OS X Lion to Drop 'Rosetta' Support for PowerPC Applications

[antrabbit]

I like the quicken example as in the UK I don't think we ever had a mac version and they stopped supporting it for the PC in about 2004 here. So I run Quicken 2002 on Windows 98 on VM fusion and it works great. So Fusion is one of the best options for any old PPC programs.

 

[hvfsl]

Well if someone manages to hack rosseta so it can work in Lion, I would be happy to pay them. Because to upgrade all my apps to Intel versions would cost me close to £1000. Otherwise I guess I won't be getting Lion until I get my next Mac which will probably be some time in 2013.

 

[oiuh151]

I don't know how that statement can be correct if Apple said you need at least an Intel Core 2 Duo, which is a 64-bit processor. Did I miss something?

There are 64-bit processors with a 32-bit EFI which means some machines have to run the kernel in 32-bit mode.

http://www.everymac.com/articles/q&...-bit-macs-64-bit-efi-boot-in-64-bit-mode.html

I wouldn't be surprised if the next version of OS X removes support for machines that have only a 32-bit EFI.

 

[rmwebs]

QUICK SOLUTION:

Step 1: Buy a Firewire external HDD. They are VERY cheap nowadays.
Step 2: Install Snow Leopard or older Mac OS.
Step 3: Dual boot.

Moaning about it wont make Apple cave...its time you found new Apps. I know there are a few games I'll still keep running off an external drive and because its Firewire it will be fairly nippy.

Alternatively if you've got a newer mac, put your Thunderbolt to use

 

[scottsjack]

Mac users just have to get used to the fact that there are some loser companies that just don't care about updating their software Mac. HP is one of them that just can't seem to write Mac drivers for their older equipment. Of course Quicken is the poster boy for terrible Mac apps. Those clowns just can't seem to figure out how to add up numbers on a Mac. For that reason I have a Windows 7 computer running an older version of Quicken.

 

[Truffy]

The only issue I take with the forthcoming Lion update is the lack of support for the Intel Core Duo chips.

My MacBook will not run Lion because it is the first gen MacBook with a Core Duo chip. Yet 6 months later the MacBooks got the Core 2 Duo chips at the GHz.

Dammit! Does that chip REALLY make THAT much of a difference for Lion???

Core Duo is 32-bit, Core 2 Duo is 64-bit. Lion is 64-bit. So, I guess the answer to your question is 'yes'.

 

[Russell L]

At work I (and many other Mac users here) rely on tn3270, a free IBM terminal emulator, to access our mainframe database. Because tn3270 hasn't been updated in several years, it of course runs via Rosetta on my Snow Leopard iMac here at work. I just wrote to the developer about the issue, and, to my delight, he responded by saying that he is working on a universal binary version and even sent me a beta copy to try out. Would that all developers out there be this responsive!

 

[Eidorian]

At work I (and many other Mac users here) rely on tn3270, a free IBM terminal emulator, to access our mainframe database. Because tn3270 hasn't been updated in several years, it of course runs via Rosetta on my Snow Leopard iMac here at work. I just wrote to the developer about the issue, and, to my delight, he responded by saying that he is working on a universal binary version and even sent me a beta copy to try out. Would that all developers out there be this responsive!

tn3270x? Please, say yes.

 

[JoeIdaho]

Did you know....

Like many others I am dependant on Quicken. With over a dozen years of data and over two dozen "accounts", there is no easy way to migrate. I have looked at competitive products and not found a good solution. This is one of the biggest kinks in Apple's armor. And to make this a real sore point... Did you know that Apple has a VERY small board of directors and one of them is Bill Campbell, Chairman and former CEO of Intuit !!!!!!

 

[Nugget]

Quicken Essentials (intel app) runs just fine under Lion, what's with all the fuss, just update.

Well the fuss is that Quicken Essentials is a pretty shallow farce compared to the old Quicken for Mac product*. They've gutted Quicken Essentials and pared down so many features that if it were any more "essential" all you'd get in the box would be a golf pencil and a paper check register.

It's not an "update" if the alternative is worse.


