Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, OS, Apple
What you can't run on a Mactel
Ivan at
creativebits has composed a list of application types that just won't work with Rosetta. From his list:- The Classic environment (and hence, all pre-OS X apps)
- Screensavers written for PPC
- Code that insert preferences into the Preferences Pane
- Kernel extensions
- Apps that depend on one (or more) PPC-only kernel extension
There are a few more, check them out. I said "See ya" to Classic a long time ago, so I'm not really concerned about the Mactel being the official nail in that coffin. As Ivan suggest, just look for the universal logo above when making purchases for your Mactel, just to play it safe.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Arses McGee said 11:16PM on 1-13-2006
do things like printer drivers work under rosetta, or are they considered kernel extensions?
My printer is very barely supported at all - i'd hate to have to wait another year for a universal driver to come (or not come...)
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Atomic16 said 12:28AM on 1-14-2006
do downlaodable things need Roseta?
Like appzapper (which I won, thanks TUAW) and Openoffice
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Twist said 12:41AM on 1-14-2006
The only reason I ever launch Classic anymore is on the odd occasion that I feel like playing Warcraft 2: BNE which only happens about once every year to year and a half. Be nice if Blizzard would go ahead and make a carbon update for it.
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Mac Diva said 1:28AM on 1-14-2006
I can think of three things that would be effected so far.
I also use a Blizzard game, Starcraft, that requires a combo install of OS X and Classic. I gather it would be history.
How about the favorite ap of messy desktop people like me -- Unsanity's Windowshade? History, too? (Actually, I've had problems with it in Tiger. Just up and stops working sometimes.)
Since I already lost the scanner function of my Epson all-in-one with OS X, Rosetta on a MacBook Pro does not sound like it would be any worse than current.
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Macsupport said 3:12AM on 1-14-2006
Whats classic? :)
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jason said 8:31AM on 1-14-2006
Code that adds stuff to the preferences pane? That includes things like mySQL and Menu Meters. Also some mouse drivers do that, I know my logitech mouse added an icon. That could be problematic. But I also think that that is only a temporary issue as well. I'm sure there will be a MacBook version of mySQL any day now (hopefully they go back to version 3.24 or whatever it is that i need!)
Only time will tell, but I guess this is why some people say not to buy the first round of hardware from a vendor. Heh.
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fra said 9:18AM on 1-14-2006
Windows has alot of MacOS emulators, I mean It was so simple to get OS7.5 to run. I'm sure there would me an emulator to run OS9 or OS8 by the end of the year for the InteliMacs.
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Brad said 9:19AM on 1-14-2006
Walk through the software section for children. Most of the stuff that says it runs on OS X really requires Classic. My 4-year old would like to move off of Classic, at least that's what he told the Apple rep at CompUSA. I guess he'll get our old G4 once his PowerBook G3 dies its final death and daddy gets a new MacBook.
Maybe the children's software developers will wake up when nobody is buying their Mac versions anymore.
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Flyboybob said 11:46AM on 1-14-2006
Those of us with children under the age of twelve will not want to give up the classic environment. Most of the kids games and educational software, which we already own, requires classic. I bought a Rev 2 iMac because I don't want to give up on classic applications until my kids are older, and I will let others suffer through the trials and tribulations of the transition.
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Extensor said 2:39PM on 1-14-2006
Mac Diva, how long ago did you install Starcraft? My install was straight OS X.
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Kieren Messenger said 7:00PM on 1-14-2006
Damm... For university and personal projects I occasionally use Classic to run Fontstudio purely for its simplicity... Seeing as, AFAIK, its not been updated since 1991, a universal binary is a lot to wish for! :S
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Wolf said 8:01PM on 1-14-2006
Mac Diva, how long ago did you install Starcraft?
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Mac Diva said 10:08PM on 1-14-2006
My current install of Starcraft was five months ago when I got a new PowerBook G4. The installer rejected the OS X install until I installed Classic, though, of course, I can no longer boot in OS 9. Maybe it was a glitch.
I asked about Windowshade because it puts APE and and a preference panel in Preferences.
I also notice that Flip4Mac WMV, which I installed just the other day, has a component in Preferences.
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Zach Forrester said 1:22PM on 1-15-2006
I'm compilling my own list of specific apps that won't run on my new IntelMac. UPdated as I come across them.
http://web.mac.com/zrforrester/iWeb/Site/Blog/B118805F-E897-457B-9B68-D33C924587B6.html
Oh and this site was built entirely using iWeb. Yesaterday. I like, one hour
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codeman38 said 10:29PM on 1-15-2006
Zach: There's already an Intel-compatible Adium in beta. http://trac.adiumx.com/wiki/AdiumBeta
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Zach Forrester said 1:03PM on 1-16-2006
Good to here... I was under the impression that it was an unofficial beta build, done by someone outside of the adium team, but i may be wrong. Regardless, an official universal binary is due from Adium probably tomorow.
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brian ashe said 1:11PM on 1-16-2006
Jason--I've always gotten MySQL from entropy.ch (who just links to a page within MySQL.com, IIRC) and I've never seen a preference pane for it.
In other news: at the stevenote, Jobs said Photoshop would run, but it's part of Creative Suite, which includes VersionCue, which includes a preference pane. So is that out?
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Xenedar said 12:53AM on 2-01-2006
Still with the Mactel of it?
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Xenedar said 1:01AM on 2-01-2006
Re: preference panes, only the functionality of the preference pane should be out. eg: Photoshop should be fine, but the functionality provided to it by VersionCue may be unavailable. There may be some workaround available, as some of these preference panes are only there to start daemons. It may be possible to start the daemon manually or by writing a LaunchAgent/Daemon or StartupItem to get it up and running.
Short version: if the preference pane is largely optional to a product, the main app should be fine. If the preference pane is key to the operation of the product, you'll need to wait.
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