Apple’s intransigence when it comes to Flash support on its line of iOS devices has already been discussed ad nauseum. Indeed, the tension between the two companies has, at times, gotten publicly heated – one minute Steve Jobs is writing an anti-Flash screed, the next minute Adobe execs are calling the iPhone a closed platform. Next thing you know, Steve Jobs is calling Adobe “lazy” while Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen responds by accusing Apple of hindering Flash performance with its “proprietary lock-in.”
And now, Adobe has really upped the ante. We’re talking vindictive action here, folks. For you see, Adobe unleashed Adobe Flash Player 10.2 last Tuesday, and the upgrade, wait for it, no longer supports PowerPC based Macs.
Adobe is discontinuing support of PowerPC-based computer and will no longer provide security updates.Support is being discontinued because of performance enhancements that cannot be supported on the older PowerPC architecture.
Okay, to be fair, this isn’t entirely new news as Adobe made this clear in the Adobe Flash 10.1 release notes. And of course, Adobe’s CS software hasn’t supported PowerPC Macs for awhile now. But still, the news should send shivers down the spines of all those Mac users still revving up their ole’ Emacs or whatever other kind of PowerPC based Mac they still happen to have lying around and depreciating in market value.
Update: This was all tongue in cheek folks, we realize this is everything but a big deal. Carry on.
February 17th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Oh please, the drama. This is not a shock nor a stab at the Mac. Many other companies and Apple THEMSELVES have pretty much been moving away from PPC code. Ever heard of 10.6 Snow Leopard?
February 17th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Wow, years after Apple stopped supporting powerpc (my powerbook was left in the dust after iLife 08) we are supposed to care that Adobe is not focusing on it?
There are a ton of legitmate reasons to be driven nuts be Adobe, but this is not one of them.
February 17th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Okay, tone down the drama. This is not news.
February 17th, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Well that does it! I’m selling my PPC machine and buying an Intel based Mac!
February 18th, 2011 at 12:59 am
Ummm, “Strikes back?” No.
Adobe had years to build PPC software for Apple, but they decided that
Apple wasn’t going to be around much longer, so they punted.
February 18th, 2011 at 8:14 am
After riding Apple’s coat tails to success, the PC fanboys at Adobe took over. They all decided (like all good windows fanboys do) that Apple was simply doomed to fail. So, they told over 1/2 their customers to just get a PC. This they announced on their Web page and all. That’s when any self respecting Mac using Adobe customer told them to shove off.
Personally, I don’t need or want FLASH, it’s just a kludge for lazy programmers, frankly, and it’s only really used for games and ad banners. I care about PDF, and that works FAR better on the Mac than it does on the PC or in Adobe’s own programs. On the Mac, I don’t need to pay outrageous fees to use PDF, it’s all free in every program, and works FAR better than Adobe’s ‘official’ version (they must not be very good at what they do or they probably work to make it run slower on the Mac, ala Microsoft.)