We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
In May 2010, the Mozilla team decided that the next
version of Firefox would be named 4.0, not 3.7. This article has been
updated accordingly. dk
The handwriting in on the wall for PowerPC Macs and for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. With the release
of Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow
Leopard" in August 2009, Apple moved OS X away from PowerPC
hardware. The last version that PowerPC Macs will ever be able to run
is OS X 10.5 Leopard,
which replaced Tiger in October 2007.
And now it appears that one of the most important third-party apps
for Mac users is
dropping Tiger support, if it hasn't already.
Tiger's Place in Mac History
Tiger has a venerable place in Mac OS history. Released in April
2005, it was the current version of OS X for two-and-a-half years.
It was the last version of OS X to support G3 Macs and the first
to support Intel-based Macs when Apple introduced them in 2006.
Tiger introduced Spotlight searches, iChat AV with multiuser voice
and visual chat, an RSS reader built into Safari, "smart" mailboxes in
Mail, Dashboard and its widgets, Automator, and the first version of
QuickTime to support the H.264 video standard.
Tiger was the last version of OS X to support Classic Mode,
which allows use of software written for Mac OS versions through 9.2.2.
This is a big reason many of us who have hardware capable of running
OS X 10.5 still use 10.4 - we need to use one or more Classic apps
that haven't really been in OS X (or such replacements cost too
much or are not as satisfactory).
I am one of those users. I am writing this column using Claris Home
Page 3.0, a program last updated in 1997. It's not perfect, it's a bit
outdated, and it's still the best WYSIWYG tool I've found for writing
and editing articles for publication on the Web. It also has a very
competent upload manager.
Left Behind by Leopard
Apple did a major overhaul with OS X 10.5. Leopard was the first
version of OS X certified as Unix, and it had much higher hardware
requirements than Tiger. All Macs with G3 processors were left behind,
and most Macs with G4 CPUs - including most G3 Macs with G4 upgrades -
could run Leopard, although it required a hack to get Leopard
installed on G4 Macs running below 867 MHz.
Leopard is much more demanding of the graphics processor (GPU), and
some of its features demand a lot more horsepower. What Mac users
gained was a new interface, parental controls, Photo Booth with real
time image filters, and Time Machine backup.
For faster G3 Macs without a G4 upgrade option, Tiger was the end of
the line. (Slower G3 Macs were often better served with OS X 10.3 Panther, which had a
smaller memory footprint and didn't have the added overhead of
Spotlight and Dashboard.) For slower G4 Macs, Tiger can be a better
choice, as Leopard is much more demanding of memory, CPU, and GPU
resources. And it supports Classic Mode.
A lot of Mac users stuck with Tiger either by choice or necessity.
Today, 27 months after Leopard was introduced, about 15% of Mac users
continue to use Tiger.
The Future of Tiger
OS X 10.4 is two generations behind, and Apple is no longer
releasing updates for it. Over the past two years, more and more
applications require OS X 10.5 or later, increasingly
marginalizing Tiger users. That means no Safari 5, no Mail 3, iCal 3,
etc. The free Apple software that Tiger users have available today are
that last revisions Tiger will support.
That applies increasingly to third-party software as well. Google's
Chrome browser will never run on Tiger (or PowerPC Macs, for that
matter). And now it appears that Firefox 4 won't either.
The question remains, Is this a big deal? Macs running Tiger
will continue to do everything they did when they were first purchased,
everything they did when Tiger was first installed on them, and
everything they can do today. Firefox 3.6 is a very competent browser,
and while I'm disappointed that I can't try the nightly builds
in Tiger, I don't need the latest version to be productive (or
entertained).
At some point, developers have to make the choice to eliminate
support for older versions of operating systems. You wouldn't expect to
run Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 95 or Firefox 3 on the Classic Mac
OS.* If you're running older hardware and older operating systems, you
have to understand that some new software will never work with it.
On the plus side, Opera 10 still supports Tiger - and even Panther.
No official word from Opera on what system requirements Opera 11 will
have, but we're hopeful.
Tiger Today and Tomorrow
As with System 6, System 7.5, Mac OS 8.1, Mac OS 9.2.2, OS X
10.2.8, OS X 10.3.9, Windows 98, Windows XP, and older versions of
Linux, old computers with old operating systems will remain useful. In
general, thanks to OS and software updates, they have already become
more capable than when they were first purchased, and they will never
lose the capabilities they have today.
Although we're disappointed when Apple stops providing security
updates for Tiger and when Firefox drops OS X 10.4 support for the
next version, these older Macs will remain powerful, capable, useful
systems for years to come. They may not be able to run the most current
browsers and other apps at some point, but they won't lose their
abilities.
Tiger Will Be Left Behind
Tiger itself won't really be left behind. What's going to happen
more and more is that online content will require browser features or
versions of Flash that Tiger users don't have. As long as browsers
continue being updated and Flash Player doesn't leave Tiger behind,
we'll continue to have full access to the Internet. But over time, new
standards and protocols and features will come along that won't be
supported by any apps or plugins compatible with Tiger. That's how
we'll be left behind.
Your options then:
Upgrade to Leopard if your Mac can.
Switch to Linux, but give up your Mac apps.
Buy a newer Mac.
The handwriting is on the wall, but there's no set date when Tiger
will truly become obsolete. The OS itself will continue to function,
and as long as your computer doesn't fail, it will remain useful. The
big issue is compatibility with the rest of the world: Can you access
all of the Web? Can you use the latest Word and Excel files? When will
streaming video be more than your hardware can handle?
That's your call. We expect to keep using Tiger for years to come.
* The closest Mac OS 9.x users can come is Classilla, a fork from Mozilla 1.3.1
specifically for the Classic Mac OS. The goal of the project is to code
newer Mozilla features for the Classic Mac OS and add them, eventually
making Classilla the best and most up-to-date browser for Classic Mac
users.
Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986,
sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and
has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.
Links for the Day
Mac of the Day: PowerBook 500 Series, introduced 1994.05.16. 'Blackbird' includes a 25 to 33 MHz 68040 along with smart batteries and grayscale or color displays.
