Quicken 2007 May Run on OS X Lion, Even With Rosetta Dead

[MacRumors]

Earlier in the week it was reported that PowerPC-emulation software Rosetta will be killed off in OS X Lion. This is of particular concern to users of older apps like Quicken 2007 (which is still for sale) which some users favor because the current version of Quicken Essentials for Mac is missing numerous features that the 2007 version had.

Aaron Patzer, VP/GM of Intuit's Personal Finance Group spoke with The Mac Observer about the intricacies of Intuit's codebase.

Mr. Patzer explained that the PowerPC codebase for Quicken For Mac 2007 was started decades ago and has many intricacies — including its own custom-built database engine — that are very much PowerPC specific. Simply porting this code over to Intel is not possible and would require a significant amount of work. So much so that Intuit decided to focus those resources on developing an entirely new application, Quicken Essentials for Mac.

But what of Rosetta and Quicken 2007 and OS X Lion? Intuit is reportedly working with Apple to embed the necessary parts of Rosetta in Quicken 2007 to get it to run on Lion.

The project has been underway for the past few months, with Intuit working to possibly embed specific Rosetta libraries into Quicken For Mac 2007 to get it to run. This, too, is not a simple project and may never come to fruition.

It's a massive project and may never work, but they are working on it. We should know more by the end of the summer.

Article Link: Quicken 2007 May Run on OS X Lion, Even With Rosetta Dead

[Cougarcat]

Weird. Sounds like it would be easier just to start over and build the damn thing from the ground up.

[mattwolfmatt]

Soo...I have 10 years of quicken data. Assuming Quicken 07 won't work on Lion, is there any mac program that will read my quicken data?

Please oh please, don't tell me I have to run Windows on my mac.

[Airforcekid]

Why not add those features to essentials in an update seems so much more simpler let outdated technology die it has to eventually.

[inket]

If they're not willing to update their app (with all features) for Rosetta-free Lion then they definitely don't deserve their users' money.

[longofest]

That sounds like a kludge if I ever heard of one. Wouldn't it be nice if Intuit put those R&D dollars into making a new, decent version of Quicken for Mac?

[Airforcekid]

Originally Posted by mattwolfmatt

Soo...I have 10 years of quicken data. Assuming Quicken 07 won't work on Lion, is there any mac program that will read my quicken data?

Please oh please, don't tell me I have to run Windows on my mac.

Crossover or another wine program should be able to do it fine no 3D graphics etc.

[brand]

Instead of developing an acceptable version they want to hack a version that is almost 5 years old to work? That is ridiculous. Quicken Essentials for Mac definitely shows whats little effort they put towards developing for the Mac community. At this point I would buy Microsoft Money if it was made for the Mac before giving my money to Intuit to only be told "Go F Yourself" in return.

[commander.data]

Isn't PPC compatibility bigger than simply the Rosetta layer that translate PPC instructions to x86 instructions? PPC Applications may also link to the PowerPC versions of Apple frameworks and APIs, which have now been removed from Lion. So applications will have to either include PowerPC versions of each framework and API they use, which presumably requires Apple's permission, or they still need to be partially rewritten to link to the remaining Intel versions of frameworks and APIs.

[YMark]

Unfortunately, Intuit has failed Mac users. I was an long time Quicken user up until I made the switch to a Mac about 3 years ago. Quicken on a Mac is a farce.

[canadianmacguy]

Originally Posted by mattwolfmatt

Soo...I have 10 years of quicken data. Assuming Quicken 07 won't work on Lion, is there any mac program that will read my quicken data?

Please oh please, don't tell me I have to run Windows on my mac.

iBank worked great reading in our data - not 10 years worth, but at least you can download the trial and give it a try: http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/

[NJL6705]

For the love of god, just make Rosetta an optional download like it is now and all our lives easier.

[sailnavy]

Intuit is just horrendous for Mac. I'm amazed that they even bother trying. I transitioned to QuickenOnline only to have that shuttered, with no data transition plan. I went back to Quicken 2007, then tried Quicken Essentials for Mac, which was horrible. I was convinced to try QE for Mac again after I interacted with Quicken on Facebook. It still is horrible, and tries to look like iTunes. It's as if they hired a bunch of 22 year olds that never balanced a check book to rewrite the thing.

How is it possible that we can't get a decent checkbook program to track expenses and net worth over time?

[PlaceofDis]

Originally Posted by NJL6705

For the love of god, just make Rosetta an optional download like it is now and all our lives easier.

you would think that this would be the best and easiest option.

quicken's mac support has been atrocious for years, why they took so long to even just get the 'essentials' app out the door i'll never know, and its still had no major updates and no features added to it. what a waste.

[scotty321]

There is a great article on this very topic of Quicken abandoning Mac users here:

Quicken for Lion: Why does Intuit hate Mac users?

