Will Your Mac Software Run On Snow Leopard?

Millions of Mac users will be busy this weekend poking around in Mac OS X Snow Leopard. What a treat. Faster. Smoother. Plenty of polished features. It’s like Christmas morning and a birthday party all rolled into one $29 event. Except for one thing.

As with any other Mac OS X upgrade, some older Mac software may not make the transition. Worse, Snow Leopard only runs on Intel-based Macs, not PowerPC Macs. This week we’ve seen a flurry of updated Mac software releases. Is your Mac software on the list?

Snow Leopard’s release creates two lists. One for what does not run on SL. And the other for what should run, seems to run, or officially runs fine on SL.

For example, I use an older version of Parallels Desktop on one of my Macs to run Windows and Linux and need to upgrade for Snow Leopard. Ditto for McAfee VirusScan and Norton AntiVirus which won’t run at all. What? You don’t have virus software on your Mac?

Some of the Mac software that hasn’t been updated for Snow Leopard won’t even open and try to run on your Mac. The latest version of Parallels is one. Earlier versions of Apple’s own Aperture and Keynote won’t open.

Considering how many different software packages—apps and utilities—there are for Mac OS X, the number that will not run on Snow Leopard seems quite small. However, if one of your favorites is on the Do Not Run™ list, then your feelings may be different.

Apple has an officially official list of the applications and utilities known to be incompatible with Snow Leopard. Both lists are available from Apple Support.

One look at MacUpdate this week and you’ll realize that Mac software makers are scrambling to get their apps updated to run on Snow Leopard. Just this morning I updated two dozen Mac apps with recent updates.

These include Apple’s Aperture, Skitch, MacFamilyTree, the popular SuperDuper! backup utility, Speed Download, CyberDuck, both Tinker Tool and the Tinker Tool System, Things, Coda, OmniPlan, OmniOutliner, Bookdog, Circus Ponies Notebook, OmniGraffle, OmniFocus, and a favorite—1Password.

In addition, Apple released updated printer drivers for Lexmark, Brother, Canon, HP, and Epson printers (the file sizes are huge so be patient with the downloads).

Microsoft Office for Mac and Adobe’s Creative Suites should run with only a few hiccups on Snow Leopard. Your mileage may vary. Adobe’s Photoshop Elements is known not to be fully compatible with SL.

As with any Mac upgrade, prepare to error on the side of caution, but enjoy all the spots in Snow Leopard. It’s a fast cat.