[RFC] macOS Intel (x86_64) support
Description
Apple has announced that they're planning to stop support Intel (x86_64) Macs.
From https://tedium.co/2025/06/09/apple-wwdc-intel-mac-support-ending/
macOS Tahoe will be the final release for Intel Macs. So if you’ve not done so already, now is a great time to help your users migrate to the Apple silicon versions of your apps.
We're going to find these jobs harder and harder to maintain, as support for that platform is begin phased out.
I think we should try to support users on those platforms for as long as we can (and at least as long as CRAN requires it ). Opening this as a tracking issue for general discussion of this topic.
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Notes
Anaconda
Starting August 15, 2025, Anaconda will stop building new packages for Intel Mac computers (osx-64).
https://www.anaconda.com/blog/intel-mac-package-support-deprecation
CPython
https://github.com/python/peps/pull/4548
Homebrew
macOS 27 (Golden Gate) drops Intel support, so per our Support Tiers: in September 2026, macOS Intel x86_64 moves to Tier 3 with no CI support and no new bottles (binary packages) built for macOS Intel; in September 2027, macOS Intel x86_64 will be unsupported entirely and all related code deleted.
Source: lightgbm-org/LightGBM