Installing Snow Leopard in new Mac Book Pro with Retina Display

It has never been supported to load older software than what was originally shipped with the Mac (HT1159), and Apple specifically recommends against doing that (HT2186).

The oldest software for the MacBook Pro Retina is Lion circa 10.7.4. (I don't know if it's "pure" 10.7.4, or if it's a build of 10.7.4 with update(s); the necessary build is 11E2620.)

Put another way, Snow Leopard will not operate with the MacBook Pro Retina.

If you're stuck behind the EULA around a virtual machine, contact Apple directly, and see if they'll allow this for your case; running the older software as a guest in a virtual machine.

Tell the makers of the software to get their finger out and upgrade it. Snow Leopard is not merely one generation out of date but two entire generations meaning they have had years to write an upgrade.

Other than that, possible solutions are -

Implement a Mac Terminal Server running on a Snow Leopard Server, if you already have a copy of Snow Leopard Server all well and good otherwise your going to have to search to find an old legal copy. There are two Mac Terminal server solutions available, AquaConnect and iRAPP. I have tested both and they work fine and ended up implementing one for the company I worked for.

In my case the reason was to allow Windows computers to run Mac software but it will equally allow you to run older software on newer Macs. It works by letting the Mac (or Windows) computer connect to the Mac server via Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connect client and then runs the software on (in this case) the Mac server. The concept is identical to a Windows Terminal Server.

The second possible solution is to keep an older Mac and use Screen Sharing to control is and run the old software on the older Mac.

Download VMWare Fusion for mac, which will let you run Snow Leopard Server as a virtual OS in your Lion or Snow Lion OS. You can buy SL Server off of ebay, or get it from other means, like a friend. I'm doing this to run Eudora, a program for which no substitute has been created (for reasons I can't fathom.) I am not alone. Lots of people are using it for Quicken and other Rosetta requiring software. Why Apple doesn't have Rosetta available as a software product for purchase, or why the company that makes the software doesn't release a commercial version, I don't know.

(Apple of course, wants to maximize profits, and they don't care about the users with special needs, like universities and photographers, and thousands of others, who would like new hardware to be compatible with software and peripherals that either costs tens of thousands of dollars, or aren't made any more.)

Apple feels so strongly about it, they don't every let their users vote with their wallets, other than to not buy new hardware or the latest innovate-in-looks only "Lion" OS releases.

Oops - sorry - soapbox mode deactivated. Wish there was any way to hack Rosetta onto a single app in Lion, for me and many of my friends and family. Now that 'Freemium' is the dominant software model for browser and email clients, great products like Eudora can't exist. Even small companies innovating in Email client space get gobbled up and killed, i.e., Sparrow.

Another option: Install Snow Leopard (with Rosetta) into Parallels:

[click to enlarge image]

Full installations instructions here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439

I'm successfully downgraded the two new Mac Pro ( One 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor ) on Mac OS X 10.6.8 and Mac mini (2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 )... Hope I can make it on Macbook Pro with Retina Display on January..

Has anyone been able to successfully implement trackpad gestures with Snow Leopard on the new rMBP?

Does it require the addition of any specific drivers?

For reference (and on reviewing the whole thread, I see I've already posted this once in this thread, so please ignore this re-post): downgrading to an OS X version prior to what was originally shipped with the box is not supported by Apple, and downgrading to earlier releases is not recommended by Apple.

Work with your vendor(s) and get whatever software you're running, or see if booting and running the software as a guest in a virtual machine will work for you; those approaches don't risk OS X or hardware weirdness, nor does that risk causing problems for your hardware.

MrHoffman wrote:

Work with your vendor(s) and get whatever software you're running, or see if booting and running the software as a guest in a virtual machine will work for you; those approaches don't risk OS X or hardware weirdness, nor does that risk causing problems for your hardware.

MacBook Pro trackpad - vendor = Apple

MichaelLAX. Ok. The question would be why are you seeking to run 10.6 (and presumably 10.6.8) here? I had guessed (assumed?) that was due to some application compatibility issues or some software that does not operate correctly on 10.8.2 — the need for an older OS X release for an application issue is the subject of this thread, after all.

Which was why configuring the application as a guest in a VM was suggested. Or an application software upgrade.

Strictly for what this comment is worth (and no snark is intended), if you need longer-term support or older systems (and there are various reasons why that happens), then Microsoft Windows or one of the longer-support Linux distributions would probably be a better choice going forward. Both Microsoft and the long-term support Linux releases target that sort of stability, and usually for much longer than Apple. Apple does not provide extended support for old software or hardware, and generally does not back-port features and support to earlier releases.

I wouldn't expect a MacBook Pro Retina display would work on older releases; as far back as 10.6. A Mac Pro has a bit better shot at an older release, as some of that series of boxes are old enough that some of the "fairly recent" Mac Pro systems first shipped with 10.6 releases. Which means Apple once supported that.

@MrHoffman... what would you do if you're the system administrator of a certain multi million company and all there works depend on a program that will work on Snow Leopard only. And they need to add more new mac computers ( for new employee and replacement for old mac ). Considering todays mac are all pure 64bit both hardware and software when they ship... And the third party software company is no longer exist. then how?

Yes its true that Apple will not support if you downgrade your OS. But if you open your mind and be initiative on the situation. All things will be possible..

I will let you know then if Macbook Pro with Retina Display will work on Snow Leopard ( remember ! both 32bit and 64bit will run on this OS ).

Merry Christmas!

I am just trying to find solutions for this user's problem from my thread on Macrumors: Installing Snow Leopard (with Rosetta) in Parallels:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=16541570&postcount=360

Do you have any positive information for us?

Although the OS is a Mountain Lion but we are not sure if the Macbook Pro is with Retina Display model... Anyway, multi-touch gestures is not so important to our applications... And we don't need Parallel to boot up... we can partition the drive and install different types of Mac OS flavour...

Good luck with your attempt to downgrade the rMBP to Snow Leopard.

While gestures may not be important to you, it is important to others!

Demonstrating my hammerlock on the obvious: stuff that's dependent on Snow Leopard is not viable, nor is core software that's no longer maintained by the vendor. Apple isn't particularly known for offering AppleCare past three years, hardware parts past five or seven years, and maintaining software more than one OS X release back.

Escalate this to your manager, and encourage your management chain sort this out. (These are the decisions that management gets paid to make, after all.)

Whether that's operating as a guest in VM as an interim measure pending an application migration (with trackpad issues or not), or acquiring older Mac systems as an interim measure, or the eventual platform migration....

The trackpad behavior might be an issue with the VM; certainly worth a question to those folks.