Adobe will not Offer Free Updates to Enable Vista Compatibility

Adobe is not going to update its older applications for Vista compatibility. Older versions of their applications such as PhotoShop CS and even PhotoShop CS2 are not going to be updated for Vista. Instead, Adobe is working on all its future applications to be fully compliant with Vista, the forthcoming; PhotoShop CS3 for example will be compatible with Vista.

Their non-professional applications are another story. PhotoShop Elements 5 and Adobe Reader 8 will be updated for full Vista compatibility. Adobe has no plans to update older versions of their professional software for Vista. That seems kind of backwards but that’s the way it is.

Any Adobe product that was released before January 30^th, 2007 is not fully Vista compatible. This does not mean you can’t use your older Adobe product on Vista but it does mean there may be compatibility issues with the program, crashing being the primary concern.

I know for a fact that PhotoShop 7, PhotoShop CS and PhotoShop CS2 all run under Vista with minimal issues, program crashes being the primary but that has happened all of twice in the past two months so it is not a major issue, just make sure to save often.

There really isn’t a problem with running your current Adobe products under Vista just know that problems might exist. Most professionals that use Adobe software have probably not yet upgraded to Vista; and if they have then spending a couple grand for all of the Adobe suites is not really a big deal for them.

Some have said this is their way of getting even with Microsoft for going head to head with them on the fronts of document creation and high-end graphics. That may be true but Adobe is remaining silent on the issue, it just seems wrong of them to punish the consumer as well.  Even so, no one else on the market can hold a candle to the functionality of Adobe’s applications.  Almost everyone is trained on Adobe, in high school, through college and in their job, it’s just an accepted standard.

It would have been nice of Adobe to update all of their programs at no charge to existing customers, it would have but they aren’t going to do that, unlike just about every other company on the planet. I say something stinks at Adobe.

• Adobe updates PostScript driver for Vista
• Adobe claims to have known about Flash-Vista loophole
• Adobe releases Acrobat 8.1 for Windows Vista and Office 2007
• Vista is fair with MP3 player compatibility issues
• Vista SP1 compounds existing compatibility issues