Installing Snow Leopard (and Rosetta) into Parallels on modern Intel Macs

[MichaelLAX]

Just a Quicken 2007 users note: Many financial institutions eliminated download to "QIF" file format some years ago, and I have never used "QFX" file format.

So I purchased a couple of the data translators from MoneyThumb which allows me to convert CSV to QIF and PDF to QIF for an additional one-step ability to import my bank statements and credit cards.

Citicards and American Express both allow me to download in CSV format; if CSV download is not available:

Their PDF to QIF converter actually scans a monthly statement PDF and finds just the data to convert to QIF to import into Quicken.

 

[MichaelLAX]

Michael Schmitt comments on 9/3/21:

My two cents: I’ve been using Quicken for Mac since Quicken 98, and still think there are a lot of things that Quicken 2007 does much better than the current Quicken. The key deficiencies are in ease of data entry, investment transactions, and reporting. But online transaction and stock price downloads in Quicken 2007 has been pretty much dead for some time. I had forgotten how much easier it is when Quicken auto-downloads the transactions. And the new Quicken does have some useful new features, such as being able to automatically query online statements so it knows how much your next bill is.

Glenn Fleishmann responds on the same day:

Yes, I think Quicken 2007 has some more refinement and features and ease of use than Quicken Deluxe in 2021, but Deluxe has fortunately matured to hit all the points I need. I was able to create a report a few days ago that I use for quarterly city and state filing for my two separate small businesses (one, writing; the other, publishing), and then compare it against my records from previous quarters in Numbers where I’d used Quicken 2007’s reports. I found a few discrepancies, but they were fortunately all related to report configuration. Once resolved, the reports I pulled had identical results to the Quicken 2007 reports, which was key!

 

[tzenobite]

hi to all!
this thread for me is gold! thank you!
i need some help: my 2009 imac just died. i had two startup disk, one with snow leopard (for freehand, mainly) and another with high sierra. honestly i use snow leopard only once on a while but i still need it. the new machine will be a refurbished mac mini, i'll use it for some light graphic works, some modest 3d modelling, vlc, itunes and web.
now i need to choose if buy a high-end 2011 mac mini and have two startup volumes just like the imac, or go for a 2018 model and run snow leopard on parallel or fusion.
given my needs, which one of them is the better solution?
thank you all!

 

[MichaelLAX]

Like that episode of the classic TV series: The Twilight Zone, staring Jonathan Winters "A Game of Pool" S03E05, every once in a while I get the call to come out of the Ether and hope my memory will clear to answer a question!

I still have my 2011 Mac Mini running 24/7 as a headless server (in its High Sierra partition; others being Mt. Lion and Snow Leopard) and use Screen Sharing, if and when it is time to use it for functions other than file sharing. It is a nice match for my 2020 M1 Mac Mini ...

While my personal needs to run Snow Leopard have diminished to minimal after all these years; I recoginize that others still must have some ability to use it

Let's look at the pros and cons:

"High-end 2011 Mac Mini" - Thanks to the work of NewFoundGlory, this is the last Mac that can actually boot and run Snow Leopard in hardware.

But they are very long in the tooth at this point and how much longer can you rely on them to operate?

"2018 Model running Snow Leopard in Parallels" - I was just given a 2018 MacBook by my ex-wife after she went Apple Silicon and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Parallels 15 will continue to run in Monterey on this computer.

Why? Well, Parallels 17's license only allows me to run it on one computer at a time (I never purchased Parallels 16) and Parallels 18/19 now runs on an annual license fee to continue to operate.

I have used Parallels 15 in the 2018 MacBook to run my copy of Windows XP for programming my Ham Radio/GMRS radios on the fly and it works wonderfully. I will attempt to run my Snow Leopard Server partition in Parallels later and let you know when you reply to this message.

Is virtualization slower? Well, I assert that Snow Leopard in Parallels on a 2018 Mac will run faster than it will in hardware on a 2011.

Refresh my memory: Does Freehand require much processing for rendering? Or is it just a drawing tool? My recollection is that there is no rendering in Freehand, so that either option will probably work for you.

