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Forum Discussion
End of support for OS X 10.4 and 10.5
Why pull support and remove functionality? Why not just drop support -- just stop updating the app but still allow basic functionality? There are still a lot of legacy machines that are still in use ...
As the publisher of Low End Mac and a daily user of Dropbox on production Macs running OS X 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, and 10.9, I depend on Dropbox to automatically keep work files synced between several different Macs. Using the Web interface is not a practical option when you are updating dozens or hundreds of files daily.
I want to know why Dropbox is dropping support for older Macs that remain in productive use. Is Dropbox making some technical change on May 18 that OS X Tiger and Leopard cannot support? Is Dropbox changing its code base to a development environment that no longer supports OS X 10.4 and 10.5? Or is Dropbox simply pulling the plug on a minority platform?
At lowendmac.com, 12.5% of Mac users visiting the site are using Mac running OS X 10.5 or earlier to do so. This represents tens of thousands of Mac users, most of them on PowerPC hardware that cannot run OS X 10.6, many of them also using Dropbox on newer Macs that run 10.6 and later, and a few only using PPC Macs. In most cases, we have chosen Dropbox because it is compatible across platforms while competing products have left our older hardware behind.
Please explain the rationale behind this decision - and whether there might be some way to continue Dropbox support on our aging - yet still very useful - hardware.
Thank you!
Dan Knight, publisher, LowEndMac.com
Richard P.Super User alumni
At lowendmac.com, 12.5% of Mac users visiting the site are using Mac running OS X 10.5 or earlier to do so
Thats a rather skewed figure due to the demographic you expect to be visiting the site.
This represents tens of thousands of Mac users,
That isn't a large user base at all.
I am really wondering why people aren't complaining that Apple have dropped support for them rather than third party vendors...
Thanks for going to bat for us, Dan! I shall also check out your site.
Thing is, I don't think anyone in "Computing" wants you to be using "old" hardware or old software when new stuff can be sold to you. As long as the huge base of unskilled and quasi-skilled users making "decisions" from trend and insecurity can be effortlessly exploited... The guy who knows his needs and tools is of no concern.
Artificial Obsoletion is here to stay.
Vote with your feet - If we all did, computing would be far more advanced than the train-wreck of ineptitude and clumsy fleecing it is now.Dropping support doesn't mean it'll stop working. (you know some like that the program won't be changed.)
- Richard P.
Thing is, I don't think anyone in "Computing" wants you to be using "old" hardware or old software when new stuff can be sold to you.
What does Dropbox gain from getting Apple to sell you a new computer...? Or are you suggesting there is a global conspiracy which is trying to force you to buy new hardware?
Artificial Obsoletion is here to stay.
It might be artificial from the aspect of Apple, but its not artificial from the aspect of Dropbox - developing for older OSX versions is a right pain in the arse, and that isn't Dropboxes fault.
Oh, and one other thing...(Especially) As long as the functionality is available through a browser - someone ELSE could write an app to replace the official dropbox one on older machines.
No, not a conspiracy. The new machines require the a new OS - that makes work.
- Richard P.
Oh, and one other thing...(Especially) As long as the functionality is available through a browser - someone ELSE could write an app to replace the official dropbox one on older machines.
I'd love to see someone implement binary diffing via the website...
But Dropbox has a public API, so implementing your own client (to a degree) has always been a possibility.
