Unable to launch several applications in Snow Leopard/ iDVD issues

Question

I upgraded to Snow Leopard 4 days ago and am having trouble launching several applications. The list includes:
-CuteFTP for Mac
-Adobe CS3: illustrator, flash, InDesign
-Cisco VPN client
I've tried selecting the "use rosetta to open" option in "get info" on the affected applications with no luck.
Additionally, while burning a DVD I was unable to switch applications when iDVD was multiplexing and writing (~ 30 minutes total.) After the disk was done, the Finder toolbar was gone, and I couldn't re-launch Finder. I had to do a hard restart.
Did I miss something during installation? This ranks with the original OSX (10.0) transition in terms of disruption.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Eddie

Answer 1

CuteFTP hasn't had an update since June 2008. CyberDuck is free and there is a new 64 bit version in beta here: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14426
Adobe said they haven't tested CS3 with SL - you can try their support forums for better info: http://forums.adobe.com/community/creativesuites/creativesuites_macintosh?view=d iscussions
Cisco VPN - There is a thread with a lot of information, and some solutions here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2131308&tstart=0&messageID=100 89199
I don't know about an iDVD problem like you had. I've been burning fine with Toast 10, although I do miss my contextual menu's. I have to launch the program first now instead of just right clicking on a file and choosing Burn with Toast. Apple removed almost all of the contextual menu's in favor of an improved 'Services' system that I never used in the past.
Leopard caused as many programs to quit working when Apple dropped support for OS9. There were hundreds of complaints. SL does change the basic structure to support 64bit apps, and seems to have caused minor problems with a wide range of programs, while other programs of the same type seem to work great.
The worst problems I'm seeing are related to HP Printer driver issues. Luckily I switched to Brother Printers a couple of years ago. Brother had their drivers ready months before SL's release date and they download as soon as you install the OS and run 'Software Update'.