Question for Apple Afficionados

richtersl

Some time over the next year or so I'd like to ditch my notebook that uses Windows XP and purchase an Apple notebook.

I have Photoshop CS2 installed on my current notebook. I know the Windows version will not run on Apple. Anyone know what's involved with transferring that copy to an Apple computer?

DavidTO

richtersl wrote:

Some time over the next year or so I'd like to ditch my notebook that uses Windows XP and purchase an Apple notebook.

I have Photoshop CS2 installed on my current notebook. I know the Windows version will not run on Apple. Anyone know what's involved with transferring that copy to an Apple computer?

I don't believe Adobe will transfer old software. They would transfer CS3, AFAIK, so I believe the process will include an upgrade.

richtersl

DavidTO wrote:

I don't believe Adobe will transfer old software. They would transfer CS3, AFAIK, so I believe the process will include an upgrade.

So.....then would need to purchase an upgrade to CS3 in Apple format or, upgrade to CS3 first and then do the transfer??? :help

DavidTO

richtersl wrote:

So.....then would need to purchase an upgrade to CS3 in Apple format or, upgrade to CS3 first and then do the transfer??? :help

You really need to ask Adobe this. You can hold them to what they say. Whatever we say is just... what we say!

davev

I don't know if you want to go this way, but I believe that with the new Apple OS, you can partition the drive
to have it boot to windows or to Leopard.

Before you buy anything from Adobe that you may not need, check into that.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bootcamp.html

Cheekygeek

Any Intel-based Mac that you buy today has the ability to also run Windows, and therefore any Windows program. You can use Bootcamp (which allows you to choose at boot time which operating system you wish to use) or you can use a program like Parallels to run Windows in a virtual PC space. I have Parallels, but I have not yet tried using Photoshop on the Windows side. Performance on Parallels will not be as good as on a native OS, but I imagine that on Boot Camp it would be the same as on a comparable Windows CPU of the same speed. Parallels allows you to switch seamlessly back and forth between Mac OS X and Windows XP without rebooting, but it costs money. Bootcamp comes with your Mac.

So you are going to need a copy of original Windows (XP) CDs to install Windows on your new Mac (either Bootcamp or Parallels will need this) and I understand that OEM copies don't work (like Dell). Once you have Windows installed on your Mac, you can use a program like Laplink PC Mover to move your PC programs and data over to the Windows side of your Mac (or another PC). No experience with the program. Reading the Reader Reviews on Amazon, seems like some people call it a "Godsend" and others had problems.

Hope that helps!

DavidTO

Yes, running windows on your mac IS an option, but.... ugh. Not a way to simplify your life, that's for sure.

colourbox

Some official Adobe info on platform switching is in this blog post. If you have more questions the best thing to do is call the number in the blog post.

Cheekygeek

DavidTO wrote:

Yes, running windows on your mac IS an option, but.... ugh. Not a way to simplify your life, that's for sure.

Well, I agree but I thought it best to answer the question asked. The only reason I can see to do it is if you need a Windows-only program. Photoshop doesn't fall into that category and so anyone would be much better off to purchase the Mac version of Photoshop CS3 (or wait for the upcoming CS4). But if money is an issue and you are trying to get by with what you've got, then I've outlined the way to go. The other option is to keep the old laptop for Photoshop (for now) and get it on the Mac "down the road".

Personally, I don't spend any more time in Windows than I have to... but let's not turn it into one of THOSE threads.

Cheekygeek

colourbox wrote:

Some official Adobe info on platform switching is in this blog post. If you have more questions the best thing to do is call the number in the blog post.

The question was about CS2. Any question to Adobe will get little response, other than to upgrade to CS3. I doubt that they are going to send an older version CS2 Mac disk (but I could be wrong).

richtersl

Thanks! I knew that DGrin would be a good place to begin my research and you all have certainly provided me with good information.

I am aware that I can have a Windows partition but it seems to be more aggravation than it's worth.

cmason

richtersl wrote:

Thanks! I knew that DGrin would be a good place to begin my research and you all have certainly provided me with good information.

I am aware that I can have a Windows partition but it seems to be more aggravation than it's worth.

