Apple’s recent move to pull older versions of discontinued software – including older versions of OS X, Aperture, and more – from the “Purchased” tab of the Mac App Store is not sitting well with some users.
The decision to disallow users from downloading the older software is not going over well on reddit, where commenters are calling Apple’s decision “user-hostile.”
That’s really unfortunate and hostile by Apple. What about people who use older operating systems due to compatibility problems with specific software?
Software pulled from the area includes the aforementioned Aperture, and older versions of OS X, including Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks, as well as iPhoto.
While the software is reported to by unavailable for several days, it isn’t known at this point if the removals are due to a decision on Apple’s part to prevent users from running older software that is no longer supported, or if it is just a temporary bug.
UPDATE – 09/29/15: The software that was pulled has not been returned to the App Store. We still don’t know if Apple pulled the software intentionally or whether a temporary bug caused the apps to disappear.