Mac OS X: obsolete with every upgrade - why is it allowed?
I have just about had it with this. EVERY SINGLE FILE I try and download for my iMac, which is not even that old, doesn't f*cking well work because facistic and moronic Apple and facistic and moronic software developers appear to have teamed together to make it so that older versions of Mac OS X are completely obsolete, and in fact to make sure that all upgrades to Mac OS X (very expensive) make it so that the previous versions are no longer usuable. My operating system, Mac OS 10.1.2, is not that old. It is Mac OS X, and yet no Mac OS X software out in the last year actually supports it. Getting Mac OS 10.2 wouldn't be enough even - now programs want 10.3? What's going to happen to .3 when .4 comes out - are they just going to yet again create a brand new set of programs incompatible with all previous versions?
What the hell are they playing at that they continually create new stuff that doesn't work on older versions of the SAME OS?! When I paid for this system, I didn't expect that Apple would be expecting me to shell out what.. £100 every year or so just to get an operating system that actually works with currently available software? I'm so SICK of trying to download stuff - useful stuff, utilities, like Windows Media Player, for instance, that any PC user with a 6 year old OS can get so easily, and having the Mac version ONLY support 10.1.3 or 10.2 or 10.3 or something instead of 10.1.2!!
Why do they make the new operating systems so different that its as if it's an entirely different system and not just another version of the same thing! I don't WANT to upgrade my system, I'm happy with OS 10.1.2 - it works fine. I don't see why I should have to pay huge amounts of money per year, having to waste loads of cdrs backing up my stuff in case the upgrade scrwes it up, possibly making my old software not work, just to make it so that I can actually download software that temporarily supports my OS. I think that it is criminal to make it so that NOTHING works on older versions on Mac OS X, and even more criminal to make older, compatible versions of necessarily utilities unavailable so that you are basically forced to either live without any software, or make an expensive upgrade for an OS which will no doubt be pushed into obsolencence in an extremely short period of time. If the upgrade was free, it would be different, but paying money for upgrades I don't even want is not how I want to spend my cash.
I bought this computer, believe it or not, because I was sick of having an unsupported OS (I was using an old Amiga). But damnnit, I still have one. In fact, it's worse than using the Amiga because at least there was lots of freeware available for that, lots of programs written for it, even if you couldn't get utilities and drivers directly from companies and websites. Why should I be forced to shell out money to upgrade to something I don't even want, and something which is going to no doubt be unsurped by another OS upgrade in the near future?
What the hell are they playing at that they continually create new stuff that doesn't work on older versions of the SAME OS?! When I paid for this system, I didn't expect that Apple would be expecting me to shell out what.. £100 every year or so just to get an operating system that actually works with currently available software? I'm so SICK of trying to download stuff - useful stuff, utilities, like Windows Media Player, for instance, that any PC user with a 6 year old OS can get so easily, and having the Mac version ONLY support 10.1.3 or 10.2 or 10.3 or something instead of 10.1.2!!
Why do they make the new operating systems so different that its as if it's an entirely different system and not just another version of the same thing! I don't WANT to upgrade my system, I'm happy with OS 10.1.2 - it works fine. I don't see why I should have to pay huge amounts of money per year, having to waste loads of cdrs backing up my stuff in case the upgrade scrwes it up, possibly making my old software not work, just to make it so that I can actually download software that temporarily supports my OS. I think that it is criminal to make it so that NOTHING works on older versions on Mac OS X, and even more criminal to make older, compatible versions of necessarily utilities unavailable so that you are basically forced to either live without any software, or make an expensive upgrade for an OS which will no doubt be pushed into obsolencence in an extremely short period of time. If the upgrade was free, it would be different, but paying money for upgrades I don't even want is not how I want to spend my cash.
I bought this computer, believe it or not, because I was sick of having an unsupported OS (I was using an old Amiga). But damnnit, I still have one. In fact, it's worse than using the Amiga because at least there was lots of freeware available for that, lots of programs written for it, even if you couldn't get utilities and drivers directly from companies and websites. Why should I be forced to shell out money to upgrade to something I don't even want, and something which is going to no doubt be unsurped by another OS upgrade in the near future?
Comments
Less ranting more info. What files are you having problems with. Give us more info on what problems you are directly facing.
Originally posted by Morgoth
I have just about had it with this. EVERY SINGLE FILE I try and download for my iMac, which is not even that old, doesn't f*cking well work because facistic and moronic Apple and facistic and moronic software developers appear to have teamed together to make it so that older versions of Mac OS X are completely obsolete, and in fact to make sure that all upgrades to Mac OS X (very expensive) make it so that the previous versions are no longer usuable. My operating system, Mac OS 10.1.2, is not that old. It is Mac OS X, and yet no Mac OS X software out in the last year actually supports it. Getting Mac OS 10.2 wouldn't be enough even - now programs want 10.3? What's going to happen to .3 when .4 comes out - are they just going to yet again create a brand new set of programs incompatible with all previous versions?
What the hell are they playing at that they continually create new stuff that doesn't work on older versions of the SAME OS?! When I paid for this system, I didn't expect that Apple would be expecting me to shell out what.. £100 every year or so just to get an operating system that actually works with currently available software? I'm so SICK of trying to download stuff - useful stuff, utilities, like Windows Media Player, for instance, that any PC user with a 6 year old OS can get so easily, and having the Mac version ONLY support 10.1.3 or 10.2 or 10.3 or something instead of 10.1.2!!
