Adobe Universal Support FAQ

[MacRumors]

Adobe posted a PDF covering the topic of Adobe support for Intel-based Macs.

According to the FAQ, Adobe will be comitted to transitioning its line of Macintosh products to the new Intel-based Macs. The upgrades, however, will have to wait until the next versions of its creative applications.

Adobe does not plan on rereleasing current products as Universal Applications. Instead, the next version of these products will be the ones first available as Universal Binaries. While Adobe won't comment on the exact time frame, they report that they typically release significant upgrades to their creative professional applications ever 18-24 months.

 

[iGary]

Thanks for nothing, Bruce.

 

[Over Achiever]

Ouch, this gives it about another year before the Adobe goes universal and Intel ... it's cost effective, but leaves Photoshop behind on many new MacIntels this year.

I'll still stick with Photoshop, it's an excellent application. Hopefully Rosetta will do for now. =/

 

[tk421]

After Effects 7 just came out a few weeks ago, and it isn't Universal. I guess that means it will be awhile .

 

[Dr. Dastardly]

YAY!! CS3 next Tuesday!

*ducks from flying rocks*

 

[ultrafiel]

I use Photoshop every day in my profession. I'm working on it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, around 50 weeks of the year. I will not upgrade my G5 until Photoshop is a universal binary. However, I still manage fine on my dual G5 2.0 Ghz even after almost 2 years so I can wait a while longer.

CS2 came out in May 2005. Since Adobe is pretty consistent with the 18 month upgrade cycle expect CS3 to come out around Nov 2006, or the end of this year. Considering the Pro machines won't go Intel until probably around WWDC in July waiting another half year really won't be that bad. Sure it's not the best news in the world, but I can hold off. The time it will take to get pro apps from other vendors than Apple out with universal binaries is going to hurt adoption of the new machines a bit though.

 

[illegalprelude]

I use Photoshop every day in my profession. I'm working on it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, around 50 weeks of the year. I will not upgrade my G5 until Photoshop is a universal binary. However, I still manage fine on my dual G5 2.0 Ghz even after almost 2 years so I can wait a while longer.

CS2 came out in May 2005. Since Adobe is pretty consistent with the 18 month upgrade cycle expect CS3 to come out around Nov 2006, or the end of this year. Considering the Pro machines won't go Intel until probably around WWDC in July waiting another half year really won't be that bad. Sure it's not the best news in the world, but I can hold off. The time it will take to get pro apps from other vendors than Apple out with universal binaries is going to hurt adoption of the new machines a bit though.

I agree, by the time people who really use photosho and editing machines who want a new PowerMac, its going to be atleast another 7-8 months before the Intel version comes out and by the time they ship out, its been 10 months or so. I dont think this wait is gonna be too bad personally

 

[sushi]

Thanks for nothing, Bruce.

Really!

While I understand that they won't port the current versions to have universal binaries, I would think that their updates would be coming sooner.

 

[DPazdanISU]

I guess apple will just have to come out with more appz cuz they seem to be the only ones quickly universalizing... I can see it now, iPictureShop

 

[superleccy]

Not wholly unexpected, but...

I need a vector drawing package to finally complete my switch from PC to Mac, and was in two minds whether or not I should go for Illustrator CS2. But at £499 including VAT (and yes my American friends, that's a whopping US$886), it wasn't a decision I was ever going to take lightly.

And now I know I'll have to fork out again for an upgrade when I enevitably switch to Macintel (when the platform is a little less bleeding-edge), the thought of 12 months Corel Draw 6 on Virtual PC is looking unusually attractive.

Adobe, Adobe, Adobe... I didn't like you before and I sure hate you now.

Regards
Superleccy

PS: Please excuse spelling, it's late

 

[zv470]

Ouch, this gives it about another year before the Adobe goes universal and Intel ... it's cost effective, but leaves Photoshop behind on many new MacIntels this year.

I'll still stick with Photoshop, it's an excellent application. Hopefully Rosetta will do for now. =/

Well, it might be until end of year until the first Powermac replacements come out anyway.

Wouldn't most Photoshop professionals already be using G5 Powermacs? Just wondering.

 

[Object-X]

Flex your...

At least CS3 will be an interesting release, if for no other reason to see what they do with the Macromedia product line. Let's hope they support Flex 2.0 for OS X too.

 

[fr0]

youch

Ouch! that's a hearty [expletive deleted] to the new Intel Mac if I've ever seen one. Too bad for all the pros that rely on this software.

 

[Lancetx]

In the end Adobe will suffer for this too. They've effectively killed all of their Mac software sales now for the foreseeable future with this announcement. Virtually no one will run out and buy their current apps knowing that they'll be basically forced into upgrading them yet again sometime within the next year, if they have any intention of buying a new Mac within that time frame.