More questions?

 

[tzenobite]

...

wow, you are just the person i need the most in the world (now) 🤣
you're right, any 12/13 years old computer is OLD, even an apple, but i have modest needs and modest means, so...
i prefer a mini to a imac to avoid at least faulty lcd panels and worn lightning leds on old machines .
i'm very interested in your experiment about how a virtualized sl on a new-ish mini compares to a hardware one on a 2011 machine.
you're right, freehand is a 2d drawing software like illustrator, i still use both at work (on a late 09 27" imac) and i have a lot of old stuff made with it here at home, but snow leopard will be needed sporadically.
maybe virtualization is the way.
thank you for you kind and useful answer, i look forward for your experiment results.

 

[MichaelLAX]

Success!

 

[MichaelLAX]

Please send me some nice Freehand pictorials to use as samples in Snow Leopard.

My email address is my screenname at AOL dot com.

Thank you!

 

[tzenobite]

oh wow! you did it! thank you!
what about performances? is snow leopard at least usable?
i'll send you something as soon as possible
thank you again

 

[MichaelLAX]

Once I receive a FreeHand sample file to run, I will:

* download GeekBench

* reboot my 2011 Mac Mini into Snow Leopard and run GeekBench; and

* run GeekBench on the Snow Leopard partition in Parallels on my 2018 MBP

and post the results.

 

[tzenobite]

GREAT. i have the right file in mind. tomorrow i should pack it (now here is 9 p.m. and i'm at the usual folk rehersal)

 

[MichaelLAX]

As Noted by return email, your files will not open in my v11.0.2 of Macromedia FreeHand MX in Snow Leopard. I can open the samples that are included in the installation software.

Any thoughts?

 

[tzenobite]

no idea, it's the stuff i work on every day. this afternoon (your early morning, i suppose) i sent you a brand new ad-hoc file.

 

[MichaelLAX]

no idea, it's the stuff i work on every day. this afternoon (your early morning, i suppose) i sent you a brand new ad-hoc file.

I have not received another WeTransfer or reply email as of 3PM PDT my time now.

Did you compare the version numbers of the apps we are using? I am using version 11.0.2 of MacroVision FreeHand MX in Snow Leopard. My recollection is that Adobe (who had acquired FreeHand from Macrovision) had to release an updater to allow this version to work in Snow Leopard.

In any event, if your version works in Snow Leopard, it almost certainly will work in Snow Leopard Server inside Parallels. But I would like to try it for you as well, if you know where I can obtain a copy of the version you are using.

In the meantime, I downloaded Geekbench version 3 for Snow Leopard and I purchased a single user license for $9.99 for posterity and your benchmarks and here is what I have discovered:

1) Slowest performance - Snow Leopard Server in Parallels on a 2011 Mac Mini

Benchmark Summary
Integer Score 1763 1686
Floating Point Score 1728 1724
Memory Score 1773 1659

Geekbench Score 1751 1695

System Information
Operating System Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Build 10K549)
Model Parallels17,1
Model ID Parallels17,1
Motherboard Parallels Software International Inc. Mac-8ED6AF5B48C039E1 None
Processor Intel Core i5-2415M @ 2.29 GHz
1 Processor
Processor ID GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 26 Stepping 5
Processor Package
Processor Codename
L1 Instruction Cache 32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache 32.0 KB
L2 Cache 256 KB
L3 Cache 3.00 MB
Memory 2.00 GB 667 MHz DRAM
Northbridge
Southbridge
BIOS Parallels Software International Inc. 17.1.7 (51588)
Compiler Clang 5.0 (clang-500.2.76)

