I'm porting some code to OSX and am in need of some copies of older OSX versions. Does the Mac Developer program allow downloading of previous OSX versions? A few forums mention it, but I've found conflicting/old info on this. It doesn't appear to be here:
https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action
I'm also aware of this post Does the Mac Developer Program have old versions of Mac OS X?, but this is now 3 years old. I'm aware some versions can be purchased on Amazon--would rather not go that route though unless necessary. What is the common way to test OSX applications for backwards compatibility?
Thanks!
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I can't install Xcode 4. I have some files that I need to open in Xcode 4. However, when I try to install it, it says "Xcode Install Assistant cannot be installed on this disk. The version of OS X is too new." How can I make it think I'm on Lion or Mountain Lion?
Here is a picture:
Download it in the App Store - it's the newest version and looks like the disc you have doesn't support Mavericks.
I feel tired of these preposterous answers. I think that if you want to stick to an older version of something, you should be able to. Also, I don't think software like XCode 4 are that old anyway.
But, to the point: I think XCode 4.6.3 is compatible with Mavericks. I am not sure about previous 4.6.X, but I think none of them work.
Any versions prior would require a previous operating system. I think you could try using pacifist to install the version you want, but I haven't found any guides.
If your problem is with project compatibility, in XCode 5 there is an option to save the project in a way it is compatible with XCode 4.6, and I suppose 4.6 offers a similar option to save in a version prior. Of course, you may need to adapt the code of the projects accordingly. Usually I try to stick with the Snow-Leopard-compatible code, because it compiles fine in all XCode 4.X and 5.X versions.
You can download any of these from the developer website.
I would try partitioning the disk and installing an older Mac OS X. I work with Snow Leopard and Mavericks in the same Mac. I usually do interface tasks in SL and the rest on Mavericks. The other advantage is that I have both XCode 4.2 and 3.2.6 in the same machine, so I can manage some backwards compatibility. =D
after reading the apple SDK guide
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/developertools/conceptual/cross_development/Overview/overview.html
I'm still confused of how to make the mac app backward compatible & how to test them properly
I have an app, I run it and tested it on Mountain Lion 10.8 without any problem, however I want to make this app backward compatible so that other users can run it on a mac 10.6 - 10.7 machine.
I have an apple developer id and I can download the old versions of 10.7 and 10.6, but the problem is, I have a 2011 macbook air which is currently running 10.8, and that's the only apple machine that I have. Can I test the 10.7 and 10.6 by using vmware or parallels?
in my project settings, I set the target deployment to 10.6 (as I want 10.6 users to run my app), but should I set my SDK to 10.8 or 10.7? if I set the SDK to 10.8 but having the target deployment set to 10.6, if I fix all the xcode warnings will it run successfully on 10.6??
from the SDK drop down, I can only set to 10.8 or 10.7, but 10.6 is missing, how do I fix that?
thanks in advance
I develop on a 10.8 box and support back to 10.5. Just a couple of months ago we dropped 10.4 PPC support, and I'm still cleaning out some of the 10.2-specific code. This may get a little rant-y, but I've been doing old versions for a long time. I have some opinions on the matter.
No matter what Apple says in their docs, if you want to support 10.6, then build with the 10.6 SDK. Do not rely on distribution target.
I have had this discussion with the Xcode engineers, and while they hold to Apple's party line that you should always build with the latest SDK, they also acknowledge that it's generally insane to do so. If you build against the 10.8 SDK and mark your deployment target at 10.6, you will get no warnings for using methods that do not exist on 10.6. The only way you will discover that you've used a nonexistent method is that it might give you strange bugs when run on 10.6. That's insane.
Remember, OS X doesn't crash when you send an unknown selector. It just aborts the current runloop. So the bugs are even harder to track down then on iOS, where it crashes the app.
Sure, you can do weak linking. Talk about dangerous.... Yes, there are a few times this is useful, but the compiler gives you no warning if you don't do it correctly. If I'm going to do weak linking like this, I go the other way, linking against the old SDK and copying the new function's prototype into my implementation. That way I have documentation of every function I think I'm going to weak-link.
Download the old SDKs and symlink them into your Xcode distribution.
Guard them jealously. Apple will try to delete them every time you upgrade Xcode. Make your own copies and stick them in /SDKs or somewhere else away from Xcode. I provide a script called fix-xcode to manage the symlinks automatically. Am I bitter at Apple for their relentless insistance on deleting my old SDKs? Yes, I am.
You can run 10.6 Server in a VM legally. You can run 10.7+ Desktop in a VM legally. These are good ways to test your code.
Or you can do what I do and have a small pile of old MacBooks each with two or three partitions on them that you reboot all the time.
