Final release for macOS support for NI Software

[Jimmy84]

Hi everybody,

Opening this post as I can't find the announcement from NI nor can I find it on this forum.

I would like to share the following email with you about the latest release of LabVIEW on macOS.

I am sorry to  hear that LabVIEW announces that NI will will stop supporting LabVIEW on macOS.

This came a a shocker to us as the roadmap still indicates support. (of course unknown release of an OS and they cannot indicate)

https://www.ni.com/en/shop/software-portfolio/platform-roadmap.html 

https://www.ni.com/content/dam/web/pdfs/ni-supported-operating-systems-roadmap.pdf 

Dear NI Customer

According to our records, you have purchased or renewed a license for LabVIEW on macOS.  We are writing to inform you that the latest version of this software, LabVIEW 2023 Q3 on macOS, has just recently been released and is now available from NI.com.  This version has support for all current Apple-silicon-based chipsets, and the most recent release of macOS.  We hope you find the product provides everything you need to create a first-class test system.

In addition, we are informing you that this will be the final release of LabVIEW on macOS.  Starting with releases in 2024, LabVIEW will continue to be available on Windows and Linux OSes. We understand that this change of availability likely impacts your active and future plans. We have the following alternatives available for you to consider.

The VIs from the macOS LabVIEW version will port easily to LabVIEW on Windows and Linux, often without changes.  In addition, the LabVIEW for macOS that you purchased includes the right to download and use LabVIEW on Windows and LabVIEW on Linux as well, so you don’t need to buy any additional software to do these migrations.

If you are unable or do not wish to, move your development to Windows or Linux computers, you can continue using the LabVIEW 2023 Q3 for macOS development system indefinitely.  LabVIEW 2023 Q3 on macOS has no licensing restrictions that will prevent it from launching beyond any future date so you may continue developing test systems in LabVIEW on macOS indefinitely.  New licenses will not be able to be purchased after March 1, 2024, and NI will stop providing mainstream support for it beyond this date.  At your request, beyond March 1, 2024, if your product had originally been purchased as a subscription, NI will convert it into a perpetual license for your continued use.

If you have questions about these alternatives, please send an email to NI at services@ni.com.

Sincerely,

NI

best to all

[EricR]

Hi @Jimmy84, thanks for posting.

The links you reference show the support of the current versions.  We  will update the roadmaps views to match the timelines in the email message you received.  We intentionally wanted to communicate directly with customers we knew this decision would affect BEFORE we updated the website and other public information.  I apologize that this will cause a mismatch of information in different sources temporarily.  The website will be updated in several weeks, after we communicate with impacted customers first.

If you have any other questions, please let me know or reach out to the "services@ni.com" address that was in the email.

Thank you again for your feedback.  I appreciate the opportunity to hear your concerns and respond to them.

[luigiwombat]

Why after all the work the LabView team has done to support M processors on MacOS? It doesn't seem to make any sense?

Steve Temme
Listen, Inc.

[rolfk]

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@luigiwombat wrote:

Why after all the work the LabView team has done to support M processors on MacOS? It doesn't seem to make any sense?

---

My guess is that it wasn't that much work. (Compared with the extra work to build and test yet another platform release each time). The compiler is an LLVM backend. Plugging in a different backend should not really be a big task and since the LLVM project has an Apple Silicon backend already, it's mostly just making a different build of the LabVIEW code. Which as a fully ported Cocoa app since it got a 64-bit version, should not have required a lot of work at all aside from changing the project target settings.

But the whole Cocoa interface with its almost mandatory ObjectiveC programming is quite an extra burden for a project almost exclusively written in C/C++ on all other platforms.

[apg_air]

I was recently planning on porting all of my LabVIEW software to Linux as I know a lot of companies where all the software development teams and products run on Linux. Can anyone confirm how long the Linux version has got left?

I have really enjoyed using over the years, I have probably created 100's of test sequences for multiple companies (I work as a Test Systems contractor). However, with the dropping of NXT and now the Mac version of LabVIEW (I do a lot of development on my Mac) I am wondering if it has a future.

[rolfk]

I'm not from NI and I have no inside knowledge, but while nothing is sure in this world I think it is safe to assume that NI will not easily abandon Linux.

Linux is an integral part of all the NI Realtime targets that are sold by NI nowadays. They have ported a substantial part of the various hardware drivers to Linux in the last 7 years or so, as it was an integral part of the NI real-time platform. The challenge with Mac was at least twofold:

- The market for Mac users is fairly limited and in the few regions where it is big it is about academics/education, which brings in very little direct revenue.

- Porting the hardware drivers was a very difficult task for a market that was difficult to generate revenue from, so it was mostly done as isolated efforts for specific business cases/personal interests and difficult to maintain in the long term and in a consistent manner.

Linux had for a long time the same or even more aggregated problem, but once NI did choose for Linux as their platform for the real-time targets, there was a very strong incentive to also invest into the hardware driver platform. LabVIEW without hardware drivers can be interesting for isolated applications but for most users the combination of LabVIEW and hardware drivers is the big selling point.

[apg_air]

I can see the reasons for dropping the Mac support, I guess I am just getting a bit disillusioned with using LabVIEW. I absolutely love it as a language, and for creating test sequences, test GUIs, fault finding aids I think it is brilliant. The dropping of NXT and now Mac just make me worried.

I tend to write all my own drivers, just purely using Ethernet/USB/Serial interfaces. I never use TestStand. So for me I would like a basic version of LabVIEW complete with the application builder, supported on as many platforms as possible.

[EricR]

NI's decision to update LabVIEW to run on the M-series processors and latest MacOS was an intentional choice.  We believed this would provide the longest transition window available for people using the MacOS version of LabVIEW.

[EricR]

NI moved all of its Real-Time development to Linux several years ago and many of NI's largest partners and customers use Linux as their primary OS for test systems.   NI's decision to discontinue support on the MacOS is in-part a reflection of our need to be focused on the primary development OSes in the test systems space, which are Windows and Linux.  Due to these conditions, Linux OS is an integrated part of NI's long-term OS plans, which wasn't true for the MacOS. 

While we are sure that this decision is disappointing for MacOS users, we hope that the combination of supporting the M-series devices and the availability of LabVIEW on Linux will provide a long-enough transition window for most users to make necessary plans for how to move forward.

[lucian.grec]

Are there any plans to support LabVIEW on ARM-based MacBooks running Linux?