Yesterday I downloaded Lion. It looked really nice. I then noticed several of my programs that worked flawlessly in Snow Leopard STOPPED working. One of them was my SilverFast scanning software.A new version would cost $450.00. I am going back to Snow Le

Question

I downloaded Lion yesterday. What a nightmare.
Before even using it, I noticed several of my programs would not work with Lion.
My Appleworks 6 program was dead as well as some other programs that I had been using for yrs. I have a dual core iMac.
If I wanted to open any of my Applework documents I had to open them one at a time and resave them with pages. This could take weeks.I have 1000s of apple work documents.
This was only the tip of the iceberg.
I needed to do some scanning for a client. Well, low and behold my Silverfast scanning software for my Microtek 9800XL would not work.
I went to the SilverFast web page looking for a download to fix this. No such luck. If I wanted to use my scanner with Lion, I would have to purchase a newer version for $450.00.
Then I went to the Microtek web page, nothing there. I called Microtek and they said they were working on the problem but couldn't tell me it would be available.
I called Apple customer support. The person I spoke with, Scott, was able to help me. The solution. I will get a refund doe Lion and for $16.00 they are going to send me Snow Leopard on a disk. Problem here is I have to reformat my drive. I have a full back up with Time MAchine, but he wasn't sure if I would lose some of my programs when this was done.
Am I dealing with Microsoft? This was a BIG surprise to me that Apple would release an OS without testing all programs.
Given my love of Apple products, I own a lot of Apple stock bought it when it was $45.00,This new OS is a real disaster.
If you are going to use Lion, I would be careful and call Apple first before downloading.
I also asked Scot what would happen if my computer crashed and I had no disk to reinstall. He said some Apple stores are selling Lion on a flash drive.
I believe this is one way for Apple to make ore profits at the cost of the consumer. Apple has more cash on hand then the US government.
I never expected Apple to do something like this. This is something Microsoft would do as they alwasy seem to rush their new OS without fully testing it.

Answer 1

If I wanted to open any of my Applework documents I had to open them one at a time and resave them with pages. This could take weeks.I have 1000s of apple work documents.
You don't have to open and re-save every AppleWorks document you have right now. Just wait till you need one, then do it. The documents aren't going anywhere.
Am I dealing with Microsoft? This was a BIG surprise to me that Apple would release an OS without testing all programs.
Frankly, it is not Apple's responsibility to ensure compatibiltiy with every piece of software available for OS X. That is the responsibility of the software vendor. Lion has been available to developers for several months before it's release, so Microtek had plenty of time to update their software. Yet they did not. How is that Apple's fault? I think Apple was very generous to give you a refund for Lion.
I'm not trying to belittle your frustration but I do think your ire is misplaced.