Now that 10.7 comes from App Store, it's a little harder to make VMs. My strong recommendation is to snapshot your image immediately after install, and make a clean backup copy of it. You'll want to be able to clone that image from time to time when you need to get back to a "raw" machine.
Get in the habit of squirreling away SDKs as they come out. 10.8 will be old some day. You might as well make a copy now while it's easy.
Whether you support individual dot-releases or not, it can be very helpful to keep around the upgrade packages for individual dot releases. When you encounter customers running non-current releases, it's nice to be able to check whether an "unreproducible" bug in fact is easily reproducible on their specific version. Whether this is worth it or not depends heavily on your product and customers. It was a life-saver for me when 10.4.11 made major changes to WebKit during a dot release...
Invest in a small NAS or a big external USB drive (though I've had trouble with those failing when used extensively, so I prefer a RAID). You'll need the space. You want to hold onto lots of VMs and lots of SDKs and sometimes even old versions of Xcode.
Adding to Rob Napier's great in-depth answer:
To use an old SDK, put the SDK (or a symlink) to it here:
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs
With XCode 7.3 or later, you need you to open this file and change "MinimumSDKVersion" (otherwise XCode will refuse to use the old SDK):
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Info.plist
You can install multiple versions of Mac OS on a single machine, booting between each.
The SDK should be the latest (10.8).
See 2.
One alternative to 1 that I've considered (I am in the same boat) is to create a Snow Leopard Hackintosh using an old PC and just installing Lion and Mountain Lion on my MBP.
You need to do these settings :
1.Set the Base SDK to Current version of Mac (ex. 10.7)
2.Set the Deployment SDK to older version (ex.1.4)
I have developed a Cocoa App on Lion and now I would like to add compatibility with Leopard and Snow Leopard.
I tried to set the development target to 10.5 but it still has crash problems on Leopard and Snow Leopard.
I tried also to open the project with old versions of Xcode, but I get hundreds of compile errors (I guess it's because I can't compile the program with the old Mac OS SDK)
Do you have any advice about solving the retro-compatibility problems of Cocoa Apps?
I think it's generally not a very good idea to develop for the latest OS then try to support older OSes at the last minute. If you've used any APIs that were introduced in an OS later than the oldest you're trying to support, you'll have to rewrite code to avoid using those APIs. It's generally not worth the trouble.
That said, there's no secret to supporting older OSes. You just need to make sure that you only use APIs (classes, methods, functions) that are available on the oldest OS you're trying to support. You'll notice when looking at the documentation that for each method, under "Availability", it will tell you which versions of the OS include that method. Something like:
Availability
Available in Mac OS X v10.6 and later.
Assuming you don't use any APIs not available on an OS version you're targeting, all you need to do is set the deployment target to the lowest OS you're targeting, and build. You will of course also want to test thoroughly on each OS version you're supporting.
Your question would be easier to answer in more detail if you elaborated on the "crash problems" you're seeing on Leopard and Snow Leopard.
First, install the 10.5 SDK on your Mac. This may not be necessary, but do it anyway. You can find instructions on the Internet. Keep in mind that compiling with the 10.5 SDK will ensure compatibility, but you won't be able to use newer OS X features unless you load them dynamically.
Second, go into your .xib files and on the File Properties tab (first notch in the Inspector pane) disable auto layout and set the deployment target to 10.5.
I'm planning to buy Mac OS Lion, but I would like to know some informations.
- Are Snow Leopard's apps compatible with Lion?
- Are apps compiled with Xcode for Lion compatible with Snow Leopard? What if these app uses popovers/fullscreen which are features of Lion?
xCode requires a full download (the full 5*ish GB) and if you are a Java guy you will have to re download Java as it is not included (this was my experience when opening eclipse for the first time in Lion).
Some of Snow leopards apps are compatible, not all (ppc apps will not work). It is probably best to check with the software vendor first.
Another thing your Library folder disappears on an upgrade among some others where Lion is trying to 'Protect' its users. To get round this simply enter the command into terminal. (replace username with your username and foldertoreveal with the hidden foldername)
chflags nohidden /Users/Username/FolderToReveal
The upgrade process other wise has been fine. For reference I am an Obj C /C++ /C and Java developer. Hope this helps
Also will link you to this post about Developing Java on Lion:
Stack Overflow post on Java in Lion
A very good list of compatible applications is available at RoaringApps. I highly recommend checking for your favorite editors/IDEs/etc there.
Of note:
TextMate: "Works fine," but there are some issues
BBEdit: "Works fine"
iTerm2: "Works fine" (minor interface bugs)
And of course, Apple's tools require an upgrade to XCode 4.1.
As far as developing with the new APIs in Lion, you can explicitly target a specific version of OS X for compatibility. When building for 10.6, those new APIs will not be exposed during compilation and you will get warnings about unrecognized selectors if you try to use them.
