Snow Leopard Update Breaks PowerPC Apps Using Rosetta Framework

A security update released alongside Mac OS X Snow Leopard by Apple is causing no end of headaches for a group of Mac users. The update has apparently caused major issues for users running older PowerPC applications running on Apple’s Rosetta framework. The security update 2012-001 was released alongside OS X 10.7.3 on February 1st 2012. This update was to fix security issues found in OS X 10.7.3 for users still running Max OS X Snow leopard. The problem is that the update causes crashes when trying to use commands from an application’s drop down menus. The problem affects many applications including: older versions of Adobe Photoshop, Quicken, Filemaker 7, Microsoft Office X and more that were written to run on PowerPC chips used in older Apple machines. Rosetta was developed by Apple during its transition to Intel in order to allow older applications to function on updated hardware, granted Apple has now killed off Rosetta in OS X Lion, but it was still used in Mac OS X Snow leopard as an optional install. A Mac user on the Apple Discussion forums has created a work around patch to address the issue but it’s considered a band-aid at best. Apple is working on a fix to the problem, but users will have to be patient till it’s ready.