Integer Performance
AES
single-core 1938 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1498 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Twofish
single-core 1810 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1737 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SHA1
single-core 1786 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1753 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SHA2
single-core 1783 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1729 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BZip2 Compress
single-core 1789 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1738 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BZip2 Decompress
single-core 1795 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1762 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JPEG Compress
single-core 1772 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1710 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JPEG Decompress
single-core 1798 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1708 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PNG Compress
single-core 1716 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1724 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PNG Decompress
single-core 1767 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1716 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sobel
single-core 1746 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1786 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lua
single-core 1647 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1590 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dijkstra
single-core 1601 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1508 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Floating Point Performance
BlackScholes
single-core 1910 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1946 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mandelbrot
single-core 1792 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1764 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Filter
single-core 1734 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1640 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blur Filter
single-core 1739 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1718 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SGEMM
single-core 1649 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1672 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DGEMM
single-core 1684 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1672 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SFFT
single-core 1793 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1784 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DFFT
single-core 1781 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1709 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
N-Body
single-core 1622 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1686 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ray Trace
single-core 1603 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1675 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Memory Performance
Stream Copy
single-core 1733 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1643 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Scale
single-core 1831 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1662 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Add
single-core 1733 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1649 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Triad
single-core 1799 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 1684 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

2) Snow Leopard natively running on the 2011 Mac Mini:

Benchmark Summary
Integer Score 1839 4664
Floating Point Score 2021 4737
Memory Score 2462 2488

Geekbench Score 2036 4258

System Information
Operating System Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Build 10K549)
Model Mac mini (Mid 2011)
Model ID Macmini5,1
Motherboard Apple Inc. Mac-8ED6AF5B48C039E1 Macmini5,1
Processor Intel Core i5-2415M @ 2.30 GHz
1 Processor, 2 Cores, 4 Threads
Processor ID GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Processor Package
Processor Codename
L1 Instruction Cache 32.0 KB x 2
L1 Data Cache 32.0 KB x 2
L2 Cache 256 KB x 2
L3 Cache 3.00 MB
Memory 16.0 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Northbridge
Southbridge
BIOS Apple Inc. 135.0.0.0.0
Compiler Clang 5.0 (clang-500.2.76)

Integer Performance
AES
single-core 1314 ||||||||
multi-core 4111 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Twofish
single-core 1764 |||||||||||
multi-core 4286 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SHA1
single-core 1605 ||||||||||
multi-core 3622 |||||||||||||||||||||||
SHA2
single-core 1716 |||||||||||
multi-core 3794 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
BZip2 Compress
single-core 1876 ||||||||||||
multi-core 5362 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BZip2 Decompress
single-core 2056 |||||||||||||
multi-core 5469 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JPEG Compress
single-core 1968 ||||||||||||
multi-core 5100 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JPEG Decompress
single-core 1940 ||||||||||||
multi-core 4456 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PNG Compress
single-core 2026 |||||||||||||
multi-core 5640 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PNG Decompress
single-core 2027 |||||||||||||
multi-core 5314 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sobel
single-core 2003 |||||||||||||
multi-core 4639 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lua
single-core 1838 ||||||||||||
multi-core 4293 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dijkstra
single-core 1945 ||||||||||||
multi-core 5138 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Floating Point Performance
BlackScholes
single-core 2191 ||||||||||||||
multi-core 5308 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mandelbrot
single-core 2074 |||||||||||||
multi-core 6108 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Filter
single-core 2053 |||||||||||||
multi-core 4469 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blur Filter
single-core 1764 |||||||||||
multi-core 4425 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SGEMM
single-core 1878 ||||||||||||
multi-core 4663 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DGEMM
single-core 2058 |||||||||||||
multi-core 5134 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SFFT
single-core 2114 |||||||||||||
multi-core 4320 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DFFT
single-core 2012 |||||||||||||
multi-core 4605 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
N-Body
single-core 2070 |||||||||||||
multi-core 4434 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ray Trace
single-core 2031 |||||||||||||
multi-core 4204 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Memory Performance
Stream Copy
single-core 2438 |||||||||||||||
multi-core 2527 ||||||||||||||||
Stream Scale
single-core 2413 |||||||||||||||
multi-core 2614 |||||||||||||||||
Stream Add
single-core 2465 ||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2383 |||||||||||||||
Stream Triad
single-core 2535 ||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2438 |||||||||||||||

3) Snow Leopard Server running in Parallels 17.1.7 on a 2018 MacBook Pro

Benchmark Summary
Integer Score 3731 3637
Floating Point Score 2026 2023
Memory Score 3172 2957

