Author Topic: Dropbox is going to left behind PowerPC  (Read 8057 times)

Offline Protools5LEGuy

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Dropbox is going to left behind PowerPC
« on: February 01, 2015, 11:55:14 PM »
Please sign https://www.change.org/p/dropbox-continue-to-support-dropbox-on-mac-os-x-10-4-and-10-5

We love OS9 but DropBox on Tiger/Leopard helped a lot of folks in their workflow.


It is sad how abandoned is PowerPC  :'(

Even if they are still Workstations with aceptable results
Looking for MacOS 9.2.4

Offline Protools5LEGuy

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Re: Dropbox is going to left behind PowerPC
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2015, 12:06:32 AM »
http://powerpcliberation.blogspot.com.es/2015/01/dropped-box.html

http://ppcluddite.blogspot.com.es/2015/01/dropbox-pulls-turbotax.html

http://vivapowerpc.blogspot.cz/2015/01/an-open-letter-to-dropbox-team.html

Quote
Today, I received an e-mail from the Dropbox team announcing that on May 18th support for both Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 will end, I will be signed out of my Dropbox account on my computer and the Dropbox desktop application will no longer be accessible. I know, I'm probably tilting at windmills, but I have to try reverse this decision. So here is my open letter to the Dropbox team:

Dear members of Dropbox team,

today I received your e-mail about ending support for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. and I want to say something about that.

I am member of small but not-dead-yet worldwide community of users of Mac computers equipped with PowerPC microprocessors. Since 2005, when Apple announced switch to Intel CPUs, support for our computers vanished from almost all kinds of applications. Dropbox was one of the last still supporting us and I want to thank you for that effort. Let me just ask you not to cut us off.

You advise us to upgrade to OS X 10.6, which will still be supported after May 18th. This makes little sense to me, since there are just seven Mac models from 2006, for which 10.6 is the final version, all newer can upgrade to 10.7. On the other hand, Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5 is the final version for much more computers, all Apple computers from summer 2000 to the end of 2005 to be exact. There are even some 1999 Mac models that can run 10.4 and many older can be upgraded to do so - with proper CPU upgrade it's possible to use Dropbox from Mac made in 1995. So with this one step you will cut off the whole decade of computers, but you will still support seven models from 2006, some of which have less CPU power than final PowerPC models from 2005.

I started with Dropbox five years ago on my on PowerMac G5 and now I still use it on that very same PowerMac G5 with OS X 10.5 as well as on PowerBook G4 with OS X 10.4, Lenovo T400 with Linux, HP desktop with Windows 7, iPad and BlackBerry Z10. You can probably say, that removing two computers from this list will do a little harm, but the opposite is true: I have Dropbox installed on all my computers to get my data to the PowerMac G5 on which I do all my typing, programming, photo editing, etc. Two months ago I even bought Samsung camera with Dropbox support to get pictures to this desktop without wires, now my complete ecosystem will be broken with demise of its central element.

Without my PowerMac, it has no sense for me to use Dropbox on other machines and devices. Even after you stop supporting 10.4/10.5 there will probably be some ways how to sync on these systems, like installing qemu (or other x86 PC emulator) with Linux and sync Dropbox via shared folder from this emulation. But I don't want to do things this ridiculous just to have my favorite cloud service on my favorite computer. So please, reconsider support for 10.4/10.5, you still support Windows XP (2001) and our systems are no older than this one.


http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1839686

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1840007




A payed OS9 solution for dropbox based on WebDAW
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1840347


Other Cloud services PowerPC friendly
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1834783
Looking for MacOS 9.2.4

Offline Ed Redfern

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Re: Dropbox is going to left behind PowerPC
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2015, 12:26:56 AM »
I think we are getting a little confused here.

Just because they are dropping support, doesn't mean it's not going to work. remember that dropbox as an app is just a gateway, all it is is their developmental support strategy  is changing and they see no further need to code for OS 10.4/10.5 PPC based systems. that doesn't mean the app stops working, far from it. this is the same for various different system based applications not just on OS X but windows as well.

remember the windows XP kill off date and what they said about update support and shutting down the repositary for it. well repositary is still open, though no more  support is available than last update produced. Windows Activation server is still resident though not actively processing for XP any further.

If however, I've got this wrong, which I admit to a failure rate of (chime) OH BEEP I've just restarted) there you go lol.

