Re: Mac Power PC's - 4 years old and outdated

David Empson stated in post 1j4jx8v.1u844371iji7yxN%dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on
8/15/09 11:08 PM:

Snit <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

David Empson stated in post 1j4jq5u.1murn8rxm92fpN%dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on
8/15/09 8:22 PM:

Snit <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

... the topic was about Macs getting outdated and not being able to run
the newest software after a relatively short time. And, well, with the
loss of PPC support in CS5, the PPC Macs will no longer be supported.

I understand why Adobe made that choice - with having to move to Cocoa and
64 bit they have a lot on their plate. Might as well move forward as they
make such changes... but I can also see where people with the later G5s
would feel a bit slighted.

It isn't much worse than CS4, which came out in late 2008 and required a
G5 processor, so the computer had to be no more than five years old
(first PowerMac G5 was mid 2003), and it dropped support for some models
which were less than three years old (last PowerBook G4s). Some
components of CS4 suite already require an Intel processor.

Yes... Apple's transitions to Intel and now to *not* having 64 bit Carbon
have created this... but it is not like it is *that* bad. Still, annoying
for some and it does push the need to upgrade.

Agreed.

Not like two or three year old hardware of the type that was likely to be
used for CS is not being fully supported, though.

I disagree. Anyone who needed to use Photoshop in a mobile setting on a
Mac would have been using a PowerBook G4. CS4 would have forced them to
upgrade to a MacBook Pro, possibly less than three years after buying
the PBG4.

Hmmm, would have to check dates, but, sure, I can see where that would be
frustrating to have a less than three year old Mac not be able to run the
newest version. Would be like my iMac not being able to run CS5. I would
be bummed.

Assuming CS5 comes out somewhere around the middle of 2010, the oldest
Macs it will work on will be about 4.5 years old (first Intel models),
and the youngest orphaned computers will be about four years old (last
PowerMac G5).

CS1 (2003) worked on some Macs from late 1997 (first PowerMac G3), most
from 1998 and all from 1999 (four to six years old). CS2 (2005) still
worked on the same computers (six to eight years old).

CS3 (2007) brought the minimum up to a G4 running 10.4, which cut off
all models prior to 1999 and some as recent as late 2003 (four to eight
years old).

The only thing that differs with CS5 is that it is the high end computer
(PowerMac G5) which is being superseded fastest, since the Mac Pro came
out several months after other Intel models.

Moral of the story: if you want to run the latest and greatest high-end
software, you will probably need to replace your Mac every four or five
years.

Makes sense. Do you have a similar time line for Windows?

No, sorry. Mac specifications and timelines are well documented and easy
to match up with Adobe CS system requirements.

It would require a lot more research to identify a timeline for expected
age of computers running Windows that support particular versions of
Adobe CS.

The cutoff is also much less clear. For example, Photoshop CS4 Windows
requirements says it requires a 1.8 GHz or faster processor. That means
significantly different things if talking about a Pentium 4, Celeron,
Core 2 Duo, or whatever. It is also an arbitrary point of reference:
slower CPUs would work, but be slower.

How do you define a computer which can reaonably run a particular
version of Adobe CS without direct experience?

If we take Adobe's specifications as a reasonable minimum, Photoshop CS4
will run on some computers as old as 2001 (when the 1.8 GHz P4 and
Windows XP were introduced), but I don't know when that sort of speed
was widely available on maintstream computers.

At first glance, it looks like the latest Adobe CS can generally be used
for a year or two longer on high-end Windows computers than on high-end
Macs.

Used to be Macs allowed a longer window... a shame it has reversed.

We won't know CS5's specific requirements until it is released. I would
expect it to still work on XP, since it is still the mainstream version
of Windows and probably will be for much of next year, but who knows
what it will specify for minimum hardware.



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[INSERT .SIG HERE]


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