Mac OSX Lion

I hear that it will not support Rosetta. This will mean that all my old PPC apps will be unusable. Is this true about Lion?

As Apple reported PPC applications will not be supported in Lion, guess it has been disabled. Part of the push towards updating no doubt.

The last PPC Mac was made in 2005 (or possibly early 2006), and developers were warned an entire YEAR earlier that PPC support was on its way out.

The problem here isn't Apple, and is unlikely to be the developer. The problem is in 99% of these cases firmly with the user.

[ADDED] Also, it should be mentioned just in case there's a misunderstanding; only non-universal PPC apps will be affected by upgrading to Lion. Everything I run that has PPC code in it went universal years ago, so if you've done ANY updating of those PPC apps over the last few years chances are high that they will run. Old unsupported stuff like AppleWorks, on the other hand, won't.

Not all universal apps will work. One that I can think of (MS Office 2008) uses Rosetta for initial installation. Why MS did that is beyond me...

Anyway, it appears if Office 2008 is already installed and an upgrade to Lion is accomplished, there should be no problem. However, if it should ever require a reinstall....? The solution is to buy Office 2011 which does not require Rosetta.

chscag said:

Anyway, it appears if Office 2008 is already installed and an upgrade to Lion is accomplished, there should be no problem.

Click to expand...

I thought the same until I checked the RoaringApps compatibility list and saw this page for Office 2008. It seems to imply that the major apps work except for some of the "supporting apps" (is that something like MyDay?). It would seem then that there are more issues with 2008 than we initially thought. Glad I upgraded to 2011 here!

vansmith said:

I thought the same until I checked the RoaringApps compatibility list and saw this page for Office 2008. It seems to imply that the major apps work except for some of the "supporting apps" (is that something like MyDay?). It would seem then that there are more issues with 2008 than we initially thought. Glad I upgraded to 2011 here!

Click to expand...

Thanks for that Van. I was wondering about 2008 also since it came with my iMac. I am pretty sure I can get the Major parts to work for now. Guess I will get a Home/Student edition of 2011 down the road.

chas_m said:

The last PPC Mac was made in 2005 (or possibly early 2006), and developers were warned an entire YEAR earlier that PPC support was on its way out.

The problem here isn't Apple, and is unlikely to be the developer. The problem is in 99% of these cases firmly with the user.

[ADDED] Also, it should be mentioned just in case there's a misunderstanding; only non-universal PPC apps will be affected by upgrading to Lion. Everything I run that has PPC code in it went universal years ago, so if you've done ANY updating of those PPC apps over the last few years chances are high that they will run. Old unsupported stuff like AppleWorks, on the other hand, won't.

Click to expand...

Okay so you have money to spare from your good paying career to dish out to people less fortunate to be able to buy the latest versions? I am still running Office 2004 and as it stands will not be upgrading to LION as its not Rosetta compatible.

chas_m said:

The last PPC Mac was made in 2005 (or possibly early 2006), and developers were warned an entire YEAR earlier that PPC support was on its way out.

The problem here isn't Apple, and is unlikely to be the developer. The problem is in 99% of these cases firmly with the user.

[ADDED] Also, it should be mentioned just in case there's a misunderstanding; only non-universal PPC apps will be affected by upgrading to Lion. Everything I run that has PPC code in it went universal years ago, so if you've done ANY updating of those PPC apps over the last few years chances are high that they will run. Old unsupported stuff like AppleWorks, on the other hand, won't.

Click to expand...

I have to agree with you, there. At some point, you need to let go and move on. I have a hard time being one version behind on my software, let alone using software runs on 6 year old codebase. >.>

And to evan, you really need to look at it from points of view of Apple and software developers. There comes a point in which supporting legacy code is not beneficial to the function, business model, and or financial model of your software or operating system. Eventually, it will end up costing more to support it than it is worth. I am surprised it lasted 6 years. And unless I am missing something, you spent a decent amount of cash on your mac, right? did you spend it all and forget upgrade your software or find current alternatives?

vansmith said:

I thought the same until I checked the RoaringApps compatibility list and saw this page for Office 2008. It seems to imply that the major apps work except for some of the "supporting apps" (is that something like MyDay?). It would seem then that there are more issues with 2008 than we initially thought. Glad I upgraded to 2011 here!

Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing that out. I've got Office 2011, but it appears that Word and Powerpoint will still work in Office 2008. Although I'm a bit confused over what they're referring to as supporting apps?

dtravis7 said:

Thanks for that Van. I was wondering about 2008 also since it came with my iMac. I am pretty sure I can get the Major parts to work for now. Guess I will get a Home/Student edition of 2011 down the road.

Click to expand...

No worries. I'm sure if you upgrade, Office 2008 will be fine as chscag noted.

chscag said:

Thanks for pointing that out. I've got Office 2011, but it appears that Word and Powerpoint will still work in Office 2008. Although I'm a bit confused over what they're referring to as supporting apps?

Click to expand...

I have no idea either but I'm guessing it has to be apps like MyDay and other apps that are additions to the "main" apps.

As soon as I get lion installed I will report back on 2008.

After a quick search, I found two interesting bits in this thread: the "Microsoft Query" application in Excel (I have no idea what that is) is a PPC app so that won't run regardless of whether or not you already have it installed when you upgrade and according to one poster, 2008 is having issues running on the GM build of Lion (they weren't specific though).

dtravis7 said:

Thanks for that Van. I was wondering about 2008 also since it came with my iMac. I am pretty sure I can get the Major parts to work for now. Guess I will get a Home/Student edition of 2011 down the road.

Click to expand...

There's Open Office for free. OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

I use that on my PC and it's great. I think I used a Mac version years ago, but I don't use it on Macs that much since I generally do my editing work on the Mac and use my PC laptop on the side for all the database stuff. I would think it's okay for Lion since it's had plenty of revisions but I don't know for sure.

You just have to remember to save your files as Microsoft files if you are going to send them to anyone. No big deal. I'm not a power user of Office but I think it does most, if not all, the things Office can do.