Adobe Creative Suite 5 Set to Launch April 12th

[nubero]

let me guess… more ******** adobe user interface decisions that aren't applied consistently across panels in the same application, let alone different apps. a couple of useful new features in photoshop, illustrator and flash, a plethora of useless features that suck up RAM and hard drive space which no one will use. the copywriters for fireworks, dreamweaver will continue to have make the lack of any real change sound like a big deal. the cost for individual upgrades will be so absurd you end up buying a suite with 4 apps you don't need, use or want.

the apps will still crash without rhyme or reason, they'll take up more ram and hard drive space and work slower for no discernible reason.

you nailed it!

 

[zweigand]

no. they've written their new Mercury engine with nVidia's CUDA.

that's the problem with Adobe …they should focus more on using APIs instead of rolling their own custom code for EVERYTHING.

 

[atari1356]

If/when Pixelmator gets layer effects (similar to what Photoshop has), I think I'll be able to start using that.

I'll be trying Inkscape soon too to see if that's a usable replacement for Illustrator.

I don't need any other Adobe applications, so I'm hoping to avoid shelling out the cash for CS5.

 

[AidenShaw]

that's the problem with Adobe …they should focus more on using APIs instead of rolling their own custom code for EVERYTHING.

CUDA is an API that's available for Apple OSX. It's been around for a while, and runs on most recent Nvidia graphics engines.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_opencl_new.html
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cuda_3_0_downloads.html#MacOS

OpenCL is newer and not as widely supported. Over time, it would make sense for Adobe to use whatever GPU API is best for their customer base - I'd expect that to be OpenCL if implementations are widely available.

Besides, Adobe probably had their hands full with rewriting all the Carbon code, and didn't have time to port the CUDA bits to OpenCL .

 

[splitpea]

Well, this had better be no less stable than CS3-on-PPC (mostly stable for me with the glaring exception of Flash... and the time that I had to trash my Photoshop prefs because it kept crashing on launch...), ugh.

It's a travesty for something you spent almost $2000 on to crash more than once every 6 months, let alone more than once a day.

I'm glad to hear about the launch date, though. I was worried I'd have to wait for months after the new MBPs came out to buy because I'll need a new CS license. So what's the over/under on new MBPs coming out before this new CS5 launch date?

 

[polaris20]

I view Adobe more as a necessary evil these days than something I really like. The company itself I hate, due to it's pathetic activation procedure and its accompanying problems.

 

[Will do good]

Adobe has lost it way

We've CS3 & CS4 and we use mostly CS3. No need to upgrade.

Stop with these expensive upgrade. We don't need you Adobe!

 

[p0intblank]

We don't need you Adobe!

Don't you think that's a bit dramatic?

 

[mashinhead]

Will this be available on the 12th, or just introduced?

 

[gt1948]

No Thanks

I can't think of anything that would entice me to buy this product. Well maybe if it was flashless, or an upgrade price less than a $100.00 might.

Adobe products have increased in price over the years but not neccesarily in value.

Photoshop is a prime example.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

OpenCL is newer and not as widely supported. Over time, it would make sense for Adobe to use whatever GPU API is best for their customer base - I'd expect that to be OpenCL if implementations are widely available.

Besides, Adobe probably had their hands full with rewriting all the Carbon code, and didn't have time to port the CUDA bits to OpenCL .

From the developer interviews I've read, companies are using whatever is most cross platform. In this case, it's CUDA. I haven't seen any major software developer adobe Open CL yet but I haven't been looking out for that.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

What person or company for that matter, has a few grand to blow every year like this?

The company I work for. Most corporations have a licensing agreement which is extremely reasonable considering we buy around 4,000-5,000 copies of Adobe CSX Suite when its release/upgraded.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

that's the problem with Adobe …they should focus more on using APIs instead of rolling their own custom code for EVERYTHING.

Adobe's issue was they had already finished Adobe CS4 in terms with Apples 64 bit Carbon support, but last minute were told it wouldn't be supported. They were forced to rewrite but by then it was already to late. CS5 should be pretty darn good. From the beta testing I have done it seems like one of Adobe's better releases.

 

[AidenShaw]

From the developer interviews I've read, companies are using whatever is most cross platform. In this case, it's CUDA. I haven't seen any major software developer adobe Open CL yet but I haven't been looking out for that.

With less than 2% of the users running Apple OSX 10.6 (about a third of Macs are running 10.6), and only some of those with hardware that supports OpenCL, and CUDA API support for OSX 10.5 and 10.6 - it's hard to blame Adobe for not rewriting for OpenCL.

