Flash for Mac: How Long Before Universal Binary?

Question

I have an iMac G4 1 GHz PPC and am contemplating purchasing
Flash 8 (or some software containing Flash) for my son. I recently
found a good educational source with a decent price. To my
understanding the current version of Flash is PPC only, but it may
be able to run under Rosetta on the new Intel Macs. I have heard
that Adobe will not release a universal binary update to Flash 8
and that Flash will likely not run natively on Intel Macs until the
next major release of Flash (I guess that will be 9). I plan to
keep my G4 for quite a while but I can see some handwriting on the
wall that indicates we'll probably get another Mac (Intel) within
the year.
A few questions. Has anyone run Flash under Rosetta on an
Intel Mac? How does it run? Do you think I should just go ahead and
buy Flash 8 now and start getting some good use out of it (the edu
discount makes it a pretty good deal anyway)? When is the next
version of Flash expected in an ordinary development cycle?
Thanks very much.

Answer 1

Well, from a switchers point of view, I have never run Adobe
products under PPC as I was always a Unix and Windows user,
however, as of recently I have switched all my systems to Intel
based Macs, and I have to say, that although I can not run my
business without Flash 8, its performance under Rosetta is dismal
at best.
On an average day of 4-5 hours of developement, Flash 8 will
crash for no reason every 15 to 20 minutes. I have to save my
changes every few minutes or I am bound to lose my work. The speed
is reduced more than 50%, so unless you can deal with the feeling
that you are developing underwater with the speed issues and the
constant crashes, I would highly suggest waiting for Flash Pro 9.
An as a final note, this going to Adobe, who refuses to even
give a tentative release date, I am appauld at your lack of concern
for your customers. Every other major company has already released
updates to their products as Universal Binaries, yet you talk like
your products are so more advanced then any other products on the
planet, that it requires you to do strick beta testing to ensure it
runs properly. My answer to that is this... ANYTHING that is native
to Intel Mac has got to run better than your products under
Rosetta. Crashing every 15-20 minutes and running like a snail is
NOT an alternative to possibly bugs that may have occured by
releasing a universal upgrade for Flash 8. So that is simply an
excuse on your part for not supporting your customers.