Adobe & Intel Macs

[ktinkel]

Adobe has released a PDF announcement (http://www.adobe.com/products/pdfs/intelmacsupport.pdf) of its plans for updating CS and other high-end applications as Universal Binaries for Intel-based Macs.

In a nutshell, the update will be part of the next regular update, 18 to 24 months after the CS2 release. CS3 and other programs will be run natively on both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs.

Adobe acknowledges performance problems with running PPC apps on Intel Macs (using Rosetta). It suggests that increasing RAM to 1GB may help (and implies that running one program at a time might help as well). But it says if speed is important, users should hang on to their PPC Macs until the next release cycle. (Wonder what Apple thinks of that?)

I wonder how many publishing organizations will be in a big hurry to switch to Intel Macs anyway. Big changes generally (and quite sensibly from a production workflow point of view) take some time.

Interesting times. Again.

By the way, the PDF includes a list of apps being prepared for updating to UB in the next cycle. Notable among the missing is Freehand. Not exactly unexpected, but worth noting anyway. (They do have a statement that they are considering what to do with other programs, which may include FH.)

[imatt]

A good reason to stay with Windows....only jokin'.....don't want any platform wars, esp as I'm a PC user.

Actually, as far as Freehand is concerned, could not Quark purchase it? Thats if Adobe were obliging of course. Freehand could at least give Quark another string to its bow.

Before Adbe bought out MM, I was convinced Quark and MM would merge. Esp as Quark were at one time offering Freehand along with Xpress in a bundle deal.

[ktinkel]

… as far as Freehand is concerned, could not Quark purchase it? Thats if Adobe were obliging of course. Freehand could at least give Quark another string to its bow.

Before Adbe bought out MM, I was convinced Quark and MM would merge. Esp as Quark were at one time offering Freehand along with Xpress in a bundle deal.Then I suspect they didn’t try or couldn’t afford it or something.

Hard to know whether it would be smart of Adobe to let Quark, in particular, have such a thing at this point. Besides, Adobe seems to like to keep a lot of software trophies on its mantle. It has acquired many over the years!

[imatt]

Hard to know whether it would be smart of Adobe to let Quark, in particular, have such a thing at this point. Besides, Adobe seems to like to keep a lot of software trophies on its mantle. It has acquired many over the years!Fair point. Look at what happened to Aldus Photosyler and now PageMaker. They become surplus to reqs and simply "die".

[ktinkel]

Fair point. Look at what happened to Aldus Photosyler and now PageMaker. They become surplus to reqs and simply "die".And all the font programs they acquired from Emerald City (TypeAlign) and Ares, (FontMonger, Chameleon, more). Don’t forget Persuasion (and several small programs acquired with Aldus).

I don’t see a strong future for GoLive or Framemaker. Other acquisitions may have been integrated into Adobe core applications so only appear to have been shelved.

[Michael Rowley]

KT:

'I don’t see a strong future for GoLive or Framemaker'

You may be right about FrameMaker, but Adobe released v. 7.2 recently, for which you have to pay serious money, even if you have v. 7.0 or v. 7.1. Of course, it's not a Mac application, so 'you' mustn't be taken literally.

[John Spragens]

And FrameMaker 7.2 gives you multiple undo. Good. But it didn't seem like enough of an improvement to justify an upgrade. I'm sure that wasn't the only bullet point on the list, but it was the only one that jumped out as potentially useful in my everyday work.