Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2009/08/27/snow_leopard_incompatibilities/
Snow Leopard - what doesn't work
Photoshop Elements. Macromedia FreeHand. The Reg?
Posted in Channel, 27th August 2009 19:23 GMT
A grassroots effort is assiduously testing a broad range of Mac applications to discover which work with Snow Leopard and which don't. And overall, the news is good.
Unfortunately, you may or may not be able to access their complete list, which is on a WikiDot called Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Compatibility List. The website has been quite flaky during the past couple of day. Try it. You might get lucky.
But in case it's down yet again, we'll list below the apps that have been discovered to be problematic, link to each and every one (which the volunteer testers don't always do), and let you know the status of those which have announced upgrades.
As you'll see, there are a few popular items that are troublesome - Adobe Photoshop Elements, for example, plus Macromedia FreeHand MX, Cocktail, iStat Menus, FruitMenu, SilverKeeper, WireTap, and others.
But all-in-all, it seems that most of your major Mac software is safe.
Of course, this being a volunteer project, the advice you get from the list may be worth exactly what you paid for it.
- The Abbey - "A thrilling mystery story!" game
- Adobe Photoshop Elements - the site doesn't list the version number, but we're assuming it refers to the latest version, Elements 6 for Macintosh
- Afloat - free window-management utility
- aMSN - free open source MSN Messenger clone
- AppleJack - free troubleshooting utility to run in Single User mode
- Backup Bouncer - backup-software testing utility
- Books - donation-ware open-source book cataloging app
- Chax - donation-ware iChat-enhancement utility
- CheckPoint SecureClient - VPN client
- ClamXav - free virus checker based on ClamAV
- Cocktail - maintenance utility (Snow Leopard version "will be released as soon as it's properly tested")
- ConceptDraw Pro - chart and diagram creation app (launches, but is reportedly unstable)
- CuteFTP - FTP client
- CyberDuck - FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Cloud Files & Amazon S3 Browser
- Data Backup - backup utility
- DAVE - cross-platform file and print sharing
- DiskWarrtior 4.1 - file-recovery utility (tester notes that "4.2 works fine")
- DynDNS - DNS service (tester notes that "Daemon won't launch automatically")
- Electric Sheep - "collaborative abstract artwork"
- Fallout II - role-playing game (tester notes "Video broken on WWDC build")
- Forklift - FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, WebDAV, SMB, NISm and AFP utility (tester notes that and upgrade is comeing and that a workaround is avalable here)
- FreeNX - remote-display utility based on NX Server
- FruitMenu - look-and-feel customization utility
- Google Gears - browser enhancement utility (some say it works, some say it doesn't)
- info.xhead - personal database utility
- Inquisitor - web-search enhancer
- iStat Menus - system-info utility (developer says "An update will be released very soon with new features and Snow Leopard compatibility.")
- iStumbler - wireless-network finder
- Leopard Cache Cleaner - system-maintenance utility
- Line 6 Monkey - auto-updater for Line 6 music apps
- Linkinus - IRC client
- Macromedia FreeHand MX 11.0.2 - illustration app (tester unsure of its status - more testing needed)
- Magical - clock and calendar replacement
- MailTags - Apple Mail enhancer and organizer (tester claims Snow Leopard-compatible version "is scheduled to be released next week")
- Max 5 - music software (tester claims "app will run but won't encode files properly")
- MenuMeters - menu bar-based system-monitoring utility (tester claims fix is coming soon)
- Nambu - social-networking utility
- NodeToad - usage meter for Australian ISP Internode
- NX Client for Mac OSX - exactly what its name implies
- OneSwarm - privacy-protecting peer-to-peer tool
- Parallels 3.0 - Windows-virtualization environment (tester claims "build 4.0.3810 adds support for Snow Leopard, both as a host and guest OS")
- PGP Desktop and PGP Whole Disk Encryption - security utilities (tester claims "Announcement coming soon on compatible version")
- Protector Suite - fingerprinter-reader utility (tester claims "the app will run but won't scan fingers")
- RealVNC - VNC client (tester claims "screens do not show properly from guest")
- Reader Notifier - Google Reader notification utility
- SafariBlock - ad-blocker for Safari
- SafariStand - Safari-enhancement utility
- Shimo - VPN security utility
- SilverKeeper - free backup utility (tester says "Requires v2.0.2")
- Smart Scroll - window-scrolling enhancer
- Sonos 3.0 - music management and playback (tester says "Gives error message at launch that 10.4 or 10.5 are required")
- Split&Concat - file splitting and concatenation utility (website says Snow Leopard-compatible version "to appear soon")
- Sticky Windows - tab-based Finder-window organizer
- TinkerTool - free system-preferences manager
- Times - newsreader utility
- TiVo Desktop - TiVo-management utility
- Undercover - laptop security and recovery utility
- Vuze - bittorrent utility (testor claims "the app will run but opening new torrent files produces errors")
- Wakoopa Tracker - social-network utility (tester ponts to this bug report)
- WideMail - widescreen Apple Mail plug-in (developer reports workarounds here and promises new version "soon")
- WindowShadeX - window-minimizing haxie
- WireTap Anywhere and WireTap Studio - audio-recording apps (tester claims "Update coming this week")
- Wuala - online storage ans sharing utility
- Xmarks for Safari - Safari-enhancement utility
No word on whether Snow Leopard will work with The Register. ®