So far what I've noticed :
- make sure you install XCode 4.1 (not the same as 4.0, it's a free separate download), which fixes the Python includes mess
- go to terminal and type "java", this will trigger the download of the Java runtime
But I chose to avoid the burden of fixing all libs by going with a clean install of Lion (from a USB key)
cvs stopped working for me, but downloading Xcode seemed like an unnecessarily heavyweight fix. Adding /Developer/usr/bin to my PATH fixed it for me.
I'm developing something for Mac OS X. It's a port of a Windows product.
One of my boss' concerns is how it will run on older versions of Mac OS X. I know Xcode has facilities for compiling for old versions of Mac OS X, but QA would prefer to actually run the older versions of Mac OS X on a Macintosh.
Since we got into Macintosh development after Snow Leopard was released, all of our machines come with Snow Leopard (10.6). As far as I know, you can't really walk into a store to buy Leopard (10.5) and anything prior to that is basically extinct.
In a question on virtualization someone said that they've done multi-boot or multiple hard drives for other versions of Mac OS X, but I'm not sure how one would obtain the install media or the license for an old version.
I see Apple has their Mac Developer Program which touts as one of its features as "access pre-release versions of the latest software" which is cool, but I don't see it anywhere on there that old versions of Mac OS X are available. Does Apple have an MSDN-equivalent where old versions of the software are available for download?
Also, is there a reliable breakdown somewhere of the rate of upgrades/updates to Mac OS X? (i.e., what % of users still run Mac OS X 10.5, 10.4, PPC-based machines, etc.)
In case you buy an old OS X from Amazon or other retailers, note that you can not install an OS which was released before the hardware was announced. Older OSes just don't have the required driver to be able to run on a newer machine, and Apple doesn't back-port drivers for older OSes. In other words, if you buy the latest new Mac from Apple, you can't install 10.5 or 10.4 or whatever. So, you need to buy an old Mac too, not just an old OS.
The breakdown of the OS ratio really depends on the software. For example, the veritable Omnigroup publishes this version breakdown of the hits of their software update server. There are many websites which tell you the version break down, see e.g. this site.
Judging from it, I would say Snow Leopard covers half of the Macs in the world. Supporting Leopard might be worth while if you have extra resources. But I would guess people who didn't buy Snow Leopard won't typically buy a new 3rd party app, so supporting Leopard won't give you 50% increase in the number of potential buyers. (I admit this last sentence is completely subjective, though.)
Apple Developer Connection does have most older OS version available for download, but it's not quite from a complete collection (specifically, they're missing a full install of 10.4.anything for Intel CPUs). They do have the GM builds of 10.6.0 (which is Intel only), 10.5.0 (Intel/PPC universal), 10.4.0 (PPC only), 10.3.0, and 10.2.0.
As others have said, you won't be able to use older versions of the OS on newer hardware, so you're going to have to get used computers for testing -- if purchasing doesn't like eBay &c, look for a company that specializes in used equipment, like PC Recycle. For maximum coverage, I'd recommend getting an Intel Mac that shipped with 10.4 (and make sure you get the installer disks that came with it), and a PPC Mac with that's as old as possible while still having a 867MHz+ G4 CPU (so you can run 10.5 on it, and don't have to worry about weird G5 builds) (again, be sure to get its original disks 'cause an older generic installer won't work).
One option (besides acquiring old OS versions yourself) is to use the compatibility labs that Apple maintains. Lots of machines, old and new, already set up with many different versions of the OS.
I believe you can get a "day pass" to the labs for ~$100. Depending on where exactly you're located and the cost of getting to Cupertino, this may or may not be a viable option for you.
http://developer.apple.com/labs/
As others noted, a number of sellers on Amazon have boxed old versions of the OS.
Historically, people used to boot off external Firewire drives to use older or beta OS versions, but of course some of the newer machines lack Firewire ports. I know EFI does support some external boot options (netboot for instance).
It might be possible to boot newer Intel hardware using a late version of 10.4 - but I couldn't guarantee it (as another poster noted, 10.4 won't have relevant hardware drivers - but there are basic generic drivers that may work. Then again, is that a realistic test???).
As an addition to Yuji's post - there are some people who are forced to stick with Leopard or Tiger for compatibility reasons (my father can't upgrade all the machines at his school, because the A3 colour printer only has generic printer support under Snow Leopard, and they also have a lot of older Adobe software). I would say that generally this applies more with institutional customers - for educational software running on 10.4, and even running on PowerPC hardware, can still be a significant issue.
For consumer software - less so - the big spike in Mac sales came after the switch to Intel, and almost all active consumer software purchasers are on Intel machines running 10.5 or later.
The other thing that needs to be considered is that 10.4 is missing many APIs introduced in 10.5 and 10.6.