren't motivated to rewrite their existing programs.

Not everything is a well-known, mainstream application like Adobe's suite or Microsoft Office. Some of the music creation/editing type software out there gets written by a one or two person team and may only sell a small number of copies. If it's, say, a patch librarian tool for a music synthesizer or workstation? The users don't really mind or care if it receives an update. As long as it keeps doing the job it always did, it's useful to them. A new Mac OS breaking such a program just means the upgrade to Mac OS hurt them as much as it helped anything. That developer is likely to not have any motivation to rewrite the whole application. They may have only sold 500 copies of the first one.

Over time, what this REALLY does is drives more people over to the Windows platform where applications DO get regular updates, just because the sheer number of users ensures it's worth it, financially, for even small devs to maintain their programs.