Adobe CS not going Universal until '07?

Oh, and also speaking of Adobe (well, technically, Macromedia, but it's Adobe now), I'm surprised that they haven't released a universal binary version of Flash Player yet. That's right: the latest Flash player doesn't work in Safari in Intel-native mode.

Re: 18 and everyone else who questions the opposition to Adobe. Adobe has A LOT of IP tied up into PS. It isn't an easy task to just come up with alternative ways to achieve some of the tools they use and not infringe on their IP. Adobe has been in the game a long time and I don't see some rogue GIMP programmer coming up with his own way(that doesn't remotely infringe on Adobe's IP) proggie that is the end all PS killer anytime soon.

You people really marginalize what Adobe does. If it was just so easy to make all of Adobe's stuff work anywhere or make an alternative, they wouldn't hold the foothold they do now.

And for the record, Adobe doesnt need Apple, Apple needs Adobe. If Adobe just decided to abandon Apple all together, I'd be a lot of money that more Adobe users would switch to PC than Mac users that would switch from Adobe.

Why is it no one has taken on Adobe in the Photoshop space?

As for the slow changeover from Adobe, the hard core designers
will wait of course, but a very large part of Photoshop users
who buy the new Intel Macs will start to look for alternatives.
Many of us only need Photoshop to prep files for Final Cut and
other jobs, we don't manipulate the shots that much. The cost
of Adobe updates every year or two is starting to look like a
bad investment to many of us video people.

Dan

You know, it just occured to me...

What if APPLE released a Creative Suite competitor? Like, in March. I doubt there would be anyway to pull something that huge off without a leak, but how crazy would THAT be?

Steve would be heralded as Mr. Amazing for his impeccable timing. That would be crazy.

OK, back down to earth now.

So...

Unlike the entire Mac community, Adobe took Steve at his word that Apple's pro machines wouldn't get the Intel update before 2007?

(sarcasm)
Hah hah, silly Adobe! Don't you read Apple rumor sites?!?!?!?!?!
(/sarcasm)

I was this close to buy new macpro this week but this news pretty much killed it for me. I live on Adobe CS so no point getting new machine that doesnt work at 100% speed on it. Shame on Adobe for playing game with us - really lame, I lost lots of respect for this.

18-24 months for Adobe to roll new apps, 2 - 3 years for Microsoft.... It's clear that they wouldn't have been ready for Intel machines that were originally going to be released in July anyway! I can understand why major vendors will wait for a new software release to go universal, but it seems like the timing on all of this could have been managed better.. I will be happy with my MBP when it arrives (go Feb 15th!) as use mostly Apple apps and do a very small amount of Dreamweaver work, but I imagine there will be plenty of people that will be forced to wait for the likes of Adobe to get their act together...

This disappoints me. I have a Windows laptop currently and though it's not bad preformance-wise with Adobe apps (1500+ Athlon XP, 768mb ram) I would have really hoped to replace it with the instant double speed increase of the MacBook, instead of a Rosetta limping one. My real concern is Adobe pulling a Quark, being slow to switch over (Quark + Classic = garbage) didn't do them any good. I really want to have the most out of my laptop when it's still new and cutting-edge, not a year later when it's been replaced. It might hurt sales for both companies if others feel the same way, which of course we'd all hate to see.


In reply to frank:

Inkscape(www.inkscape.org) is a nice vector program and is open-source, but I wouldn't use it for professional work.

I may like the idea of The Gimp, but I sure don't like the entire package. It's not as easy to use and is cluttered (Inkscape is much cleaner and has a far better workspace by default), among other issues. It's good for my fun forays into Linux, but I wouldn't use it for designing actual work.

Adobe's CS2 suite was last updated in April 2005.

18 months from then: October 2006.

This is an ideal case, but I think a lot of people are overreacting. Odds are that Apple will only release Intel-based workstations when it can either see an imminent Adobe update, or else that those apps will run relatively well in Rosetta. After all, if you have two 2.8 GHz "Conroe" (desktop Core Duo) processors in your high-end desktop, it's probably going to handle Rosetta code fairly well.

You couldn't pay me to use the GIMP even if they did make it aqua-native. And assuming someone did pay me to use it, what about alternatives to Illustrator? Or Acrobat? And what about Flash and After Effects, while we're at it?

I think most graphics professionals (like yours truly) aren't in any hurry to get an Intel-based Mac and will happily wait for the Universal versions of major Adobe, Macromedia, and Microsoft apps before considering a new hardware purchase.