Running Windows in VMWare Fusion, running XP in the virtual machine, and CS2 running inside that. There is no partition, the virtual machine is simply a 15GB file on my Mac HD. Simple, and works just fine, no issues, and dead simple to set up. Reads and writes to my newly Mac HFS formatted external photo drive just fine. I could not however, launch Windows CS2 from Lightroom running in Mac OS, though I am told that is a feature of Parallels.

Ended up getting CS3...did not upgrade, long story. I purchased Lightroom from Adode online, and I can download either Windows or Mac versions. In fact, the license allows a copy on my laptop, which is Windows XP, as well as a copy on my iMac. Not sure about CS3 for this.

Richard

I went through something similar about a year ago. I was pissed at Adobe's policy of forcing an upgrade to CS3 to move to a Mac. In the end, I bought a new Windows machine and upgraded to CS3 anyway mainly because I wanted to use ACR 4.x and Lightroom wasn't worth what it cost to me. CS3 turned out to be well worth the upgrade cost. Some of the new functions are really neat, the new ACR is great and Bridge is actually usable (finally). I would recommend that you just bite the bullet and pay for the cross-platform upgrade to CS3.

richtersl

Wow, you guys terrific!
So it looks like the first order of business is to upgrade to CS3 and then do a license transfer of sorts with Adobe after I make my purchase. That sounds simple enough. I had been dreading the possibility of having to shell out $$$ for a new license. I can handle the $199 for the upgrade. It's the $600 something for a new license that was making me go :eek1 .

Richard -- you were having problems with Bridge in CS2? Weird, it's been running smoothly on my machine. The thing that drove me nuts was the PS album organizer that came with Elements and I noticed it was also available for CS2. I'm not sure what shortcomings Bridge had for you but it's inifinitely more usable than the album organizer.

Richard

richtersl wrote:

So it looks like the first order of business is to upgrade to CS3 and then do a license transfer of sorts with Adobe after I make my purchase. That sounds simple enough. I had been dreading the possibility of having to shell out $$$ for a new license. I can handle the $199 for the upgrade. It's the $600 something for a new license that was making me go :eek1 .

Richard -- you were having problems with Bridge in CS2? Weird, it's been running smoothly on my machine. The thing that drove me nuts was the PS album organizer that came with Elements and I noticed it was also available for CS2. I'm not sure what shortcomings Bridge had for you but it's inifinitely more usable than the album organizer.

Well, I was running it on an old machine. CS2 ran fine on it, though. If Bridge is working for you, great. I would check first with Adobe about the current cross-platform upgrade policy. It might be easier and/or cheaper to do it all in one step.

jdryan3

richtersl wrote:

So.....then would need to purchase an upgrade to CS3 in Apple format or, upgrade to CS3 first and then do the transfer??? :help

Neither/Both. I did this last June. You do both at once. When you contact Adobe about the transfer they will send you a Destruction form, whereby you sign your life away that you have/will destroy your PC CS2 media and uninstall it. At the same time you can place the order for the upgrade to CS3 on the Mac, which is on hold and conditional to them receiving the Destruction certification.

What they send you is a new copy of the full application for the Mac. Plus they only charged me for the upgrade, not the upgrade and the transfer fee.

I did not try to transfer CS2 to CS2, so I can't answer that part. Oh, since I was a NAPP member, they gave me the NAPP upgrade pricing that was in effect at that time.

richtersl

jdryan3 wrote:

Neither/Both. I did this last June. You do both at once. When you contact Adobe about the transfer they will send you a Destruction form, whereby you sign your life away that you have/will destroy your PC CS2 media and uninstall it. At the same time you can place the order for the upgrade to CS3 on the Mac, which is on hold and conditional to them receiving the Destruction certification.

What they send you is a new copy of the full application for the Mac. Plus they only charged me for the upgrade, not the upgrade and the transfer fee.

I did not try to transfer CS2 to CS2, so I can't answer that part. Oh, since I was a NAPP member, they gave me the NAPP upgrade pricing that was in effect at that time.

Thanks! The link that Colorbox posted earlier explained that as well but not in as much detail as you just did. Adobe probably won't be too keen on transferring CS2 since it is older software so I'll probably need to upgrade when the time comes.

I suspect that with Microsoft now cramming Vista down everyone's throats that I won't be the only one switching platforms.

colourbox

richtersl wrote:

I suspect that with Microsoft now cramming Vista down everyone's throats that I won't be the only one switching platforms.

You aren't the only one.

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