How can I continue to use an Intel-based program through Photoshop, considering that in upcoming OS 28, which will be Silicon-based, won't work with Intel-based programs.
I depend on a particular computer program which is Intel-based, which the developer no longer provides support for, and which therefore won't run on the upcoming Silicon-based Mac OS 28.
Mac Studio (2023)
I use Parallels Desktop Pro (26.4) as the VM on my M4 Mac Mini Pro running Tahoe 26.5.2. I have Monterey, Sonoma, and Sequoia guests stored on a 2TB OWC Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 drive. The real annoyance with these guests is that one simply cannot sign into iCloud, or the Mac App Store as this feature is non-functional in these guests. Was supposed to work in Sequoia, but does not. The correct password results in an unknown error. System Software updates work fine. Parallel's runs me $120+ per year. Best of the VMs in my opinion, even with the Apple ID limitation.
I removed the free VMware Fusion 26 software from the above Mac because Parallels is more functional. VMware Fusion 26 is installed on my 2020 27-in iMac with Mojave, Windows 11 Pro, and OpenIndiana (Solaris 11) guests. VMWare Fusion 26 does not have additional tools one can install to improve the guest screen size, so full screen works fine with Windows 11 Pro, but not in the other two guests, even when configured for full screen view.
Although VirtrualBox is free, it is the least capable of the Virtual Machines, in my own opinion, and you can thank Oracle for that. I used it for years and then entirely removed it for Parallels when VirtualBox fell way behind.
I have the current UTM installed, but no macOS guests configured at this time. It is important to read their online documentation for strengths, and weaknesses.
FWIW, a virtual machine approach will be a significant performance hit on an app like Photoshop just to be able to use a plugin in addition to needing gobs of RAM to support Photoshop in a VM along with the Mac itself.
You still have support in macOS 27 so you have a year plus a couple of years of security updates. That should give you plenty of time to find an alternative.
FWIW, over the years Topaz has had a track record of creating products and then just dropping support and updates.
Does this mean that having VMware Fusion on my M2 Studio Mac computer wouldn't allow me to run an Intel-based program like Topaz Clean 3 when I have OS 28 installed?
If a person were trying to use VMware in particular, yes. As noted earlier by Servant of Cats, VMware won't let you install any version of macOS. But not running an Intel based app isn't the same as running one within an ARM based OS, such as macOS 26. The OS itself will run an Intel only app regardless of whether it's in a VM or not. Even when the time comes you upgrade your Mac to macOS 28, which won't run Intel apps at all, they'll still run in a VM with using an older version of macOS in the VM.
But it's a moot point, You can do this with UTM. It worked just fine with Sonoma, so I can't imagine it would be any different with Sequoia, Tahoe, or the upcoming macOS 27. Any of those within UTM will be able to run your Intel based apps pretty much forever at no cost.
I use UTM to run Windows XP, which is an Intel only OS. But it runs well enough on my M4 Pro mini for what I need. After seeing how well Sonoma ran in UTM, I'm going to try installing the ARM version of Windows 11 in UTM. Assuming it works just as well, I can ditch VMware entirely.
Tom-Evans wrote:
To reiterate, I'm not aware of a viable alternative to Topaz Clean 3.
The Topaz Web site states that a number of its customers have had the same experience. It states that those other customers have tried alternative software approaches for "skin smoothing" image editing but have found that none of them are as good and effective as Topaz Clean 3's "skin smoothing" tool and that those customers complained to Topaz about this, but Topaz still refused to reinstate support for the program.
Unfortunately, good applications sometimes fall by the wayside with no good replacement.
This happens all the time with games – game developers appear to have a "throw it over the wall and move on" mentality. But it has also happened with some of Apple's own software, like iDVD (an application for authoring home video DVDs) and Aperture (a professional photo editing and organizing application).
You look back, and you'll probably find that every time there has been a major change to the Mac platform since Apple released the first Mac in 1984, some really good programs have gone by the wayside, and their developers have never even bothered to release source code to the public so that those with enough interest could maintain the "oldies but goodies".
steve626 wrote:
Perhaps that doesn't matter to you, but you will have to keep Photoshop running on your "old Mac" so I don't know whether you subscribe to Adobe's photography package via Adobe cc but Adobe stops supporting older MacOS versions after 3-5 years, I believe. Maybe you [the OP] have a standalone version of Adobe Photoshop that you can use forever, I don't know.
Not on Tahoe. My understanding is that although the last one-time-purchase version of Photoshop used 64-bit code for the main application, the installation and DRM activation code was 32-bit – and Adobe never updated it.
So it is impossible to do a "clean" installation of Photoshop on Catalina and later. As far as I know, all Intel-baed Macs that are compatible with Tahoe came with Catalina - which means they can't run anything earlier. And for Apple-Silicon-based Macs, even the very earliest ones cannot run anything prior to Big Sur.