Geekbench Score 2937 2855

System Information
Operating System Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Build 10K549)
Model Parallels17,1
Model ID Parallels17,1
Motherboard Parallels Software International Inc. Mac-827FB448E656EC26 None
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8559U CPU @ 2.70GHz @ 2.71 GHz
1 Processor
Processor ID GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 26 Stepping 5
Processor Package
Processor Codename
L1 Instruction Cache 32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache 32.0 KB
L2 Cache 256 KB
L3 Cache 8.00 MB
Memory 2.00 GB 667 MHz DRAM
Northbridge
Southbridge
BIOS Parallels Software International Inc. 17.1.7 (51588)
Compiler Clang 5.0 (clang-500.2.76)

Integer Performance
AES
single-core 1544 ||||||||||||
multi-core 1451 |||||||||||
Twofish
single-core 4201 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 4328 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SHA1
single-core 4584 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 4660 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SHA2
single-core 5050 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 4919 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BZip2 Compress
single-core 3532 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 3346 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BZip2 Decompress
single-core 4230 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 4201 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JPEG Compress
single-core 3533 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 3512 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JPEG Decompress
single-core 4015 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 3760 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PNG Compress
single-core 3371 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 3353 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PNG Decompress
single-core 3823 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 3770 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sobel
single-core 4494 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 4454 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lua
single-core 4567 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 4507 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dijkstra
single-core 3229 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2881 ||||||||||||||||||||||

Floating Point Performance
BlackScholes
single-core 2097 ||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2081 ||||||||||||||||
Mandelbrot
single-core 2108 ||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2094 ||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Filter
single-core 1307 ||||||||||
multi-core 1301 ||||||||||
Blur Filter
single-core 1012 ||||||||
multi-core 1010 ||||||||
SGEMM
single-core 2009 |||||||||||||||
multi-core 1972 |||||||||||||||
DGEMM
single-core 1997 |||||||||||||||
multi-core 2051 ||||||||||||||||
SFFT
single-core 2194 |||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2189 |||||||||||||||||
DFFT
single-core 2417 |||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2415 |||||||||||||||||||
N-Body
single-core 3210 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 3219 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ray Trace
single-core 2929 |||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2914 |||||||||||||||||||||||

Memory Performance
Stream Copy
single-core 3496 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 3318 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Scale
single-core 3457 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2954 |||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Add
single-core 2840 ||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2736 |||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Triad
single-core 2950 |||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-core 2853 ||||||||||||||||||||||

Given your financial restraints, another option for you is the 2014 Mac Mini which we purchased refurbished earlier this year so I could set it up as a headless Roblox Server for my grandson. It cost us $300 at that time. You could run Snow Leopard Server in Parallels on that Mac and of course it will be slower than on the 2018 Macs, but faster than on the 2011 Macs

Any more questions?

 

[MichaelLAX]

I found your new email and sample file in the Junk folder and the difference is if I unzip it inside of Snow Leopard it links to FreeHand and opens up (here is a screenshot):

 

[tzenobite]

I found your new email and sample file in the Junk folder and the difference is if I unzip it inside of Snow Leopard it links to FreeHand and opens up (here is a screenshot):

the file seems to be in order, freehand inside an emulated snow leopard works, i think this is my way.

 

[MichaelLAX]

And by unzipping your original samples within Snow Leopard, again I am able to open them; here are the screenshots:
Nice work!

And I posted the Benchmarks above for your review too.

 

[tzenobite]

thank you! i put all the essential features into the last file i sent you, freehand seems to work as is should and the benchmarks are very good

 

[tzenobite]

just said.

 

[MichaelLAX]

My original Mac SE/30 has a program called Mac BinHex that would combine the resource and data forks of classic Mac OS files together so that they could be sent through email.

I didn't realize that difference survives up through Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard! Perhaps it’s just FreeHand.

Parallels 17 is the last version that the user could purchase a permanent license, before they went to an annual subscription in version 18 and now 19. You might want to look on eBay and see if you can purchase a copy with a valid license for that version.