End of support for OS X 10.4 and 10.5

It seems like not a day goes by that I don't receive some update from this thread, which I could and do intend to "Unfollow" in the near future. I myself was one of the earliest to post under this thread and do miss Dropbox support on my PPC Macs, but you people are beating a dead horse at this point!

I have seen the argument that Dropbox has simply dropped PPC support for no reason whatsoever. Consider that Dropbox is a business, and as a business that provides a software product to its consumers, Dropbox wants to reach as many consumers at once as possible. Toward that end, it makes good business sense to support the latest versions of the most popular operating systems. In the Microsoft Windows world, there are many tools that make it possible to support every version of Windows from Windows XP through the forthcoming Windows 10, but in the Apple ecosystem, Dropbox most likely has to rely on Apple's own XCode. In order to provide the best support for the latest version of OS X, it's best practice to use the latest version of XCode, which according to Wikipedia is version 6.3. It should come as no surprise that this version does not support compiling to PPC/Universal Binary. As I understand it, the last version of XCode that supports compiling to PPC/Universal Binary is version 3.2.6, which would be from the Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard era (incidentally the last version of Apple's desktop operating system to support PPC binaries at all). If Dropbox is going to provide the best support for the latest versions of OS X, then they will by necessity be using a version of XCode that does not support PPC.

I've also seen the argument that Dropbox should dedicate a small team to maintaining support for PPC machines. As of this writing, this thread has 170 replies and 85 followers. If I were Dropbox, I'd view that as a minority. In order to continue support for our aging PPC machines, Dropbox would need to dedicate hardware for writing and compiling code under XCode 3.2.6 as well as real PPC hardware for testing that code. They would also need to dedicate live, human programmers and beta testers to the project. They may already have the equipment lying around, but they'd need to set aside office space for that equipment, pay for the electricity to run that equipment (some of which would be nowhere near as energy efficient as any equivalent modern equipment), and pay the programmers and beta testers salaries/wages and potentially benefits for a platform that offers little if any return on investment. If I were a business looking to save a little money, I know where I'd be looking to trim the budget.

Another argument that I've seen is that Dropbox should simply allow the older PPC client software to communicate with their servers. Dropbox's own claim as to why this is impossible is that they are planning to make changes in the future that aren't backward compatible with the older client. That answer is a bit vague to me, but I think I can make a fair, educated guess as to what that ultimately means. Consider that all software contains bugs. With thousands or even millions of lines of code, it's simply impossible to squash every little bug. If at some point in the future, a bug was found in the older Dropbox client that we were using on out PPC machines, that bug could open an attack vector to Dropbox itself, which would affect more than just us PPC users. It makes good security sense for Dropbox to simply close that door before any such bug is discovered and actively work to develop newer communication protocols for upcoming versions of the Dropbox client. Running separate servers for two different versions of the client (i.e. modern and legacy) would provide no additional security benefits since the service would need to be seamless across both client platforms.

I understand that many of the remaining PPC users who are currently so upset with Dropbox have a rather large investment in both hardware and productivity software. An excellent example would any PPC user in graphics design. Such a user would likely have a fairly nice PowerMac G4 or G5 running a ludicrously expensive version of Adobe Photoshop. These users could easily have thousands of dollars tied up in the very tools of their livelihood. Consider though that the youngest PPC Mac is now pushing about ten years of age! I know that many people like to compare computers to cars, but they may as well be comparing apples and polar bears. Cars are designed to propel themselves along varying road surfaces from point A to point B. As long as a car can stop, go, and maintain at least the minimum speed limit for any given road, it's in no danger of being considered obsolete. Computers must deal with an ever-changing ecosystem. New communication protocols, new file formats, new Web standards, code and tools that leverage newer and more powerful CPU and GPU technologies are all things that computers must cope with on a daily basis. Just as I would never expect my 1983 Apple IIe to log into Facebook over HTTPS, I don't expect my PPC Macs to continue to cope with this constantly changing landscape. Just recently Google updated the way that YouTube delivers its content, which instantly broke support for the third party application, MacTubes, an application that enabled my 400MHz, 1999 PowerMac G4 (Sawtooth) to play videos from YouTube just as well as if not better than any modern machine. I'm thankful for Dropbox and MacTubes alike for supporting my PPC machines as long as they did. That said, there is no reason why PPC users with such an investment in software can't continue to use their machines for the very purpose that they have been using the for all along. How did these users function before Dropbox? What is preventing them from returning to the same productivity model now? Have we all become so dependent on this service that we have completely forgotten how to function without it?

The only people that I truly feel for are those PPC users who paid for Dropbox service and have no other machine that is currently compatible with the service. Unless those users have been refunded at least a portion of those fees, I would agree that they've been cheated. The truth is though that we did receive ample warning. I myself received multiple emails from Dropbox warning of the PPC cutoff date well in advance. I fear that it's entirely possible that some of the complaints of not receiving ample warning are the result of spam filters and users who simply don't check their spam folder occasionally to be safe. I've had many perfectly legitimate email messages land in my spam folder before, which is why I regularly police it to be safe. The main problem with those who didn't realize and did pay for the service anyway is that, unless they can prove that they only have PPC hardware connected to the Dropbox service, they probably won't be able to get any compensation from Dropbox. I can't say much on that subject as my service has always been the free service, so I'll just reiterate that I do feel for those users and leave it there.

Again what did we do before Dropbox? What is preventing us from returning to our previous productivity models? I personally still use Dropbox on my two Intel Macs and my one Windows box. On my PPC Macs, I use file sharing to obtain files from my Dropbox folder on my Intel iMac, log into Dropbox through the Website, or use the good 'ol "sneaker-net" approach to move files from one system to another. I understand that none of these methods is as clean and effortless as the Dropbox client every was, but they're methods that I'm comfortable with. Some users may stick with Dropbox on whatever machines they might have that are still supported and find other ways to work with their old PPC rigs; others may move on to other services and productivity paradigms. In the end, the die has been cast, and Dropbox has made their decision. Stop beating this dead horse and get back to what really matters: being productive on your old PPC Macs!

P.S. Don't bother trying to argue with me since I will be "Unfollowing" this thread shortly as I have already mentioned. These are simply my opinions. If you agree, then I thank you. If you disagree, then by all means continue wasting your time crying over spilt milk instead of finding some other way to continue being productive.