Wishing for a thing does not make it so. What the other poster described is already fact for quite a few software products some of us are trying to run. Granted, most of them are smaller utility type apps at this point, but still.
Just the other day I was planning to install
EventScripts on my old Macbook that's used as a media server. Alas, no dice. 10.7-only.
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I really love Apple and I am a real Macintosh addict, but what I don't get, that in the past you could use "old" software as long as you wanted.
But today I have to save every app in advance. Apple could easily offer app versions which are compatible for example with 10.6 (and in the future 10.7 and so on).
We don't talk about a system that is 5+ years old. Just 1 month after the release of OS X 10.7 the first programs didn't worked.
If I had purchased iWork and my Mac crashes tomorrow (without an App-Backup), I have to buy a new OS to re-download iWork.
I don't think that 10.7 and 10.8 are that bad compared to 10.6, but at the moment I don't need them. I need my bullet proved system, no iCloud, Expose and Front Row.
So in the case that my system dies suddenly, I don't want to be forced to buy a new OS. I safe all my apps, but sometimes you don't have a backup and than it would be nice to have a Plan B -> running version of the app waiting in the App Store.
PS: Same is true for iOS. I can't use an older Skype or whatever version of an app? I am forced to update.
That's not ok.