Edit to add: * Quicken for Mac which is, itself, a shallow farce compared to Quicken for Windows. The blame for this discomforting situation lies squarely at Intuit's feet, not Apple's. Intuit effectively abandoned the Mac five years ago.

 

[rmwebs]

You shouldn't have to buy a Windows license (and Parallels/VMWare if you don't want to reboot) to use some software. If they care about you as a customer in the slightest they should port it and if they don't care about me why should I trust that their product is for me?

I'm not telling you to buy anything

If anything I'm telling you to stop using crappy Intuit products. Move on...its not Apples job (or any OS developers job for that matter) to hold back development for developers who cant be bothered to support their customer base with updates.

 

[wilheldp]

Honestly Apple should of give at least 2 years notice

Honestly, they gave you 5 years notice. And you'll still probably have a year or two of maintenance/security updates on Snow Leopard before you really need to upgrade to Lion.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Good point, I forgot all about this. I've already been warning people they need Office 2008 or newer if they plan to upgrade, but I totally forgot the installer is PowerPC (which makes zero sense).

Well if something is not broken do not mess with it. Going intel or fat binary for the installer could of introduced an whole new world of problems that were unknown but the PPC installer worked great. I would not be surpised in the least if MS knew that in 2011 Rosetta support would of been dropped they would of been much more likely to address the problem then instead of waiting until the next version. Now at this point it is to late to put the money into it.

I understand that keeping Rosseta in Lion would be easy for Apple and people still using PPC apps could keep on using them, but in 2011 3rd party software that is not updated to intel is not Apple's problem either. Office 2008 also is not Apple's screw up.

More than likely is Apple screw up. You have to remember dev cycles are years long (in the case of office) so having a road map 2-3 years out is very helpful as I pointed out above. This is Apple failing to communicated or even provide a road map that is useful

I have no idea why people are down-voting you. You're completely correct, there have been rumors about Rosetta being removed from Lion for a long time now. Not to mention the fact that Rosetta has been with us for over 5 years now.

I do wonder though, from a technical standpoint, what it is about Lion that prevents Rosetta from running on it.

If I had to guess there is nothing in Lion that would prevent Rosetta from working other than Apple doing force obsolete.

 

[vartanarsen]

Office 08

hi guys, sorry that this is off-track.
When I upgrade to Lion in July, will it read my 08 Office apps?
SL reads these apps as it is now.
I really prefer to not to have to buy Office 11.

 

[rmwebs]

Like many other I am dependant on Quicken. With over a dozen years of data and over two dozen "accounts", there is no easy way to migrate. I have looked at competitive products and not found a good solution. This is one of the biggest kinks in Apple's armor. And to make this a real sore point... Did you know that Apple has a VERY small board of directors and one of them is Bill Campbell, Chairman and former CEO of Intuit !!!!!!

Former being the key part of your statement there. There obviously isn't enough business in the Mac for Intuit, otherwise they would have kept up with developments...its a simple matter of common sense to work that out.

Edit: Thats right, you down vote my comment for stating something thats blatantly obvious...pathetic.

 

[NAG]

Okay, you're rambling all over the place so I'm just going to look at the start and end of your post.

There are no alternative titles for a lot of the software. Apple should not be abandoning Rosetta and they should not have abandoned Classic.

[...]

Apple should also encourage developers to support the furthest back operating systems and hardware possible.

How did you get from point A to point B? Are you arguing that the only way for Apple to encourage developers to support the farthest back operating system and hardware as economically feasible for the developer is for Apple to provide a kludge for them to not have to update their software to the latest hardware?

In other words, you think developers can only maintain backwards compatibility if they never update their software to take advantage of new hardware and APIs?

I hope that isn't what you're saying because it makes no sense. By your logic we should all be using punch cards because we don't want to leave behind those users.

 

[sachinwalia]

What will happen to my Movie Magic Scheduling 5. The guys at Entertainment partners are pretty crappy if they charge for an upgrade which I bought in december last year.

 

[*LTD*]

"As Macworld notes today in trying to help a user hoping to hold on to an old PowerPC version on Quicken"

Here's the problem.

Either upgrade or get left behind.

