Snow Leopard Users: Welcome to Driver Hell

As someone who has been tracking the trials and tribulations of the move to 64-bit computing, I would like to formally welcome all Snow Leopard users to a place often visited by 64-bit PC users: Driver Hell.

You all are probably just getting over the euphoria of installing the bright, shiny OS upgrade on your Mac(s).

I hear you.

Been there, done that.

Know what you mean.

You are probably now discovering that the esoteric bits of kit you have collected over the years do not all work. This is because, after all these years, Apple is finally obligating OEMs to provide 64-bit device drivers.

To their credit, you guys are faring much better that the PC crowd did 5 years ago when XP x64 was released. There were practically no drivers for anything beyond the most basic of devices in those days and sites like PlanetAMD64 (our sister site) maintain databases to this day to track down drivers for esoteric bits of kit.

Apple is also being more proactive by providing compatibility lists and, by virtue of the smaller universe occupied by the Mac, the likelihood of OEMs producing 64-bit drivers is very high. Too often the PC enthusiast encountered diffidence, lethargy, or outright hostility from device driver authors when queried about 64-bit drivers for Windows citing that their development resources were stretched too thin for such a niche market.

Niche no more, 64-bit drivers are de rigeur for Windows Logo Compatibility which was about the only way Microsoft could enforce the 64-bit requirement. Apple runs the same risks Microsoft did by allowing 32-bit backward compatibility in the OS: breeding complacency in the software market.

“Why should I take the time and effort to port my app to 64-bit when it runs just fine in 32-bit compat mode?”

Until developers see a need, like Apple forcing the 64-bit kernel + KEXTs in Snow Leopard Server, they won’t be bothered to do it. The moment that Mac OS 10.6.x or 10.7 runs ONLY in the 64-bit kernel + KEXTs will the motivation appear.

I hope I am wrong. But in any case sites like the Planets are here to help.

Welcome to Driver Hell. You’re not alone.

Tags: 64-bit, drivers, mac os x, snow leopard