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An Open Letter to Adobe
A year and a half ago I initiated a thread that sparked an interesting discussion on Linux and Adobe’s CS suite. I’d like to re-introduce that proposal again since the subject is even more valid and timely now. It’s an idea I’d like to call the Adobe Ubuntu Production Suite.
It would be priced the same as the Windows or OSX versions and comes bundled with Ubuntu. The DVDs install both Linux and the Adobe Production Suite at the same time on an empty hard drive. Adobe would offer a specific list of accepted hardware they would support with optimized video, sound card, motherboard (etc.) drivers installed in the OS.
The bundle comes with a year of support from Adobe, and they support both the OS and their Creative Suite. If your hardware is not on their list, you’re on your own. That alone should make support cheaper than Vista or XP, for which there are an infinite variety of Video cards, sound cards, networking and so forth.
There would be a Production Suite Premium version which adds premium versions of specific programs like After Effects along with one other perk. There are four one-gig USB thumbs configured with a barebones (text) version of Ubuntu and a render farm engine for After Effects. These could be inserted in any computer on the user’s network to speed larger rendering projects, booting from the thumb and saving data to a network drive. They would ignore the local hard drive and so ensure that the client PC wouldn’t be changed in any way. Additional thumbs would be available at $49.95 each. Each thumb would be copy protected so you couldn’t duplicate it. This would provide you with an on-demand rendering farm, free for the first four computers and $50 per PC thereafter. Such a deal! But I digress. Back to reality.
It’s only in the last month that I’ve finally been able to run Premiere in a virtual machine (on Linux) with the newest version of VirtualBox. But honestly, it’s a hassle to run XP inside a VM and I still haven’t figured out how to write to a DVD or print from inside VirtualBox, and of course, there are performance issues. Granted, it’s better than nothing but I’d like to be able to run Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects natively within Linux. It would make my day, and maybe even my week.
I’d upgrade to that in a minute. Would you?
Ron
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7 Replies
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Your renderfarm ideas are cool,
But I think it’s pretty unrealistic Adobe would port After Effects to a new platform.
I’m not a unix programmer, but that would be very untrivial, just from a programming point of view.
I think that market would be even smaller than the MAC market now. So they would have to charge a lot more, especially since you’re proposing new and unique functionality. -
Wouldn’t it just be easier to buy a mac pro, install Adobe s/ware & nothing else on there…Then get Adobe to recommend any additional hardware configs and agree to support it as per your Linux suggestion? They could have an online feed to your system to make sure you have nothing else installed. You install the current Render Engines that ship with AE (or just fire up the same project on several machines with full AE version on and render skip frames)
This way they don’t have to re-write the whole suite for Linux and they can keep tabs on what’s on your machine for conflicts. You’ve got a 64-bit OS there…they just need to write 64-bit versions of the apps and you’re away! 😉
What can Linux offer that OSX can’t? That’s not a baited question – I’m just curious having never used Linux.
AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
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Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0 -
[Jimmy Brunger] “What can Linux offer that OSX can’t? That’s not a baited question – I’m just curious having never used Linux.
“Cheaper Hardware is what prompted this idea, I think.
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[Filip Vandueren] “Cheaper Hardware is what prompted this idea, I think.”
Which is exactly why, in all likelihood, that any reasonably suspicious product manager would turn and run from the idea. With the motivating factor being to see how cheap things could get, they would likely have little to no interest in it. I sure wouldn’t. Projecting the destination of something whose genesis is cheapness, does not bode well for anything other than a freeware/shareware product.
And having to hire and train support personnel to know and support Ubuntu would also be a nightmare from a manufacturer’s point-of-view.
Your mileage may vary.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
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[Filip Vandueren] “Cheaper Hardware is what prompted this idea, I think.”
Since I’m the one that offered the idea, I am uniquely qualified to tell you exactly what prompted it.
I’ve been a loyal Windows user from the beginning. I even remember DOS and taught the accounting office Lotus 123. I remember Word when it was graphical before it came to Windows; the first app I used with a mouse even before Windows was announced.
Windows 2000 was my favorite Microsoft OS since it was more stable than 95 and 98, and was in fact a faster than both. Adobe forced me to move to XP when I upgraded to the CS suite. In time, XP came to be a stable OS, although only about half as fast (by my subjective testing) as Win2K.
So that’s my history and my heritage. I believe I have a right to my opinion and here it is.
Microsoft will not gain another of my hard earned dollars. Linux is better, faster, and stronger on every level.
I have used and like Apple products. I can’t say I was a real fan prior to OSX, but with my prior exposure to Unix, I quickly realized the value OSX brought to the fray. It’s as good or better than anything else out there, but then the same can be said for Linux.
While it’s a distinctly different branch, Linux shares the same foundation as OSX. The main difference is the approach of Apple via Steve Jobs’ unique perspective that says ‘We know what you want and need better than you do’ and Linux that says ‘We’re all in this together to make the best possible product.’
It’s not about cost of hardware, it’s a philosophy, and it works. I will never give away my freedom of choice to a people that ‘know what’s best for me.’ That’s my job alone and I’m not surrendering it to anybody. Not even Apple.
This is not an attempt to start a flame war. And I won’t play if one begins. But I am entitled to my perspective. And that’s why I’ve chosen Linux. I use Windows inside a VM only because Adobe won’t play. And if the Linux community comes out with a competitor before Adobe makes the inevitable choice, that’s the way I will go.
Ron
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What are the other benefits other than cost for a Linux version? I wonder if you did this, how would you make sure there was equal support for video card drivers that would interact not only with Linux but with programs like AE and Premiere.
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Your right to opinion is not in question to me – I wish you the best of luck with your quest. If you can get ANY reaction or help from Adobe then I’ll eat my head!
Truth is – Adobe is market leader at this level and they have got so massive that they can pretty much do what they want…unless someone comes and rivals them. Apple s/w is the only thing that will come close IMO and the competition would be healthy and is exactly what we all need. I hate the GUI and approach of Apple AV apps myself, but have to use FCP at times for my job and to collaborate well with others.
AE is pretty much necessary in that way for the kind of work I do and to share projects, etc. OS X is the best option to run it currently. It has its limitations (no scanline rendering, lack of raytracing, true 3D compositing, rubbish handling of large images, etc, etc) but it’s the best option for alot of the mograph stuff we do. Try Fusion, Nuke, Toxik, or even Flame if you’ve got the dollar if you want to go the Linux route – but IMO none of them shine like AE for mograph. Compositing – hands down, but not so much allrounders.
Maybe the Red Hat flavour of Linux would be a more likely route Adobe might follow – with all Autodesk Editing&Finishing systems running on that? Some intelligent compatibility between Autodesk & Adobe could be interesting, if unlikely whilst Combustion is still fighting to catch AE.
Best of luck getting a reply from Adobe..if they spent a bit more time listening to the customers they’ve got then when Apple or whoever does finally bring something rivalling to the table then maybe Adobe won’t lose as many unhappy customers to them!
AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
———————————
Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0
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