I really wouldn't worry. from the sound of this, they're not switching services off, just not coding the app support any further.

ed
Blind Music Producer / Studio Engineer / Sound Designer using legacy technologies that most of today's users don't understand well enough. Rebuilding a recording studio after falling victim to a pro audio company who cleaned out an analogue studio for modern equipment upgrades that went wrong. With help from amazing people, manufacturers, etc, things are looking up. Now trying to rebuild the G3 / G4 side of the studio.

Offline Ed Redfern

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Re: Dropbox is going to left behind PowerPC
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2015, 12:33:05 AM »
If however, they are killing off the channel source support for these versions of Dropbox, we do need to prevent this from happening.  It makes no sense though that killing off a port number or channel set for older versions of  dropbox would be practical, especially where certain users, corporate entities, etc, developers still using older hardware should be isolated. Remember that a product like dropbox is software and network service support. you can stop developing an app past a certain code point and that's fair enough, but shutting down data streaming channels because of this factor is plain ridiculous. I support this issue. Good luck with this.

ed
Blind Music Producer / Studio Engineer / Sound Designer using legacy technologies that most of today's users don't understand well enough. Rebuilding a recording studio after falling victim to a pro audio company who cleaned out an analogue studio for modern equipment upgrades that went wrong. With help from amazing people, manufacturers, etc, things are looking up. Now trying to rebuild the G3 / G4 side of the studio.

Offline Protools5LEGuy

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Re: Dropbox is going to left behind PowerPC
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2015, 03:24:12 PM »
Some folks from MacRumors had find workarounds:
1 way to sync with the installer fooling the OSX version number and installing 10.6.8 installer on PowerPC machines

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=21325604&postcount=46
Quote
Do you all really want a solution?

It's hilarious. And stupid. And VERY temporary with lots of potential issues. I am sort of hesitant to put it on here because Dropbox folks may change their stuff to counteract it.

1. Change your Mac OS Version to 10.6.8 via these instructions:

https://justindaigle.com/blog/2010/0...ystem-version/

2. DO NOT RESTART.

3. Just run Dropbox again. Log in. Let the "newer" interface resync your files. It will take longer than normal. It did not write over any of my files and even uploaded the only file I added to my Dropbox account from another computer today.

4. Delete the Dropbox shortcut in the startup list in System Preferences -> Users. It will probably just log you back out again, so not particularly a big deal.

5. With Dropbox running, reverse your Mac OS version to 10.5.8 to prevent other weird issues from happening. (By the way, with your OS version string updated, DO NOT RUN SYSTEM UPDATE.)

Problems:
If you need to resync after a restart, you will have to repeat the process. Boo. But, it does seem to sync files and even kicks out some weird plain text files relating to server addresses. However, it eventually does sync successfully.

The client app looks a little bit nice and upgraded, but it is not fully functional. It will open your Dropbox folder. It will point to the Dropbox site, but it will not show the little contextual menu for settings. It also shows files in a strange order - most recent file (in the image below) and then older files. No idea.

2 The most "definitive" solution.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=21341949&postcount=71

Quote
I made a more elegant workaround for this.

I wrote a small dynamic library (dylib), that replace osx internal file open system call (fopen) with a faked version, that redirect any read from systemversion.plist to another file. Then replaced Dropbox launcher, with a prepared launcher because we need to inject the modified fopen to dropbox.

Source code, and modified .app, available here: http://homokozo.czo.hu/dropboxfixppc/
Looking for MacOS 9.2.4

Offline Philgood

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Re: Dropbox is going to left behind PowerPC
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2015, 03:52:28 PM »
Just signed on change.org...
*G4 MDD 1.25GHz (Single 2003)* with 2x 80Gb harddrives, 1Gb RAM, Tascam US-428 and Edirol FA-101 USB/Firewire soundcards-*iMac G3 DV 400MHz* with installs from OS 8.6-OSX Tiger on different harddrives-*Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz* with new SSD ! Love it.

Offline Protools5LEGuy

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Re: Dropbox is going to left behind PowerPC
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2015, 03:56:42 PM »
Just signed on change.org...

I did too. But it seems that PowerPC is still left behind. At least, with the effort of MacRumors folks, there is a solution, at least temporary.

As Ed said
Quote
they're not switching services off, just not coding the app support any further
Looking for MacOS 9.2.4

 

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