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Before you get too comfy in your switch . . . .
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[Gary Pollard] “That’s why I save my docs in RTF format in case I decide to wave goodbye to Office. (I held on to Word Perfect a long time before throwing in the towel).”
I wasn’t as smart as you and now I have lots of unusable old documents in Appleworks format.
-mattyc
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[Gary Pollard] “For example, now I have the choice of getting Adobe Production Suite for Apple or Windows. Although I have Premiere alone on the Mac, it still plays nicer with Windows, and my long term views of how Apple regards me as a user is also going to have to be a factor. I think it’s the same for many here.
As I said, your idea of where Apple is going may be wrong or right, but if right, it’s as much a reason to leave as to stay.”
There are lots of variables though. Lion on Apple’s side. The upcoming Windows 8 on Microsoft. We can see where Apple is going with AV Foundation with respect to Lion. I’m not sure what’s happening with any underlying media technology on Windows. We can speculate where Quicktime might go on Windows of course. Then there’s Media Composer’s move to 64 bits up ahead as well.
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[Craig Seeman] “See Autodesk.”
Most people here right now aren’t trying to make a decision about Autodesk. However, they are trying to make a decision about Apple.
I suspect “Someone else did it” isn’t likely to factor much.
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“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
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The point is that many if not most people will buy the product they feel best meets their needs even regarding a company’s past history.
Right now FCPX can’t possibly meet the needs of most professionals. A year or two may be a very different story and if (only if) Apple’s workflow excels in the cost benefit ROI departments, a lot of people will buy
. . . at that point in time. -
[Craig Seeman] “You think Avid was “nice” when they announced they were dropping Mac support?”
But it never actually happened. A guy rattled his saber, he’s long gone, everybody he worked for is long gone, and Avid never stopped making Media Composer for Mac.
I’m not saying that the development history had absolutely feature parity. It didn’t, but neither has Adobe’s path with Premiere. Of course, both Media Composer and Premiere Pro are virtually identical across platforms today.
A big difference, though. Adobe DID drop Mac support when Premiere Pro was introduced in 2003. BOOM, gone, no Mac support for what used to be a Mac-only product. No warning. Gone, overnight. No path forward except on Windows. For FOUR YEARS.
This is of course no longer the case. I’m a fan of Premiere. I think that many FCP folks should have been using Premiere all along. It’s simply better suited to what they’re doing.
Let’s just be clear on the history. Media Composer: never dropped on Mac. Premiere: dropped on Mac for FOUR YEARS.
I still say full steam ahead. Premiere deserves your full attention as an outstanding alternative among several as you evaluate your next steps. So does Media Composer. But it would be unfortunate to let a misremembering of history be part of your decision-making process.
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[Craig Seeman] “Avid announcing the end of Mac support and then backpedaling?”
Avid “backpedaling” here meant they were actually listening to their customers, and that was absolutely the right thing to do. Look at all the people here clamoring for Apple to do a little backpedaling themselves now!
And since I can’t turn down a chance to take a cheap dig at Apple for being stingy on expansion slots — one the key reasons Avid cited when they looked to step away from the Mac platform was the release of the beige G3, which offered only 3 PCI slots. The 9600 (which preceded the Power Macintosh G3) rocked 6 slots.
My pedantry aside, though, I very much agree with your overall point that this is only the dawn of a new generation of frameworks and applications which will continue to evolve and mature. I’m not sure that Apple’s plans necessarily include us, though — I think another way of connecting the same dots could be that professional editorial is just collateral damage in their larger plan.
In times of change, fortune favors the nimble, not the faithful. Let’s all stay on our toes.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Tim Wilson] “Let’s just be clear on the history. Media Composer: never dropped on Mac.”
I did say “announced” which is all they did and is accurate on that point.
[Tim Wilson] “Premiere: dropped on Mac for FOUR YEARS. “
I suspect that at that point they felt they couldn’t or didn’t’ want to compete with FCP for various reasons.
FCP really wasn’t anything close to a competitor to Avid when they made that announcement which was around 2000.
At this point though Premiere seems to be the most practical solution to open old FCP projects. It seems clear from the additional info Apple is disseminating that, despite clarify bits of the roadmap, FCP import into FCPX is not going to happen or even be encouraged on their part. I do think Apple is pointing towards and enterprise level solution.
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[Geert van den Berg] “AV Foundation is just a framework at the moment, part of what in combination with other frameworks makes FCPX. It’s not a container format like Quicktime or MXF, or is it?
“QuickTime was both a framework and a container format. AV Foundation is just a framework. It works with multiple container formats, including the QuickTime container format.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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[Craig Seeman] “Note that Sony is supporting Thunderbolt but will be using a USB3 like connector rather than miniDisplay like connector.”
Yup, it was in the second sentence in the post you just replied to. 🙂
The passion Craig, you probably overlooked it…
BTW, i think that as of 2012 apple will have no exclusivity over TB.
Hector Berrebi
prePost Consulting -
[Hector berrebi] “BTW, i think that as of 2012 apple will have no exclusivity over TB.”
They don’t. Sony is implementing it. But you know this already. I assume Sony isn’t announcing for 2012.
A point is that even if one chooses Windows there are pending complications.
If it’s between HP and Mac, some may edge toward Mac if Thunderbolt is important.
It may well open the door for Sony if they can put together a workstation competitive to HPZ series for example.
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