08-09-2011, 12:17 PM

Does anyone know of a workaround for rosetta in Lion? If anyone knows where it is actually stored, I should be able to back it up and potentially use it to open appleworks. Also, does anyone know if Lion deletes ALL powerpc applications or just Rosetta and appleworks?

08-09-2011, 02:01 PM

It's not supported by the kernel. If you're using old applications that you can't update, don't update to Lion.

NO powerPC based apps will work, because Rosetta was the translator for PPC based code on an intel chip.

08-09-2011, 02:41 PM

Does anyone know of a workaround for rosetta in Lion?

There are none. As member Dysfunction stated, PPC apps are no longer supported and will not run. iWork applications can be purchased from the MAS for $19.00 each. Apple Works is ancient history.

08-09-2011, 10:09 PM

And there is no known workaround or replacement for rosetta? I can't believe that apple would actually modify the kernel so as not to make new operating systems backwards compatible. Does anyone know of any way to make a shell that does support it or at least find rosetta's system dependencies? Because for me, anyway, this is a major feature that was removed from Lion for no reason. This presents a problem for me, as I have all of my data encrypted using a powerpc version of MEO, which doesn't support decryption by newer versions.

08-09-2011, 10:28 PM

Hang on for awhile. Someone may find a way to run Rosetta or come up with a substitute. But for now, Lion will not run anything PPC. You can always continue to use Snow Leopard which does have support for Rosetta.

08-09-2011, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by JeffDon213

And there is no known workaround or replacement for rosetta? I can't believe that apple would actually modify the kernel so as not to make new operating systems backwards compatible.

Believe it. Apple does have that track record, especially given that PowerPC Macs were retired back in 2006. If you look at Apple's history, they have a tendency to abandon legacy apps and OSes rather quickly.

Does anyone know of any way to make a shell that does support it or at least find rosetta's system dependencies? Because for me, anyway, this is a major feature that was removed from Lion for no reason.

So far, no - although it has been attempted. One of our members, Discerptor, has been studying this for quite some time and has yet to find a workaround.

This presents a problem for me, as I have all of my data encrypted using a powerpc version of MEO, which doesn't support decryption by newer versions.

Rosetta was kind of a stop-gap measure to ease the transition over to Intel apps. If you didn't get the hint in Snow Leopard (where Rosetta was an "optional" install), Apple has now made it loud and clear that PowerPC is dead as far as the Mac platform is concerned. I'd say don't upgrade until you've been able to make the needed transitions (can't say that I'm familiar with "MEO", but I'm certain there is a way to transition - I would follow-up with the developer).

08-09-2011, 11:03 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

Believe it. Apple does have that track record, especially given that PowerPC Macs were retired back in 2006. If you look at Apple's history, they have a tendency to abandon legacy apps and OSes rather quickly.

Sadly, I do believe it.

Originally Posted by cwa107

So far, no - although it has been attempted. One of our members, Discerptor, has been studying this for quite some time and has yet to find a workaround.

Well, at least someone else has the same problem and the desire to take matters into their own hands. Keep me updated on his progress.

Originally Posted by cwa107

Rosetta was kind of a stop-gap measure to ease the transition over to Intel apps. If you didn't get the hint in Snow Leopard (where Rosetta was an "optional" install), Apple has now made it loud and clear that PowerPC is dead as far as the Mac platform is concerned. I'd say don't upgrade until you've been able to make the needed transitions (can't say that I'm familiar with "MEO", but I'm certain there is a way to transition - I would follow-up with the developer).

I got the hint in Snow Leopard, but chose to ignore it. Apple seems to have a propensity for making their own technology obsolete. MEO won't be too much of a problem, the hardest part will be finding all of the powerpc applications on my computer amongst the hundreds of others.

