Apple abuses its Mac users with Lion

As much as I like Apple in general, I have found Apple’s attitude about upgrading to Lion to be inexcusable. Apple.com says nothing to warn me about the problems that result. Lion is not backwards compatible; many of my applications no longer work, and for some, there is no way to fix the problem.

If you purchased software for a PowerPC Mac, that software will not run on Lion. Snow Leopard included a feature called Rosetta that enabled all PowerPC apps to run on the newer Intel-based Macs.  With Lion, Apple decided to discontinue Rosetta, so none of your PowerPC apps will run,  Apple Says Nothing on their website to warn you, and as a Mac user, there is nothing you can do about it. For some applications, there are newer versions that you can purchase, but for many applications, there is no version that will run on Lion, and there never will be.

• Quicken will not run on Lion. Visiting Intuit’s website explains that there is a fix as long as you convert your Quicken file before upgrading to Lion. After you have upgraded, there is no way to access your Quicken data. [Update: Intuit has now released an updated version of Quicken 2007 for Mac that runs on Lion]
• iPhoto doesn’t run.  You have to buy the new version.
• my Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint don’t run. I have to purchase a new Microsoft Office.
• Eudora doesn’t run. Eudora is an old mail program which is no longer maintained.  I have been using Apple’s Mail program for several years, but I have 10 years of email in Eudora that I need to consult on occasion. It is impossible to view that mail now in Lion.

The only way to run PowerPC applications is to install a separate version of Snow Leopard in a separate disk partition. I have spent three weeks and three visits to the Apple Store to try to accomplish this.

• Ideally, I would use vmware’s $75 Fusion app to run Snow Leopard within Lion.  However, Apple has declared it illegal to run Snow Leopard as a vm, so Fusion has been forced to disable this capability.
• I would prefer to install Snow Leopard on an external drive. But external drives are not Apple hardware, so Apple does not support this and will not assist you.
• I tried to install Snow Leopard myself on an external drive. But the Snow Leopard dvd that I purchased from the Apple Store just hangs and will not install, since I have already installed a newer version (Lion) on my Mac.

The only alternative is to repartition the hard drive in my Mac. But you can’t repartition without deleting all of the information on the drive. I have done so, repartitioned the drive, and re-installed Lion from a Time Machine backup.  I am still working on getting my Mac to function properly again. For instance, after an hour with Tech Support from Adobe, downloading a “license fix” app, and typing the appropriate “sudo” command into a Terminal window, I can now use Photoshop again.