Using LE with a current, new Mac...?

[bentropy]

The following is a letter I wrote to tech support and pre-sales. I don't understand the situation with LE and the current Mac OS. Can anyone, user or admin, make sense of this or help?

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Hello Digidesign,
I have an Mbox, with which I've tried running LE 7.1.3. I also have an old, disused 001 which I'm considering exchanging for a 003, but have some serious concerns.

I currently have a Macbook Pro Core2 Duo 2.33, and this came with 10.4.9, which you seem not to support for LE. Thus I can't use my MBox with either LE or third-party apps; I get perpetual crashes. As suggested, I tried installing the 10.4.9 "Combo Update" and tried "ProTools Pref and Database Helper v2.0" to no avail. I've given up trying to use my Mbox and Protools, instead trying to make do with products from other companies. Is there something else I should try?

To be frank, it seems quite unbelievable that you don't support the current Mac OS, the one anyone who's purchase a current Mac would be using. It's been out for months. I don't believe my machine can even run the "officially supported" 10.4.8., and it seems ludicrous to reverse migrate, simply to run LE, the only contemporary app I own that won't work with my Mac. Will you ever support 10.4.9? If I get a 003, I assume this would bring me up to 7.3, but will it help? The compatibility info on your site clearly states that 7.3.x is NOT compatible with Mac OS 10.4.9. When 10.5 comes out, will you support it right away, soon after, or never at all?

So, as you might understand, I'm reticent to go further with Digi products, throwing good money after bad. I'm only motivated to use Protools because I sometimes do freelance post for picture, and it's still considered "the standard". Getting a more expensive 003 doesn't seem like a logical solution to an MBox which can't work with a contemporary Mac. Can you clarify for me what users in my position are expected to do (or think!)?
thanks,
Ben