Adobe program for nicer computers!!!

Question

I've been a creative professional for some years now and I
never understood why companies like Adobe don't program for
individuals or companies that keep their equipment up to date.
I've been working with Vista 64-bit since the day it came
out. I have to say I haven't had much trouble with programs
working, except Acrobat Pro. I use the 64-bit version because when
available I will be able to use 128 GB's of memory. I installed my
CS3 suite from day one and every thing worked great, minus Acrobat.
My beef was that the instruction sets, processor cores/threads and
the extra memory were never utilized. In fact Adobe had to release
a multi-core update for photoshop to work correctly, months later.
It ran like an 8086 processor computer until the release. In fact I
was using CS2 for photoshop.
So needless to say I was pretty excited about the new CS4 to
utilize all the power of my 9770 processor and 16 GB's of memory,
not to mention the talk of 64 bit programs. How exciting someone
over there is moving forward!
HOW ABOUT NO!!! Nice work Adobe. You made one 64 bit program
that only accepts 8 GB's of memory. So when the new i7 intel
processor comes out in a month with the x58 chipset using 24 GB's
of memory won't work with the software I use every day, Flash and
Photoshop won't use anymore than my two year old technology
computer can throw at it.
We're talking 8 threads for the processor and 24 GB's of
memory to start with. You know the power that would give the
customer and how much faster and easier working with Adobe products
would be? Sometimes I have Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator and AE
open. All while checking emails and using the internet.
Developing to use all the features of the processors and
newer hardware would be nice as well. Instead of using all 18
months to develop CS5 and just adding two or three features, do
something that matters. We want power to be use by our software if
we have it.
My new CS4 products take about 10 seconds to open because of
the poor use of resources. I have a computer that is in the top 1%
in the world for desktops. I would like to see a return on my
investment by the software I use actually working faster not
slower, like it does now. I feel like I need an update for Flash
becaue it takes twice as long to publish.
I'm a member of the research team that you hired for feedback
on the new products and you won't be getting a good review from me.
I feel like I paid for a new suite, again, my fifth one, and didn't
get very much for my money. I was expecting fast, multi-core
processor support, lots of memory support and 64 bit support. I can
only image how outraged Mac users are about not having any 64 bit
support. This technology is going on its 5th year of being public.
All programs should be available in 64 bit. Most every other
company out there has a 64 bit version for all of their software...
A refund would be nice or a new manager of the programming
department. Some new guy keeping up with technology and researching
the direction of the updates in versions.
Don't expect me to buy CS5 until CS6 comes out or at all. CS5
may catch up to the hardware technology by then...
Sincerely,
Disappointed...

Answer 1

I know you want to come to Adobe's defense on this David and
that's ok.
Firstly, I know Macromedia programmers were brought over with
the merger, but they had to adopt their code to the Adobe
implementation of the interface. Flash as software just does not
run as smoothly as it did before. The examples of Panels was to
illustrate that Macromedia's programmers had to make their
programming fit Adobe's model and certain features just didn't
work. They've had time to correct this and smooth out the bugs but
that didn't happen. So, from our Flash example, we can see problems
were actually introduced into Flash from the merger of the
programmers and it never has been as smooth.
As for my upgrade comment, I would prefer if Adobe listed
which software actually changed and had actual upgrades if they
sold on their own. Just calling it CS4 doesn't make it an upgrade
unless they actually had a development cycle for it and introduced
new features. Flash? for sure it is new...many new "designery"
features. Fireworks and DW? You bet! They showed us the betas in
the labs. All good. InDesign? No idea. Bridge? I think so. There
was something. Premiere? No idea if it's new or not. That's where I
was going. They've promoted the Suites without really being clear
on what is new.
I agree they've brought out "bleeding edge features" I wasn't
denying that. They've been moving very quickly at introducing
things, but we haven't seen any improvements into how the software
works smoothly on various machines. Macromedia software ran so
smooth on old laptops as it did on high end machines. Photoshop 7
was THE most stable PS version. All we'd like to see when we defend
our software purchases to our employers is new features and making
it easier and faster to do our work.
Failed? Strong words. Your right. Economically? no no the
merger rocked the world! BUT from a consumer perspective of the
amount of money NOW flying out the door for the software, there's
definitely less on the return. It's a natural part of being too
big. So, you can jump on any side you want and pick which you want
to define it as. I'd really like Adobe to clean up it's programming
a little bit and maybe go out and buy a 64 bit machine for testing.
If they do that AND improve the software's performance people have
absolutely NO PROBLEMS with giving Adobe more and more money. I'd
rather live in an Adobe world than a Microsoft one (which is what
they want) but right now I would rather just give the Macromedia
fellas my money. I had no idea how great of a job they did until
after the results of the merger. That's what I meant by fail but I
do know Adobe as a company is stronger as a result of the merger.
Shouldn't both be moving forward together?
Heck, I'd even still buy FreeHand if they could start selling
it again.