I used to own a Digi 001, and while I can sympathize on your plight, part of me doesnt want DIgi spending time, money and resources on updating drivers, software, etc. for older products that don't run on new machines -- I want that money and resources spent on making sure Pro Tools works with my current investment. With legacy hardware, companies do have to decide how much stuff they can support and for how long. When my computer was slowing down and I needed the power of a G5, I knew I'd also have to upgrade my music hardware at the same time-- it stung doubly to have to upgrade from a G4 to a G5, and from an 001 to an 002R. For me, the cost to upgrade was well worth it, and I can now do music with soft synths and plugins I could never have done before.
I had a Audiomedia II card which was NuBus and didn't fit into my then -new Mac with PCI slots. Did I demand they replace it or come up with a workaround? No. Supporting legacy hardware becomes extremely expensive for people to do, both from expense and also the code -- the more old hardware you have to support, the more intricate (and potentials for crashing) in the driver software. I'd rather them make Core Audio bulletproof for the mBox, 002 series, and HD ASAP.
I don't mean to sound callous or selfish, but I can't run OSX on my 7300, but I'm not losing sleep. I also can't run Opcode's Studio Vision Pro anymore, and that was the same price (for software only) as a Digi 001. Am I mad that Gibson bought Opcode and killed the software by not updating it? Yes. Did I get over it and learn Logic and Pro Tools and get on with my life? Yes.
Having upgraded to Tiger because I can't get at my music stuff for a while because of work (the thing that pays for new G5s and 002Rs), you're not missing anything -- it's not like the shift from OS9 to OSX in terms of ease of use, features, etc. If you're serious about music, don't upgrade to Tiger (can you think of a pro studio that upgrades their OS fast? They're usually very reluctant to change what works, and for good reason). If you're running music on a dedicated music computer, this shouldn't be an issue either. Digi pointed out that Tiger wasn't compatible ahead of the release -- kudos for them.
As to the charges that Tiger's been in Developer's hands for months, see this quote in OSX Audio from UA Audio on Tiger and development:
Quote:
Tiger have been around in several alpha and beta releases for 8-9 months.
Indeed it has, however, many of these early releases were unreliable and had areas of the OS that were still under development. Also, a few of the dev tools we require to work with were not even updated until a few days before the retail release of Tiger"
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Will I be sitting here one day when Digi EOL's the OO2 series, and I'm forced with either sticking with what works (and an OS that does work with it), I will be facing the cost of upgrading again, and yes, things do cost money. But that's been the way with just about everything in the studio, especially digital stuff. While I'm not looking forward to obsolescence, I'm glad Digi's not trying to support the 001, Sound Tools, AudioMedia II, III in Core Audio in Tiger -- just make the current product line work with the software and save the resources for adding new features we can use.