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How long until Snow Leopard becomes unusable?

TSE

TSE

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
4,092
3,740
St. Paul, Minnesota
This will be more of a guessing game or "educated" guessing game, but...

How long do you guys think it will take until Snow Leopard doesn't support web standards and developers quit developing for Snow Leopard?
 
I don't get what you mean by web standards, as chrome won't drop support for snow leopard, as there are is still a market base whom choose or use snow leopard.

As for the developers, I think more users will have to upgrade to ML, since newer applications might rely on newer API's, hence people will adopt the newer OS's.

Although some old applications might not work with ML/L, and they might choose to stay on SL. I think this question is really fragmented as its actually quite hard to distinguish what the adoption rate will be in the next few months and years. It's very user preference, you still see and hear people using Leopard, Jaguar etc. Sure, there will not be a lot of people using 10.3,4,5 etc, but if they are happy with the OS they have, then why do they have to upgrade?

But you could argue, that they should, or else it's just limiting how they are evolving. The technology would move without you, and it's something people argue everyday, you will never be in the loop of new technology for much time, 6 months in the technology world is massive, you can't think what will happen in 1 or 2 years down the road.

Web standards is tricky to argue, Google Chrome is a brilliant web browser that has always pushed major adaptations to HTML 5 and CSS 3, but Safari updates will stop for older OS's soon, but consumers can just download a thir party browser. Google Chrome, I think it will support Snow Leopard for a very long time, and I'm sure people won't really miss HTML 5 as its mostly optional right now and it's not finished yet, most browsers already have some incorporation already, but it's not a huge game changer for average consumers (yet).

TLDR; users will be users, they will upgrade if they want to, if not they will live in their own bubble, and keep using what they love. It's going to take a bigger evolution then lion and mountain lion to make a jump forward for an average consumer.
 
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I have friends who are still using Leopard and SL....they don't tend to buy new apps, they have what they need. That's fine. Sooner or later though they will have to upgrade or more likely, buy new Macs. Evolution is just the natural way of things.

I was happy with leopard, and Snow Leopard, and after ironing out the bugs Lion is okay too....I buy top end Macs to future proof myself as much as possible so I am not worried that any of my three will run ML....They will be fine when the time comes.
 
Apples on a tear to push their latest OS on all users. Using the flashback fear based selling technique and only offering their best updates for Lion, and shortly Mountain Lion, it's only a matter of time before many uses take the bait. Especially given the fact that iToyz users that don't own Macs, don't care about Macs. Apples addiction to money means iToyz rule.
 
1. As long as my Mac runs fine on Snow Leopard...

2. As long as my current apps stay supported on Snow Leopard...

3. As long as those parts stay available in case my Mac screws up out of AppleCare...


The same goes to PPC Macs when you ask them how long until Tiger becomes unusable... I still see people using iMac G4 with Tiger running ever snappier, albeit with older still functional software, as long as it gets the job done...
 
It all depends on what you use your iMac for. If it's for normal general/business use, there is every reason why Snow Leopard (or even Leopard) should be fine until the machine gives up the ghost! What's going to happen when support for Snow Leopard stops completely? Will the machine blow up? Will it stop working? No, of course not!

However, if you are insecure and you must have the biggest and latest - the choice is yours!
 
Hopefully not for a long time, I love Snow Leopard. Only problem I see on the horizon is if the iPhone 5 or something won't work...then I will start worrying.
 
In terms of supporting web standards, you've got at least 5 years most likely. Stop developing for Snow Leopard? At least 3 years probably, maybe longer. Snow Leopard isn't incompatible with the technologies used in Lion and Mountain Lion, so there's not many apps that will require either, most likely. I could be wrong here, and only time will tell, but Snow Leopard Macs should be viable for quite some time, and longer if you really only need web access.

jW
 
TSE said:
This will be more of a guessing game or "educated" guessing game, but...

How long do you guys think it will take until Snow Leopard doesn't support web standards and developers quit developing for Snow Leopard?
Click to expand...
Each developer will drop support for older OS versions on a different schedule. It also depends on if what they're doing will work in an older version.

Some software will start getting new features that won't work in older versions of the OS.

It all depends on what you run and if you care about upgrading the software.

As for web browsing. If Apple stops adding new features to Safari, you might be able to use Firefox or another third party web browser for compatibility with new web standards.

