This time, in the switch to Apple Silicon, its taking days and weeks.
Adobe recently releasedbeta versions of Premier, Rush, and Audition.
A compatiblePhotoShop betawas readyas soon asthe new M1 Macs were available, and Lightroom followed a few weeks later.
Apple
Even Microsofts Office suite is ready to roll.
Whats so different this time around?
Be Prepared
There were two things that hobbled Apples transition from PowerPC to Intel 15 years ago.
One was that Apple just wasnt that important.
Creative industries may have still preferred the Mac, but all the important software was also on PC.
These days, when Apple makes a change, even the biggest developers quickly get in line.
Back then, it wasnt certain if Adobe or Microsoft would ever make the changes.
For example, Steve Jobsannounced the Intel transitionat theJune 2005 Worldwide Developers Conference.
Adobe didnt even announce a compatible version of Photoshop until April 2006, which didntship until December 2006.
So, one part of the problem was that Macs just werent that big a priority.
The other problem was that it was a huge pain for developers to switch.
This meant that updating their apps meant updating their tools first.
And this had already happened.
This time the computers stayed the same, and the operating system changed.
Apple implemented theClassic environment, which let older apps keep running.
Amazingly, that turned out to be more or less true.
“I had to recompile [my app].
“That said, I dont do anything thats not pretty stock use of Apple frameworks.”
For Adobe and Microsoft, the hard transition work is behind them.
Both companies have also been shipping Apple Silicon apps for the iPhone and iPad.
Its obviously not quite this simple, but thats the general idea.
So, Apples transition to ARM-based Apple Silicon has been decades in the making.
Institutionally, Apple doesnt like to be at the mercy of anyone else.
