Actually, I have a question related to this. My MacBook Air can’t upgrade beyond High Sierra. Omnifocus is the only app keeping me from moving to Linux and I don’t want to drop a lot of cash on a new Mac for just one piece of software. Will Omnifocus 3 continue to be supported on High Sierra through its lifetime (until Omnifocus 4)? I wish Apple offered a reasonably priced low-end laptop.
There is a lot of code in OF3 that requires Mojave. It would take a lot more engineering effort to try to build custom code to get it to work in older systems. If the Omni engineers had to make a build that would support Sierra or earlier, we wouldn’t see a September 2018 release. It would be delayed even more.
One thing I’ve done was to get an old iPhone 6+ and installed OF3 for iOS so that I can use OF3.
An old iPhone and OmniFocus 3 for iOS might be a more affordable solution.
In any case, VMWare Fusion or Parallels can run Linux in a VM environment. Then you’ll get the linux that you want.
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i think i have to eat my words here - the latest test build today of OF3 for Mac has fixed the Mojave drag n drop bug. so i can now use it on my macbook.
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Looks like I’ll become an iOS-only customer, then. I have other mission-critical reasons to stay with Sierra for the life of my current machine, though it’s capable of High Sierra.
And I can’t imagine the next time I’ll be able to afford upgrading my system.
I’ve been able to use an iPad-only experience for a while now. I have OF2 running on my Mac just for quick entry.
Pairing up the iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard has helped lessen my need to actively work on my Mac.
Perhaps you can try running High Sierra in a VM inside Parallels or VMWare Fusion?
As much as I love OF, I don’t like the idea of virtualizing just to run a task manager. Maybe someday the web version of OF will have more or less parity.
iOS version of OF3 makes it plausible to use without a Mac, and that’s pretty stellar.
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Furiously refreshing my email in the hopes that my beta invite arrives…
@Jordan it’s well worth the wait! I was fortunate enough to be included in the last series of invitations. I haven’t experienced any crashes that an earlier invitation might have caused. The beta should be near perfect when you get it!
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If OF is the only tool that’s missing from his linux experience, maybe it makes more sense the other way around – run your favourite linux and virtualise macOS running OF. A bit harder to set up, but seems more the right way around.
Thank you- I agree that this would be the better scenario for me, all things being equal. However, it’s my understanding that MacOS can only be run in a VM on Apple hardware. I don’t have anything against Apple hardware- it’s high quality and, in fact my 2011 MacBook Air is running great. The problem is that Apple has decided not to support my device past MacOS 10.13 which leaves me in the position of having to purchase a new laptop within the next year (assuming that Omnigroup will only support MacOS 10.13 for another year- I don’t know that for sure).
With the exception of Omnifocus, I have no particular need to be on the Mac platform and actually prefer Linux for a number of reasons. If I have to purchase a new laptop, a PC delivers a lot more for the money and Linux does not arbitrarily cut off support like Apple does. Apple has the right to cut support for “obsolete” devices and I don’t begrudge them for it. But I would prefer to be in control of when I replace my devices.
Before the Omnifocus 3 Mac beta came out, I attempted to use it exclusively on iOS. That didn’t work for me…
I am also concerned about the rumors that Apple may be transitioning the Mac platform to ARM processors in the next year or two and the potential of a shorter-than-normal lifespan of an intel-based device purchased just ahead of that transition. As difficult as it is now to natively boot Linux on Intel Macs, I imagine that it could very well be impossible if ARM Macs become a reality. i’m not sure that I’m ready to sign up for all that.
Anyway, I guess my main question is, how long can I expect Omnifocus 3 to be supported for High Sierra (10.13)?
I think they made it possible to run it in a VM on non-Apple hardware a while ago. Check out those three links:
http://suzywu2014.github.io/ubuntu/2017/02/23/macos-sierra-virtualbox-vm-on-ubuntu
I haven’t tried those, but it seems that this might be something you could try as well, if you wanted to :-)
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So OmniFocus 3 will not be supported on Sierra (10.12)? What new features are preventing it from being supported on 10.12?
We generally announce the system requirements for a product when we announce the date it will be available for sale, but our general approach is to support the current shipping operating system (i.e. the version you’ll get when you buy new hardware) and the previous version. When OmniFocus 3 ships, the current operating system will be Mojave—so we’re supporting Mojave and High Sierra (and with Mojave such a moving target right now, staying on top of evolving compatibility issues is keeping our test team very busy!).
This is partially driven by Apple’s development tools: for example, Xcode 10 adds support for theme-sensitive color palettes in order to support Dark Mode, and High Sierra includes support for looking up colors in those palettes (even though it wasn’t part of High Sierra’s public API). But Sierra does not—so in order to support Dark Mode on Mojave (its headline feature), you have to write code which will only run on High Sierra or later. (You can, of course, build a totally different implementation to maintain compatibility with earlier operating systems. But now you’re not getting the benefit of adopting the new tools Apple has provided—it’s just an additional cost, slowing you down—and the independent implementations are going to have very different bugs.)
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Thanks for the in-depth explanation! That all makes sense. It’s other software that is older and not updated to work with High Sierra that is holding me back at the moment, but it’s nothing that is worth holding off on OF3 for, so I will make the upgrade soon.
Too bad about the system requirements. I’m running Sierra on my main MBP because Adobe doesn’t support Photoshop CS6 on High Sierra. If I have to choose between Photoshop and OmniFocus, I’m afraid Photoshop’s going to win.
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After a cursory search, Photoshop CS6, although not supported by Adobe on High Sierra, does work with a few caveats. You could clone your Sierra install to an external drive, update to High Sierra on the external, and see how it goes.
I am in a different situation - restricted by corporate policy. High Sierra still hasn’t finished going through the security review process. Is there no pre-High Sierra build available (even if not officially supported) for OF?
2.10 is still available on the downloads page: https://www.omnigroup.com/download but you won’t be able to use an upgraded database with it if I recall correctly.
If your Mac can’t run the native OmniFocus 3 app for whatever reason, one alternative is to use OmniFocus for the Web in your web browser. It’s a lot more limited than the native app, but at least you can get at your lists!
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