08-09-2011, 11:05 PM

It's actually quite a bit of work to make an OS backwards compatible (especially to a completely different architecture). Not only in development, but in test as well. It's of no surprise to me, at all, that Apple would look to reduce this rather significant overhead going forward. There's nothing, what so ever, wrong with Snow Leopard. I'm still running it on my 11 Macbook Pro after all

08-09-2011, 11:24 PM

Originally Posted by Dysfunction

It's actually quite a bit of work to make an OS backwards compatible (especially to a completely different architecture). Not only in development, but in test as well. It's of no surprise to me, at all, that Apple would look to reduce this rather significant overhead going forward. There's nothing, what so ever, wrong with Snow Leopard. I'm still running it on my 11 Macbook Pro after all

Yes, but they had already made Rosetta, and it seems like it would have taken a whole lot more work to REMOVE Rosetta, since that required them to uninstall it and remove it from the kernel. If I start up Lion from a boot disk, and then switch back to Snow Leopard later, would that remove Rosetta permanently?

08-09-2011, 11:40 PM

Actually no. They'd have to have completely built the OS AROUND Rosetta. Then completely and fully tested it. It's not like Lion is simply an add-on to Snow Leopard, it's a new thing entirely. If you built a Lion install, then formatted and installed Snow Leopard, you could still install Rosetta.

08-10-2011, 06:23 AM

Hello, in order for Rosetta to do what it did, it REQUIRED PowerPC code. Kind of obvious if you think about it for five seconds.

So, if there's no PowerPC code in Lion, how would Rosetta work? Answer: it won't!

Is there ANOTHER, completely DIFFERENT approach that could make PowerPC apps work in Lion! SURE!! All you have to do is write a PowerPC emulator in native Intel code. Kind of like how SheepShaver works.

Will that happen someday? I wouldn't be at all surprised, given the lovely emulation-crazy developer community in the Mac world. Will it happen anytime soon? Very, very unlikely -- that's a HUGE job I've just described. Check back in three to five years, would be my guess.

I just made a crapload of money today helping someone who waited WAY TOO LONG and ignored over a DECADE of warning signs and suddenly found herself stuck with ClarisWorks (you read that right) files and NO way to open them.

Luckily for her, I kept a full clone copy of my Snow Leopard install with MacLinkPlus Deluxe on board. Speaking of which, if anyone's going to solve the "Help I forgot to update my AW files" issue, it's likely to be them first.

I should also point out that AW 6.2.x files (WP at least) can be read by Pages, but of course they are converted to Pages documents.

08-10-2011, 04:07 PM

Originally Posted by NBagley119

Yes, but they had already made Rosetta...

Just a point of clarification... Rosetta is actually licensed from a third party. Apple didn't develop Rosetta.

How/if that impacted their decision to remove it is open to speculation.

11-02-2011, 11:35 AM

I have a 16GB partition with Vista installed. (I never use it. If you don't boot Windows regularly it freaks out when you do, commandeering your machine for hours and hours to load security updates.) I plan to erase it then do a clean install of Snow Leopard (with Rosetta installed, of course) and, to keep it trim enough to fit on 16GB, not migrate any personal stuff. I assume that PPC apps on my main drive partition will run if I am booted off the 10.6.8 partition. Restarting is not particularly convenient, but this workaround saves sending hundreds of dollars to Adobe to update my perfectly functional CS apps. Any thoughts or suggestions?

11-02-2011, 12:00 PM

Tiger, or Leopard best on a PPC Based Mac

11-02-2011, 01:00 PM

I assume that PPC apps on my main drive partition will run if I am booted off the 10.6.8 partition. Restarting is not particularly convenient, but this workaround saves sending hundreds of dollars to Adobe to update my perfectly functional CS apps. Any thoughts or suggestions?

How can you have PPC apps on the main drive if it's running Lion? (Assuming that's what you mean?)

You can certainly have two partitions - one running Lion and the other Snow Leopard. However, any PPC apps that you have (CS) will have to be installed and run exclusively from the Snow Leopard partition.