[Analog Kid]

The TurboTax gravy train has completely hollowed out Intuit. I suspect a day will come when a significant competitor to TurboTax appears and Intuit won't have the capacity to respond, but in the mean time we need to deal with zombie products and extortion based business models because they have no remaining engineering capacity.

Does the premise of their argument make sense to anyone-- how could, and why would, anyone tie a database structure into a CPU level instruction set? Endian issues, I'll grant you, but that's not new science to resolve. I'd almost write it off an spin, except if it were then this Rosetta integration would be taking a bogus excuse to a whole new level.

Except maybe the vaporware is enough to keep people from looking at alternatives in the mean time, or keeps competitors from fielding a product.

I think they've just decided to coast and hope to keep collecting profits from people who have 10 years of financial data tied up in their products and for whom keeping that history is worth whatever ransom Intuit demands. I'll admit that's what's kept me using TurboTax, but I'm not far from the point where I'd rather just reenter my data than sidestep the number of ads Intuit embeds in their payware, and then deal with the crashing and interface bugs.

[zama36]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Try Moneydance. It imports QIF files. Java based so it isn't necessarily as pretty as Quicken but who cares. Dumped Quicken a long time ago and haven't looked back.

[Lumpydog]

That is a freaking riot.

Seriously - I hate Intuit - I've been patient and loyal and they've bailed on us Mac users, so I'm laughing my ass of thinking about those guys working around the clock to try to make that dog-of-a-product still work. I don't feel sorry for them, they made their bed. Good luck.

Intuit... you guys are morons.

[skellener]

Ten years and they never updated their legacy code. Stop using this program already!!! It's time to move on.

[junker]

I've heard that 2007 was trash and Essentials was pathetic - but I really like my Quicken 2006.

I was looking at a few different money management tools, but most are too simplified - Just a check/savings program. Some have a few more things, but I haven't found one that does as much as 2006.

Don';t eman to take the defensive position for Quicken here - cause I certainly have many problems, but if anyone that's used 2006 and has a comparable replacement, I'm listening!

I think I looked at ibank, moneydance and I think one or two others.

I'm looking for: connection to bank (direct download with Major Bank) for checking; turbo tax integration for my small business concerns;stock following; budget setting;and rental property management; property and loan management.

[TeamMojo]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

For such a large software company to not have all of its products in Cocoa and on iOS and MacOS is a major embarrassment. Intuit's PC software is crappy too. They have a very marginal database server craplet attempt at a networked multiple user accounting app.

No one with any sense of quality should buy their products.

[RogueWarrior65]

IMHO, Apple should do one or more of the following:

1) Open source Rosetta. How am I going to run Resorcerer? Jeez.
2) Buy Quicken and Quickbooks from Intuit if not the whole company. I would pay good money for a OSX native version of Quickbooks Premiere.

If nothing else, I have 18 years of Quicken data, which is most enlightening, btw, so hearing this rumor is good news.

[Analog Kid]

I knew something smelled fishy-- they claim that Quicken 2007 is based on decades of development for the PowerPC platform, but Quicken '98 didn't even run on PowerPC:

http://web.intuit.com/support/quicken/docs/m_98req.html

They didn't ship a PowerPC based version of Quicken until 2000. How did seven years become "decades", plural?

[jbh001]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

... the PowerPC codebase for Quicken For Mac 2007 was started decades ago and has many intricacies including its own custom-built database engine that are very much PowerPC specific. Simply porting this code over to Intel is not possible and would require a significant amount of work. So much so that Intuit decided to focus those resources on developing an entirely new application

Mac OS 7.1.2 was the first version to run on PowerPC architecture. It was released March 1994, so saying Quicken for Mac was coded decades ago is somewhat of a stretch since it's not even March of 2014 yet.

It also sounds like the time is long past for Intuit to abandon "intricate" and "custom-built" for something more standard, portable, and less complex. Intuit appears either unwilling or unable to commit the financial resources needed to update Quicken into a compelling product for the Mac. There is a saying: "innovate or die." It seems pretty clear what option Intuit has chosen for Quicken. They must be in pretty bad financial shape and/or willingly clueless.

[blue22]

Originally Posted by mattwolfmatt

Soo...I have 10 years of quicken data. Assuming Quicken 07 won't work on Lion, is there any mac program that will read my quicken data?

Please oh please, don't tell me I have to run Windows on my mac.

iBank4 looks really good, it has a lot of helpful video tutorials on their website as well, and most likely this is what I'll upgrade to as well. Just FYI: if you purchase the iBank4 license diretly from the Mac App store you won't be able to get the 30 day money-back guarantee that IGG Software offers when buying it from their online shop, so that's something to take into consideration before you spend any cash on this product.