One thing you could do is check the software you run and see what the older version of OS X each will run on is for an idea of how many versions back they may support as they update their software. But remember there is no guarantee, it's just an approximation.
 
I'd say 3-4 years before it really becomes an issue to be concerned about. More for the web and less for apps. But hey, if your apps are working fine now, just don't upgrade when they no longer support SL.
 
I think that from all previous Mac OS's, Snow Leopard is probably the one that will be around the longest, depending more on software developers rather than Apple...for the simple reason that SL is the last OS that can run PPC apps.

JC
 
For me, Snow Leopard becomes unusable on June 30, 2012. That's when MobileMe shuts down. This will force all users, who depend on MobileMe, to upgrade to Lion in order to be able to migrate to iCloud. It's really a shame.

I personally like Snow Leopard better than Lion (no auto-save, less stupid window animations, no gray icons, no hidden file path in Spotlight, Spaces works better than Mission Control, better iCal, better Address Book, Front Row, no hidden Library folder etc. etc.) and would have preferred to stay with it for now. But with multiple Macs and an iPhone and an iPad, I obviously can't live with out iCloud. :mad:
 
Doc69 said:
For me, Snow Leopard becomes unusable on June 30, 2012. That's when MobileMe shuts down. This will force all users, who depend on MobileMe, to upgrade to Lion in order to be able to migrate to iCloud. It's really a shame.

I personally like Snow Leopard better than Lion (no auto-save, less stupid window animations, no gray icons, no hidden file path in Spotlight, Spaces works better than Mission Control, better iCal, better Address Book, Front Row, no hidden Library folder etc. etc.) and would have preferred to stay with it for now. But with multiple Macs and an iPhone and an iPad, I obviously can't live with out iCloud. :mad:
Click to expand...

There are other solutions available, like Flickr, Dropbox, gmail etc that replicate most MobileMe functions and are free. This should allow you to keep running snow for as long as you need.
 
i did notice something odd about the 10.7.4 update this last time it did not re-hide my library folder like the others did
 
"How long until Snow Leopard becomes unusable?"

It will become "unusable" when you no longer can use it to do the things you need to do...

I'm still using 10.4.11, and it remains quite "usable" for me.

In fact, this morning, I even launched Classic (OS 9) to run a utility in that environment...
 
Fishrrman said:
It will become "unusable" when you no longer can use it to do the things you need to do...
Click to expand...

Absolutely! Nowadays, a lot of people seem to forget that a computer is simply a tool that one uses in order to carry out a certain function or functions. Once it ceases to do this (or becomes "unusable"), it is time to replace it.
 
John T said:
Absolutely! Nowadays, a lot of people seem to forget that a computer is simply a tool that one uses in order to carry out a certain function or functions. Once it ceases to do this (or becomes "unusable"), it is time to replace it.
Click to expand...

Well, a year and a half has past since this discussion. I am still on Snow Leopard. And it was not until recently that I began to notice some apps I wanted which did not support 10.6.8 anymore. Most developers still do, though. This may be due to the fact that 10.6.8 is still widely used specially among designers who depend on some PPC software. Even Apple had to admit the relevance of 10.6.8 and put it back on the shelf (articles about that were published some months ago, they called 10.6 the WinowsXP of Apple).

What I specially notice about computer development is that hardware velocity is not the reason why people change computers anymore. And software does not deliver anything new necessary for most users - specially not for designers. Why do we buy new software nevertheless? Companies like Adobe try to force new versions upon us, not bringing anything essential. It is alone the fear to maybe get incompatible to customers or partners in the design business that makes people buy upgrades they don't really need.

I see no reason to upgrade anything.

My last move was to create a Snow Leopard Hackintosh.
 
I went back to Snow Leopard nearly a month ago.
In July I updated on Lion and on introduction day on Mavericks.

I really like the new multi touch, can live with the new Expose and like launch pad.
Nevertheless, what I missed was stability and real speed.
To be on the safe side, I kept a partition with 10.6.8 on my hard disk (a 5400 Hitachi).
At the moment I need a reliable machine without any lags or beach balls and right know I love the OS X experience again.

Really, since going back to SL, I didn't experienced any beach balls (seriously), my machine has up times of 14 days on average (2 boots since going back).
Often I have a lot of Safari-Stuff open plus Word and Power Point and the machine is a dream again.

I really like the features introduced with Lion and polished in Mavericks but I missed the speed.
 
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