It's no skin off Apple's back, that's for sure. No shortage of customers to embrace new Macs and new software.

The only harm occurring here is the self-inflicted wounds by the user.

 

[BrewsterMccloud]

Appleworks

Believe it or not, my office still uses Appleworks.

With this news, we are finally making the transition to Pages.

Thank you, Steve Jobs.

P.S.

In a conversation with a "Genius" at the Apple Store, I was told that (the employee) too used Appleworks - albeit to save his passwords into. He figured that if his info was ever stolen, almost nobody would be able to open a .cwk file.

We use Appleworks at work as well. The .cwk documents will open in Pages (drag to Pages icon) IF they are "word processing" documents; however, database and drawing documents will not open in any other program that I have found. I have an old 12" PBG4 which I'll use for my Appleworks documents when the other computers are upgraded to Lion. If anyone knows an alternative way to open or translate Appleworks database or drawing documents please shout.

 

[KPOM]

Very, very old news. People knew about this back in February when this came out. We knew that Rosetta couldn't be supported because the kernel has to run in full 64 bit now. If you check the Activity Monitor, it says kernel_task Intel (64-bit).

Similarly, 64-bit Windows dropped support for 16-bit Windows applications (i.e. anything before Windows 95 and even some early Windows 95 programs). That said, 5 years isn't that long when it comes to software. Quicken 2007 is the obvious example, but some scanners and peripherals run using PowerPC code. Because Rosetta was so seamless, people might be running PowerPC code and not even realize it. It's too bad Apple couldn't have continued to support it in some fashion, but Apple, unlike Microsoft, isn't big on backward compatibility.

Anyway, the "dual boot" option won't exist for newer Macs that ship with Lion preinstalled (i.e. anything released after Lion ships). Parallels is an option, but note that, technically, it's against the EULA (except for the Snow Leopard server version).

 

[Rodimus Prime]

hi guys, sorry that this is off-track.
When I upgrade to Lion in July, will it read my 08 Office apps?
SL reads these apps as it is now.
I really prefer to not to have to buy Office 11.

nope sorry. Office 08 requires Rosetta to install. Apple piss poor comnications with players like MS screwed you. If MS had known in 2008 that Rosetta support was going to be dropped in 2011 I would be willing to bet that it would of address that issue. Find out in 2011 well to late new version of Office is already out and making a new installer for 2008 cost to much time and money.

 

[oiuh151]

hi guys, sorry that this is off-track.
When I upgrade to Lion in July, will it read my 08 Office apps?
SL reads these apps as it is now.
I really prefer to not to have to buy Office 11.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12748868/

nope sorry. Office 08 requires Rosetta to install. Apple piss poor comnications with players like MS screwed you. If MS had known in 2008 that Rosetta support was going to be dropped in 2011 I would be willing to bet that it would of address that issue. Find out in 2011 well to late new version of Office is already out and making a new installer for 2008 cost to much time and money.

Don't spread false information. The Office 08 apps will work fine in Lion. The only thing that won't work is the installer which shouldn't be an issue so long as you installed the apps before upgrading and you backed them up so you can just move them over without the installer should something happen to your hard-drive after you install Lion.

 

[ShaneSelling]

Get a G5

I have had this same problem for the last few years. So all i did was dig out my G5 wiped everything else off the HD, bought a monitor switch, and WOW no rebooting, no launching apps. just press one button. just putting it out there because i feel your pain.

 

[Truffy]

Mac users just have to get used to the fact that there are some loser companies that just don't care about updating their software Mac. HP is one of them that just can't seem to write Mac drivers for their older equipment.

Users in general have to recognise that hardware companies are often not motivated to update drivers for legacy equipment, unless there's a maintenance contract. Their response will be that the latest versions of their hardware will have drivers.

For scanners, there was an open-source project (sourceforge?) that covered a lot of legacy hardware. I don't know what the status of this is now.

 

[McGiord]

It is quite easy to keep a partition or HDD with the former Mac OS version that you love to use. Virtualization could be another way.

One thing I don't understand is if Lion is going to be installed over Snow Leopard, why couldn't it keep Rosetta as an option?
What is the definition of the delta upgrades?