The headquarters of Intuit Inc. in Mountain View, California (Silicon Valley). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
People with new Macs enjoy the latest technology Apple has to offer. This typically means access to all the cool apps not available to those of us with less modern kit. In the case of Quicken 2007 for Mac, no one could ever have foreseen this ancient-in-technology-years program being the one piece of software bridging the gap between PowerPC and Intel processors in 2014.
We’ve been on a retro kick here at hittingthesweetspot with lots of love in recent posts for PowerPC Macs. Intuit’s Quicken 2007 for Mac allows the trend to continue, but with an oh-so-interesting twist. This doddering application with its dated interface is still the only real option for ALL Mac users who want to run personal finance software.
I have been a Quicken user since 1995 when I purchased my one and only new Mac. My data file has made the transition through all the various versions of Quicken until it stopped at Quicken 2007. There were a couple of revision updates that patched Security Certificates at banking institutions so our transactions could continue to be downloaded into the program. But Intuit has let some certificates expire prompting the dreaded “OL-249” error when attempting to access records at certain financial institutions. It’s only a matter of time before Intuit lets more fall by the wayside, too.
When subsequent versions of Quicken for the PC were released after the 2007 Mac version, I waited to see if this would be another case of a Mac program no longer being developed for PowerPC. Surely there would be a Quicken for Mac released that would run only on Intel Macs. I waited. Mac Quicken customers who updated to newer Intel Macs running Snow Leopard also waited for a new Intel-only version. But Snow Leopard users had the good fortune of being able to use “Rosetta” for PowerPC only applications (as a stopgap while developers updated their software to the Intel platform).
PowerPC users have typically been stoic and pragmatic about such Intel-only developments. There would be no need for Snow Leopard users to continue to run Quicken 2007, they thought. Once Intuit developed it, Snow Leopard users would be the first to enjoy the Intel-only release of Quicken for Mac. But, oddly enough, the wait was unending and an updated version of the software never came to pass.
What finally happened instead? Quicken for Mac 2007 was “re-engineered” for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion (Quicken 2007 Mac) users. It was the same program it had always been, but it was just tweaked so it could run on Lion. Intuit did the bare minimum to keep the program alive on the Mac platform. PC versions of Quicken advanced well beyond Quicken 2007 for Mac with regular, updated releases. At least the revamped-for-Intel-only Quicken Mac 2007 worked on Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion when it came out. And it also works on Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks, too. But it’s essentially still the same Quicken for Mac 2007 that runs on PowerPC Macs.
English: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH Français : Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There have always been a myriad of theories on why Intuit halted development of modern releases of Quicken for the Mac. My money rests on the belief that Quicken for Mac was such a small segment of Intuit’s overall revenue generation that the company’s engineering focus was smartly entrenched in the Windows camp. Because even when people say it’s not about the money, we know it’s still predominantly about the money.
Intuit did eventually respond with a stripped down, impotent version of personal finance software that was Intel Mac only and ironically titled “Quicken Essentials for Mac.” Most Intel Mac users who regretted purchasing it found it anything but “essential.”
Some people said that Intel Mac users should just purchase a PC and run the modern Quicken Windows version or run Windows on their Macs so they could run the PC version of Quicken.
I say it kind of defeats the whole purpose of owning a Mac if you’re going to run Windows on it.
Mac users with Motorola and IBM PowerPC chips powering their rigs, though, have always been able to enjoy Quicken 2007 for Mac–same as their newer Mac brethren (once the “re-engineered” Lion version came out).
PowerPC Mac owners who used Quicken 2007 for Mac never had to make another move in order to run the “latest” Mac version of Quicken that also runs on Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks. By never usefully updating Quicken for Mac 2007 features, Intuit unwittingly served to bond all Mac users together, forever stalled in 2007 and irrespective of their computer’s processing chip.
Any word on how/if it will run in Yosemite?
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Four ways to keep Quicken for Mac on life support, plus Quicken-gate updates
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