Thanks, Kurt!
Do you mean VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation from VMware.com? I'm not familiar with that.
I'm aware that the issue is a year-and-a-half away, but the notifications I've gotten on my computer recently that Rosetta will soon be discontinued is me causing significant anxiety and depression because I'm yet again being faced with a complex computer nightmare scenario that could seriously, negatively impact my career.
This is why I wanted to install Vmware now to test if I can run Vmware Fusion now.
This is why I didn't want to wait for a year and-a-half to try to find a solution to finding a way to make Clean 3 useable, when Apple releases OS 28. (Somebody here implied I don't need to worry about this problem now – that I can wait for a year and-a-half until OS 28 is introduced, and my Intel-based program consequently won't run on my M2 Studio Mac computer.
I've had the experience countless times that people advise me of solutions to technical problems, only to find that the proposed solutions involve many complications that make the proposed solutions unusable and ineffective.
You don't have to give Broadcom any financial information. I've never entered a credit card number or bank info of any kind. But they are the only source to download a copy of VMware that doesn't come from an unknown third party site, where you have no idea if it's been tampered with or not.
Why you can't get VMware from VMware's own site a real head scratcher. You used to be able to. No clue at all why they passed the distribution over to Broadcom.
Kurt Lang wrote:
Why you can't get VMware from VMware's own site a real head scratcher. You used to be able to. No clue at all why they passed the distribution over to Broadcom.
Broadcom (May 26, 2022) – Broadcom to Acquire VMware for Approximately $61 Billion in Cash and Stock
That's why. Broadcom purchased VMware because they thought they would make a bunch of money selling VMware products to the enterprise market and to data centers. So they are not an unrelated third party, but owners of what used to be the VMware company.
Maintaining a "free for personal use" version of VMware for individuals and making that version easy to obtain might not be high on their corporate agenda.
That sure explains it. I didn't bother to dig since vmware.com still exists. You'd think Broadcom would have had the original VMware site shuttered since it no longer really exists.
Though I suppose it may be a planned long term name switch. Such as when Creo bought out some of Scitex's line (like the Eversmart and iQsmart scanners). For at least a few years the company and the products were named Creo-Scitex until switching over to just Creo. And then when Kodak bought the same scanner line, it carried the name Kodak-Creo for a while until becoming just Kodak scanners.
Kurt Lang wrote:
Even when we reach macOS 28, you could still install the free version of VMware, then install a previous version of macOS and your Intel based software within that.
VMware Fusion on Apple Silicon does not support or run any version of macOS in a virtual machine. So with my new MacBook Pro M5 I no longer can create macOS VM, only Windows and Linux ARM VMs.
But maybe Parallels or UTM etc can run macOS 26-27 VM (and Intel binaries via Rosetta) when booted to macOS 28 and later?
I've heard that in macOS 27 UTM might be able to access USB devices like scanners which is not yet possible in macOS 26.
I do not know why Big Sur is excluded from the list.
UTM is the same. When you choose to install macOS as a virtualized machine rather than emulate, it tells you straight up it has to be macOS 12 or later.
Kurt Lang wrote:
Since I have UTM installed to run Windows XP, I tried installing macOS on my M4 Pro mini. It couldn't be any easier, especially if you just let UTM download the latest .ipsw version of macOS file directly from Apple's servers. If you need or want an older OS, you need to find an .ipsw file on your own. I dug up one for Sonoma just to try it.
FYI, MrMacintosh provides links to various Apple .ipsw files for direct download from Apple's own CDN servers (would sure be nice if Apple provided such a list):
https://mrmacintosh.com/apple-silicon-m1-full-macos-restore-ipsw-firmware-files-database/
HWTech wrote:
FYI, MrMacintosh provides links to various Apple .ipsw files for direct download from Apple's own CDN servers (would sure be nice if Apple provided such a list):
Apple has provided such a list for years. It's on the Developer site under Downloads > Operating Systems.
Where do you think MrMacintosh gets the links from?
etresoft wrote:
HWTech wrote:
FYI, MrMacintosh provides links to various Apple .ipsw files for direct download from Apple's own CDN servers (would sure be nice if Apple provided such a list):
Apple has provided such a list for years. It's on the Developer site under Downloads > Operating Systems.
https://developer.apple.com/download/os/
Good to know, thanks.
Where do you think MrMacintosh gets the links from?
Never had a clue or thought about it. I only came across that article with those links recently. At least someone took the time to provide a nice organized list.
In Autumn 2023 the cloud sphere as we know it was shocked by the news: VMware company was acquired by Broadcom in what was later dubbed as one of the largest IT-deals in history. 3,000 laid off employees later, radical VMware changes were introduced to this behemoth in the world of virtualization.
How to use Intel app despite support for Intel-based apps soon being discontinued by Apple