 

[l008com]

Newsflash: Most graphics people are so cheap, they are still running blue and white G3's under system 9 and photoshop 5. This is true, I see it all the time. Very few people stay on the cutting edge in graphics, they are just too cheap. Plus most people I know that are not way behind, are sticking with CS1 anyway because CS2 is so dog slow at everything. I suspect that CS1 via rosetta will be just as fast as CS3 native on an x86 ANYWAY. Now is a prime time for another company to swoop in with a 'photoshop killer' and really hurt adobe. I hope this happens but somehow, I doubt it will. Maybe I should make a donation to GIMP.

 

[Les McQueen]

Let me see if I understand this. Are people saying that all currently existing software WILL NOT RUN on new mactel machines. What I mean is, if you buy an intel mac you will also have to reaquire all the software again.??

 

[superleccy]

Newsflash: Most graphics people are so cheap, they are still running blue and white G3's under system 9 and photoshop 5. This is true, I see it all the time.

Agreed. Corel Draw 6 for the PC (that I picked up for £50 from a bargain bin in PC World), an 11 year old application and one of the first major non-Microsoft applications designed specifically for Windows 95, gives me everything I need. Um... except for rather one obvious issue.

But am I cheap? Arguably, yes. But arguably, I just don't see the point in spending money if I don't need to, nor even want to.

 

[iMeowbot]

"I have only one question, Steve. What took you so long?" - Bruce Chizen at WWDC 2005

 

[bugfaceuk]

I use Photoshop every day in my profession. I'm working on it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, around 50 weeks of the year. I will not upgrade my G5 until Photoshop is a universal binary. However, I still manage fine on my dual G5 2.0 Ghz even after almost 2 years so I can wait a while longer.

CS2 came out in May 2005. Since Adobe is pretty consistent with the 18 month upgrade cycle expect CS3 to come out around Nov 2006, or the end of this year. Considering the Pro machines won't go Intel until probably around WWDC in July waiting another half year really won't be that bad. Sure it's not the best news in the world, but I can hold off. The time it will take to get pro apps from other vendors than Apple out with universal binaries is going to hurt adoption of the new machines a bit though.

The timing is almost perfect isn't it?

I'm not sure there is much more apple/adobe could be expected to do. Apple needed to fire the "we can do it" flare ASAP, and sales were always going to be affected until the entire new range was out, esp. when software houses were going to struggle to update their apps.

Hopefully this will just result in a better quality product from Adobe in the end.

 

[MacSA]

Well I have seen a few repoports of Adobe grumbling about the Intel transition. So i suppose this isn't a surprise.

 

[l008com]

Lets not forget that it took adobe forever to get OS X compatible apps out too. And when they first came out, they were slow and buggy too. Adobe is so bloated, it has trouble moving at all. That said I use photoshop and golive every single day. What can I do. Until someone saves me, i'm stuck here.

 

[artifex]

"I have only one question, Steve. What took you so long?" - Bruce Chizen at WWDC 2005

I'd like to see Steve play that in the background after inviting Bruce to give his announcement when Adobe Universal binaries finally ship.
And then banish him from the stage.

 

[mduser63]

Let me see if I understand this. Are people saying that all currently existing software WILL NOT RUN on new mactel machines. What I mean is, if you buy an intel mac you will also have to reaquire all the software again.??

No, most existing software will run on the new Intel Macs. It's just that apps that aren't Universal will run under Rosetta. Rosetta is PPC emulation technology that does binary translation of PPC instructions to Intel instructions. As with any emulation, there's a performance penalty, but based on reports from people who have Intel Macs, it's really quite good compared to other emulation. Something like 50% of native performance.

 

[l008com]

hahahhaha that would be sick

I'd like to see Steve play that in the background after inviting Bruce to give his announcement when Adobe Universal binaries finally ship.
And then banish him from the stage.

 

[ChrisA]

This is good news in a roundabout way

THis is good, see below.

This makes sense to. Converson over to Apple's xcode is non-triveal when you have as much code as Adobe must have. I've ported large software systems. All I'll say about it is "tens of thousands of little details. and some poor guy has to look at and decide what to do about each one of them"

But this really does have a ripple effect. I was thinking of buying a Wacom tablet partly because of the bundled software. I plan on upgrading an Intel iMac down the road too. Those plans are on hold now. Wacom will have to wait to sell me a tablet until they can bundle it with "universal" software and Apple will have to wait to sell me a new iMac untl something other than iLife runs on it.

Bottom line is that with the money saved by not giving it to Apple, Adobe and Wacom I can afford a new Nikon DSLR this year. So life is good. Thank you Adobe.