“Is time to upgrade? When Apple’s next-generation desktop operating system arrives this summer, OS X Lion will leave some Intel-based Macs behind,” FairerPlatform reports.
“Further, Scruffy advises that because the Rosetta PowerPC emulation layer, which translates G3, G4 and Altivec instructions, is also going away, you won’t be able to use legacy versions of many apps, such as Photoshop CS 4 and Microsoft Office 2004, a double whammy,” FairerPlatform reports.
“Wikipedia’s saying that any Intel Core 2 Duo Mac is OS X Lion compatible,” FairerPlatform reports. “However, if you try to install Lion on a Core Solo or Core Duo Mac, it won’t let you perform the installation, a roadblock that’s probably easy to get around.”
Read more in the full article here.
Let’s see… would it be worth it to spend about $800 to “upgrade” my essential Rosetta apps just to run Lion? They do everything I need or want them to do just as they are now. No need for newer versions, and one of them HAS no newer versions. I’ll probably be sitting this one out for quite a while.
Thanks Apple!
Are you just taking this persons word that what he writes is the gospel according to Apple? Be patient grasshopper, the truth will come out.
so CS4 won’t run on an Intel Lion Mac? That seems hasty.
Yes it will run. Read my post below.
If you want to see which programs will actually not work:
AppleMenu > About This Mac > More Info… launches System Profiler
In System Profiler, click on Applications under Software.
The “Kind” will be PPC, Intel, or Universal.
PPC apps will stop working without Rosetta.
Thanks for the info @ChrissyOne!
“…the Rosetta PowerPC emulation layer, which translates G3, G4 and Altivec instructions, is also going away, you won’t be able to use legacy versions of many apps, such as Photoshop CS 4…”
You mean Photoshop CS3.
CS4 is a universal app and does not need Rosetta.
BAH! My bad, CS2 is PPC, CS3 is also universal.
Oh good. I was bummed for a second
thanks chrissy, i almost had a minor cardial infarction there. well, actually i almost choked on a peanut m and m, but close enough.
This is wrong. Adobe CS4 is compatible with Lion because it’s an Intel application. Even CS3 is compatible.
Photoshop CS 4 does not use Rosetta. Story needs correcting.
It’s about time to get rid of legacy stuff. Nobody expects floppy disc drives, or other outdated nonsense. Rosetta, G3,G4, Altivec and Core Solo are just that. Outdated legacy crap. Rosetta was always deemed as a bridge technology. A temporary solution.
What kind of apps can’t be replaced? I doubt it.
Quicken. And don’t say that there is “Quicken Essentials for Mac” because that product is lacking in so many areas that it’s pathetic. There are other banking programs out there, but none can do all that Quicken ’05 does. I don’t want to be stuck with legacy stuff, but this one program will unfortunately prevent me from upgrading until there is a suitable modern program that has all the functionality of this legacy program.
Quevar, I am with you. I am still using Quicken 2005 because it has all the features I need and do not see reason I need to upgrade. Unlike many people, I do not use the advanced features so going to Quicken essentials will not really affect me, but if I have to upgrade, I might decide to go with different banking program because how Intuit has been neglecting the Mac and the UI in the new versions are wanting.
It is worth noting that while CS4 itself is a universal app, some of it’s functions are not. For instance, action Droplets are created by CS4 as PPC apps and will not work without Rosetta. And of course any extensions will also have to be updated.
Lion runs fine on my core 2 duo iMac
I thought the Rosetta layer disappeared with Snow Leopard?
I thought so as well!?
That was the uproar wasn’t it? No more support for PPC in Snow Leopard.
Lion will be 64-bit only, which means Core 2 Duo minimum.
Rosetta is available in SL. It just doesn’t get installed by default.
My CS2 Photoshop, inDesign, scanner software will not run then.
*!@?!
i have a LOT of PPC apps and even some CLASSIC apps
No problem. Keep the Mac you have now to run the older software and upgrade and upgrade to a new Mac. But, I’ll bet your usage of the older Mac will dwindle away to nothing. Forget Lion, the speed bump you will get with a new machine will be amazing.
But what about my SE 30 (which still runs quite nicely)? :l0l:
Rosetta can be installed on Snow Leopard, it’s not their by default.
There’s nothing I’ve seen in Lion that will make me want to upgrade anyway. Except for a smaller footprint, Snow Leopard was a wasted upgrade for me. I’m no longer shelling out money unless the upgrades add a lot of value. Which is exactly why I’ll be sitting out the iPhone 5 upgrade in September. Apple has got to start doing better with its upgrades or its marketshare will go down the toilet.
Snow Leopard was only a 30.00 upgrade compared to the usual 129.00, and it was clearly advertised as mostly “under the hood” improvements. If you expected more you did not investigate much before you bought it.
Ridiculous post is ridiculous
Ridiculous post is ridiculous.
Duplicated post is duplicated.
Redundant posts duplicating redundant duplications is just plain silly.
It’s deja vu all over again.
