[Fontconfig-bugs] [Bug 97546] fc-cache failure with /System/Library/Fonts

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=97546

--- Comment #16 from Silas S. Brown <silas-freedesktop at flatline.org.uk> ---
(In reply to SciFi from comment #15)
If all else fails there is always the option to run GNU/Linux on your iMac
natively, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Intel_iMac although the setup
is awkward and carries a certain element of risk (but if you get completely
left in the dark then it might be the only option).  You may also be able to
run a recent GNU/Linux in a VirtualBox, although you might need to find an
older version of VirtualBox to install.  (Be sure to enable PXE Boot if you
want to run a 64-bit distro, otherwise stick with 32-bit distros.)  But I know
it would be nice to carry on in MacOS for now, especially if you want the
option of compiling MacOS binaries for others.

Developers not supporting old Mac versions does not always mean the developer
doesn't care.  They might feel forced by Apple.  Apple do not make it easy for
developers to continue to compile binaries for old versions of the OS.  A
developer might upgrade their own OS and then suddenly find they can no longer
reliably compile for older OS versions (say, two or three major releases before
their own), and they weren't warned about that before upgrading their
development machine and now they've done it it's too late.  And then somebody
else might say "oh but I still have an older Mac so I can compile the binaries
for you", which is great until the main developer accidentally introduces a
feature that doesn't compile on the older Mac without even realising it.  Then
the somebody else either suddenly has to do a whole bunch of extra patching
work (which is not what they signed up for when they said they'll help compile
the binaries) or else just report bugs and hope the main developer has time to
handle them even though said main developer no longer has any means of directly
testing their changes for compatibility on the older Mac.

My 10.7 box can be upgraded but I have been afraid to do so lest I lose the
ability to ship and test binaries for older Macs.  But right now there's a
couple of projects I'm involved with that I can't compile and I haven't yet
been able to figure out how to patch them so they compile again on my older Mac
(well in one case I do have a working fork of an earlier version and I've been
able to backport some of the updates, but not all and it's generally a mess; I
need to sort it out somehow but don't hold your breath).  Does Apple think we
developers are so rich we can afford to have an array of 10 different Macs all
running different versions?  or maybe they just don't mind there being a
situation where users of older versions tend to be left out in the cold and are
under pressure to spend more money upgrading.

It's also true that older versions of Mac OS don't have all the security
patches, so some developers might take the line of "oh well it would be
irresponsible to carry on supporting it and thereby encouraging users to carry
on using insecure stuff".  But as you say some people just can't upgrade, and
Mac security problems were never as big as old Windows was, plus if the box is
behind a good-enough GNU/Linux firewall (I have a host of iptables rules on the
Raspberry Pi) and the user has sufficient competence then the security risks
are hopefully not TOO bad.

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