[darkgoob]

It becomes cheaper to simply buy a used Mac, like an old Leopard system, and use the clunker as your recording station. Then, y'know, mix on another Mac using the built-in audio outputs, or a Duet, etc.

Or switch to another DAW that will still support the 002. Vote with your dollars.

The problem was Apple moving to a 64-bit driver model in 10.7/10.8. 10.7 was the "transitional" phase. 10.8 is now a fully 64-bit kernel with no option to boot into 32-bit, so any old drivers must be updated to work at all. We all know how slow Digi always was to update stuff for the new OS releases.

People wanted it to be hardware independent so they went with that model, but now people who bought an 003 not long ago could easily feel burned. The 002, I could understand. But the 003?

Anyway, the problem is a hardware-tied DAW like PT needs to be written for the OS. You can't just patch PT 8/9... they had to rewrite a lot of code. Compiling to 64-bit is a huge leap. They should charge for this or else go bankrupt. And let me state that while PT 10 is not 64-bit in itself, I believe the drivers have to be compiled in 64-bit to even run on 10.8. That doesn't mean the DAW is 64-bit.

That said, there are no more "life shattering" upgrades in OS X's forseable future. We are not going to leap to a 128-bit OS anytime soon, or switch away from Intel processors, etc. The underlying hardware drivers of Pro Tools will continue to not need changing, assuming Thunderbolt->Firewire adapters work seamlessly (a big assumption!).

My guess would be that if Avid moves away from 002/003 support in PT 11, it would be due to artificially cutting people off, since I can't see why it would need to break compatibility for any reasons related to changes in OS X. Unless I am missing something.

I think they should keep supporting it because it's better to keep your long-term customers happy. Why give people a reason to jump ship? Treat every old customer like a platinum record producer because some of them are.