[savoytruffle]

I agree it was a bit worryingly short-lived. However the first version of Mac OS X that shipped without Rosetta 1 support was 10.7 Lion in summer 2011 (and many people avoided it since it was problematic). So nearly-modern Mac OS X with Rosetta support was realistic for a while longer.

[GeekyBear]

> However the first version of Mac OS X that shipped without Rosetta 1 support was 10.7 Lion

Yes, but I was pointing out when the last version of OS X that did support Rosetta shipped.

I have no concrete evidence that Apple dropped Rosetta because IBM wanted to alter the terms of the deal after they bought Transitive, but I've always found that timing interesting.

In comparison, the emulator used during the 68k to PPC transition was never removed from Classic MacOS, so the change stood out.

[tambourine_man]

The Classic environment was removed from OS X and all the IP involved was Apple’s.

The timing is interesting, but I wouldn’t put beyond Apple to remove a feature simply to sediment a transition (and decrease support cost).

[scarface74]

> In comparison, the emulator used during the 68k to PPC transition was never removed from Classic MacOS, so the change stood out.

It was never removed because Classic MacOS itself was never fully native.

[xattt]

> It was never removed because Classic MacOS itself was never fully native.

Are there any current OSes that have the same level of historical cruft that Mac OS Classic had?

[scarface74]

Windows.

Depending on which API you are calling, you have to represent a “string” differently. This is just one example

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/text/how-to-convert-be...

[GeekyBear]

There are still dialog boxes that date back to Windows 3.1 that show up in Windows 10 and 11.

[savoytruffle]

I agree. And I suppose since it was so intrinsic to the operating system, if a 68k app worked in Mac OS 9 (some would some might not), you could continue to run it in the Classic Environment (on a PPC Mac, not Intel Mac) Mac OS 10.4 Tiger in the mid 20 00's!

[xattt]

I could have have sworn that a unibody MacBook Pro where I did an in-place upgrade to Lion somehow held onto Rosetta.

[savoytruffle]

I guess that's perjury because it cannot be true! Even Snow Leopard didn't even include Rosetta 1. But if it was deemed necessary, it would download and install it on-demand, similar to how the Java system worked.