Why do they make the new operating systems so different that its as if it's an entirely different system and not just another version of the same thing! I don't WANT to upgrade my system, I'm happy with OS 10.1.2 - it works fine. I don't see why I should have to pay huge amounts of money per year, having to waste loads of cdrs backing up my stuff in case the upgrade scrwes it up, possibly making my old software not work, just to make it so that I can actually download software that temporarily supports my OS. I think that it is criminal to make it so that NOTHING works on older versions on Mac OS X, and even more criminal to make older, compatible versions of necessarily utilities unavailable so that you are basically forced to either live without any software, or make an expensive upgrade for an OS which will no doubt be pushed into obsolencence in an extremely short period of time. If the upgrade was free, it would be different, but paying money for upgrades I don't even want is not how I want to spend my cash.
I bought this computer, believe it or not, because I was sick of having an unsupported OS (I was using an old Amiga). But damnnit, I still have one. In fact, it's worse than using the Amiga because at least there was lots of freeware available for that, lots of programs written for it, even if you couldn't get utilities and drivers directly from companies and websites. Why should I be forced to shell out money to upgrade to something I don't even want, and something which is going to no doubt be unsurped by another OS upgrade in the near future?
I find it interesting that you gave not a single example of this terrible problem you have with OS obsolescence. What is worst than that is that your claim carries significant implicit contradictions. First off, all of the applications that you used with MacOS X 10.1.2 when you first acquired it still work just fine. I infer from your post, however, that you have since acquired newer applications that are incompatible with MacOS X 10.1.2. If you purchased these apps, it would seem strange that you are willing to fork over money to everyone except Apple. But, somehow I doubt that. I would suggest that you acquire MacOS X 10.3.6 the same way that you acquired your apps that don't work on the older OS.
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
I would suggest you fork out for Tiger when it is released. No doubt it will run very well and supposedly will be the last release for a while. The other thing you could do which will give you loads of access to free software is install Fink. That will give you access to loads of great linux software ported to OS X.
By the way, why haven't you at least updated to the latest release of 10.1? If you're running 10.1.2 and a program you downloaded needs 10.1.3 (or was that a typo?), why not upgrade? As someone mentioned earlier, you can get 10.1.5 for the price of a free* download.
* Apple charges no fees for the download, but you must provide your own internet connection and bandwidth in order to download.
Look at the dates of the shareware you are downloading. If it has been released or updated in the last year, chances are that it would require at least 10.2.
The shareware developers often exploit new functionality in the latest OS releases to gain a competitive or innovative edge. Therefore they cannot be expected to support all versions of OS X.
All OSs have growing pains...System 1 went to System 4 in less than a year if I remember correctly and broke lots of apps. If you can't cope with apps and OSs moving on to bigger better things, maybe you should use a platform that makes smaller strides...like Windows.
Originally posted by Morgoth
I'm not actually talking about applications of the sort you pay for, actually, I wouldn't buy those if they weren't compatible with my OS. It's the shareware and freeware and necessary downloadable applications and utilities that I want. Shareware stuff, in general, no longer works on my Mac. The worst thing about it is perhaps that they often don't say that they don't work on 10.1.2 and when I download them THEN they say 'sorry, can't do that'. An example, today I was going to download Microsoft messenger because I had to use it for a university course related reason. Only works on Mac OS 1.3 or later. I was going to download Windows Media Player so I can look at Media player files but that also only works on Mac Os 10.3 or later. I downloaded applications for arranging pictures from versiontracker - same problem. I downloaded THREE different programs for using some sort of torrent file sharing system - BitTorrent - tomato torrent or something, and Azureus, that I wanted to download something with. Same again. The same thing happened with some sort of quicktime related thing I spent hours downloading. These are just a few examples I can think of.
Quite frankly, I don't believe you. I use quite a bit of shareware. I even pay the shareware fee for the stuff that I use on a regular basis. One of the reasons that I support shareware is that it is often as good as or superior to commercial stuff. Macintosh shareware authors seem more likely to use standard MacOS/MacOS X features rather than rolling their own, which maintains compatibility over future versions of the OS. Shareware authors also tend to produce more upgrades, and most of those are free of charge. The graphics application, GraphicConverter, is a prime example. The shareware solitaire game Klondike 7.70 was my first Carbon app. It still worked fine when I upgraded to Klondike 9.0 recently. The fact is that I cannot recall a single shareware title that gives me trouble. That is something that I can't say about commercial applications.
Furthermore, with the advent of MacOS X, the quantity of freeware available to Mac users has exploded. Much of it top-quality stuff. You have numerous choices if you are willing to explore them. Whether or not you are correct about your shareware acquisitions, the heart of your bad experiences seem to fall from the choices that you made. If on occasion you run Software Update, and follow that up with regular system maintenance, your experiences will be a lot better--if they have been bad in the past, that is.
THats still at least 2 years in the future!
If you complain so much, then switch to 9.2 which also came with your machine.. It has 15 years of development behind it..
Simplest though is just to upgrade.
Honestly it sounds like you're miffed because Apple adds new technologies to new upgrades, and developers actually *gasp* take advantage of them. This is called a Good Thing(tm). You want the new toys, you need to upgrade to pay for them, simple as that.