In fact, since CUDA runs on 10.5 and OpenCL doesn't - GPU acceleration may be available to more Mac users with CUDA (10.5 + 10.6 covers 81% of Mac users).

 

[PeterQVenkman]

With less than 2% of the users running Apple OSX 10.6 (about a third of Macs are running 10.6), and only some of those with hardware that supports OpenCL, and CUDA API support for OSX 10.5 and 10.6 - it's hard to blame Adobe for not rewriting for OpenCL.

In fact, since CUDA runs on 10.5 and OpenCL doesn't - GPU acceleration may be available to more Mac users with CUDA.

Is CUDA really limited to nVidia cards? They were hyping a specific card in the video I saw on the "launch event page" linked in the OP. Is ATI left out in the cold?

 

[Truffy]

They'd better not screw the European market like last time with upgrade fees.

Yep, the last upgrade that I did was from CS to CS2. Adobe's rip-off of non-US customers was too much to swallow. But I think CS5 may be the last version that I can upgrade to.

On the other hand, I'd only upgrade CS after I upgrade my hardware to Intel, and probably other software anyway. So I may just wait, buy CS5 late in the cycle and ride the freeola upgrade to CS6!

 

[AidenShaw]

Is CUDA really limited to nVidia cards? They were hyping a specific card in the video I saw on the "launch event page" linked in the OP. Is ATI left out in the cold?

It's Nvidia only, but Nvidia supports the development of OpenCL™ as well:

In partnership with NVIDIA, OpenCL™ was submitted to Khronos by Apple in the summer of 2008 with the goal of forging a cross platform environment for GPU computing.

NVIDIA chairs the OpenCL™ working group with direct support from NVIDIA’s SW engineering team. The SIGGRAPH ASIA Khronos OpenCL™ presentation by Neil Trevett of NVIDIA can be found here.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_opencl_new.html

That's why I said that CUDA is the good choice now, but over time that will change as both Nvidia and ATI are behind OpenCL™.

Nvidia does push their 240 core Tesla GPU...

(click to enlarge)


OpenCL and the OpenCL logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. used by permission by Khronos.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

It's Nvidia only, but Nvidia supports the development of OpenCL™ as well:

That's why I said that CUDA is the good choice now, but over time that will change as both Nvidia and ATI are behind OpenCL™.

Ahh, OK. Thanks for that. If pros need acceleration in the short term it sounds like nVidia is the way to go until everyone is on the same boat.

 

[snsr]

CS4 has been the worst version we've messed with. More crashes than any other version …half the time my apps crash when quitting. We also have problems saving files on top of top of previous versions, printing booklets to our HP LaserJet from InDesign, and printing PDFs from booklets. For a "snow leopard compatible" set of apps, it sure doesn't feel like it.

I run (and work in) Photoshop and Illustrator CS4 all day long, and haven't had a single crash yet. YMMV I guess. Don't really use InDesign anymore for much but opening other people's docs, though.

I skipped CS3, and to me CS4 was a huge improvement over CS2. Things like OpenGL acceleration and much deeper zoom w/pixel isolation (both in PS) really make things faster for me.

 

[snsr]

I'll be trying Inkscape soon too to see if that's a usable replacement for Illustrator.

Inkscape is great once you become accustomed to different shortcut keys.

 

[twoodcc]

i wonder if new mac pros will come near this time also?

 

[orangerizzla]

Having upgraded to CS4 earlier in the year I really wish they had sorted out the problems with this version of Flash before moving on to 'v5'. Do we not have updates anymore only upgrades?

 

[avkills]

these CS revisions are a bit too frequent for my liking

We need 64bit support asap on the Mac though.

-mark

 

[babble]

I like how Illustrator CS4 crashes about 50% of the time upon opening files...adds character.

LOL! Thanks for the laugh...

Adobe my old friend, I don't like you anymore. What is up with all these (insert adjective here) upgrades!? CS4 is still not worth the upgrade from CS3, and now we have CS5? Like other people said before me; too little and way too expensive for what we get.

And with Apple's stand on Flash... You can bet your (insert name of a body part here) that Adobe is about to drop the little support we already have on Mac.

I miss the old days when Adobe was pushing better apps on Mac... Damn you OpenType!

 

[Chupa Chupa]

If THIS demo of the new content aware fill feature is any indication of CS5 it's going to be well worth the money.