No one goes there any more; it’s too crowded.
Or possibly even jamias vu. Who knows? 🙂
Ack, jamais vu. Sheesh.
“There’s nothing I’ve seen in Lion that will make me want to upgrade…”
You may feel different when you actually see file versioning in action.
Lion runs fine on my Core Duo laptop
Tim, could you clarify – you have a 32-bit CoreDuo (early 2006) MBP and it is running a Lion beta?
Apple informed developers at least 5 years ago that they should create native Intel, Cocoa applications for future compatibility. The flames presently directed at Apple, should in reality, rest at the feet of those developers (and end users) who have slowed to gawk at the accident, and have created that all to familiar multi-mile traffic jam.
The developer’s copy runs just fine on my 2007-era Mac Pro
Why would you want to run Mac OS X Lion on an old Mac in the first place?
If you already have a perfectly good Mac, and it is still doing its job, you would always want it to run the latest OS. It’s not like it will slow it down (this isn’t Windows, after all, that demands five times the resources of previous version). Since Jaguar, every newer version of Mac OS X brought performance improvements over previous one, even though its footprint got bigger (with the exception of Snow Leopard, which was leaner, faster and better than Leopard).
Because newer browsers and their supporting software (Flash) won’t run on older OSX versions. I’m trying to help several folks on PPC computers running OSX10.3. If I had a copy of 10.5, I’d load it and they could continue to surf and email, which is all they do. As it is, they limp along with old versions of Opera and Firefox. What fries me is that the Safari supports older versions of Microsoft OS’s than Apple’s own OS.
This practice is bound to continue, forcing OS10.5/6 users into the obsolete browser situation.
When Tiger came out in 2005, I was able to successfully install it and it ran beautifully on my very old blue&white 300MHz PowerMac G3 (from 1999). By the time I installed that Tiger, the computer was almost 7 years old. When Leopard came out two years later, I was able to install it on my 2000 (7 years old) G4 Cube (400MHz), albeit using a hack (Leo didn’t like G4s below 800MHz). It was unofficial hack, but Cube worked perfectly fine with it.
Core 2 Duo machines are barely 5 years old today. It looks like Apple is shortening the updatability life span of their old Macs…
Agree with Predrag. I have Leopard running on an 800 MHz iMac G4, and it works very well.
What may be a difference with Lion is that it is fully 64-bit, which may rule out older processors. However, that makes it a great time to go shopping at your local Apple Store (like you needed an excuse).
That said, no one is forcing you to upgrade any Mac or PC. However, at some point you will stop being supported and there will not be updates for your software, so you will have to make a major jump and investment in new software and hardware. Many of us like to upgrade gradually, so we don’t have a time where we have to replace everything at once and learn where the developer moved all the functions to.
> However, if you try to install Lion on a Core Solo or Core Duo Mac, it won’t let you perform the installation, a roadblock that’s probably easy to get around.
I wouldn’t count in it. Not supporting Core Solo and Core Duo (both 32-bit Intel) means Apple does not need to include create, test, and package the 32-bit build of software that is part of the system; this is similar to Snow Leopard not including PowerPC code. Some people thought a “hack” would allow Snow Leopard to run on sufficiently powerful PowerPC-based Macs (such as a G5 Power Mac), but that was not the case because Apple removed PowerPC code from Snow Leopard’s system.
32-bit Intel software will still run fine in Lion. Some key Apple apps (programs that are not part of the “system”) such as iTunes are still ONLY 32-bit. The latest versions of Safari and iTunes (and other Apple software products) run on 64-bit Intel Macs and older 32-bit Intel Macs (and even some PowerPC Macs). But Apple will not need to provide 32-bit software components that are part of Lion’s “system” installation.
I just squeaked by with my 24″ iMac 2.8 Extreme (Fall 2007). Time to start saving for a new Mac
“Squeaking by” is a 2.0 GHz “Late 2006” Core 2 Duo 17-inch white iMac. 🙂
Where is Scruffy getting his info from? Wikipedia? If so, gee he’s so f’n brilliant cuz I couldnt just goto:wikipedia myself. I wish I had his job, get paid to just re-vomit info from some random source which may or may not be correct.
K, hold the press… Do people really think that floppy drives will be obsolete? I just picked up on a great deal on 100 double density 5.25″ floppies, cuz the salesguy was clearly ignorant on technology and made a terrible mistake! Now i can back up about 60 songs! Life IS good 🙂
The more optimised the OS is for modern hardware, the better the performance will be. I would rather have an OS X that can utilise the multiple cores and 64 bit capabilities of this generation Macs than one with legacy code capable of running on all Intel Macs. Chances are that anyone who cannot upgrade to the next OS X will not need to because the software they still use, works on their current Macs.
What the heck, Apple?! I can’t install Lion on my Apple IIe?! I can’t run my old Applesoft basic programs in classic under Rosetta? I mean I just upgraded the ram to 128k! Surely that’s enough to run Photoshop and Final Cut under 6502 assembly language off of a data cassette right?