Apple discontinues Final Cut Express, reportedly ends Server too

I love Apple, but could not be more disappointed in FCPX. I just had to tell 5 of my pro customers NOT to buy. Most of us have been using FCP since version 1.

This release of FCPX may spell the beginning of the exodus of Pro Video editors that will soon no longer be Apple customers! Boy will Avid and Adobe be happy!

No import of FCP7 projects, no viewer window, no custom layouts, no external monitoring, buggy, no multi-cam (pros use more than ONE camera), little support for tape (Pros Still use tape), little in Blu-ray support (pros need to deliver in HD on Disc)!

This is just iMovie Pro, NOT a Final Cut Pro. This version is a joke to a pro editor. We waited years for this? Really?

Obviously, Apple no longer cares about Pro users. Probably explains why they abandoned NAB for the last few years! I totally understand that Apple has a bigger business in iPads, iPhones and MacBooks. Maybe Apple should have sold FCP to another company! Now if you made a living using FCP all these years, you are totally screwed.

Flashy UI and a new features, some very nice, does NOT replace a true pro app for professional editors! So FCP that app that revolutionized affordable non-linear editing for pro users is now over!

Take a look at the reviews in the Mac App Store.

It would be nice to have just $100 discount for FCE users - I've paid for at least 3 upgrades to that product since I first bought it, it's a bugger to have to throw all that away.

"Now that some Tuesday's Final Cut Pro X is available, additional details about Apple's pro video edition solution are available."

Wait, what? Some Tuesday's Final Cut is available? Are there others?

I think it's going to be a royal pain for my IT group to set up an Apple ID to be able to buy this and install in on my Macbook Pro. I can buy it and expense it, I guess, but then the license is in my name, not theirs.

I WANT A BOX.

Have any of you naysayers (I am avoiding the word "haters") taken a look at the videos on the project page? This is miles ahead of the old FCP!

With the distributed processing that is available, FC Server seems kind of redundant. I would also submit that the sales of FC Server were low enough that it no longer justified keeping the product alive. Plus, if you look at the Asset Management tools in FCPX, it looks like they integrated the most desirable features of FCS into FCPX.

Stop going "Change BAD!!!", and start looking at the incredible editing features they have added to this app. They truly have analyzed the most annoying things about FCP and fixed, well, ALL of them, and added to cool new abilities to boot.

Would I have liked a FCEX (FCXX?)? Sure, but the app is pretty damn cheap as it is, and the people who don't do pro work probably won't even need Motion or Compressor (or at least Motion).

All in all, this is one stellar NLE suite. Do you really think that Apple didn't think all this through? They could have kept Server as a separate product; but I think they have actually made it redundant at this point.

I feel FC server had a very specific purpose that you just can't toss :(