Coping with planned obsolescence.

[John Rofrano]

[Walter Miale] “1) I have been using Photoshop CS2 for years on my 2007 iMac with OS 10.6.8. Months ago I found I couldn’t open it, and eventually Adobe told me I should uninstall the app and download a new one and activate that. But the Adobe website says, CS2 requires Mac OS X v.10.2.8–v.10.3.8, PowerPC® G4 or G5 processor. If that is true, how could I have been using CS2 with my OS 10.6.8 Mac????????”

Because Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard contains a subsystem called Rosetta that emulates a Power PC and allows you to run Power PC apps in your Intel Mac. That’s why it will work on your iMac. Just install it like Adobe told you to.

[Walter Miale] “3) If CS2 is installable on the iMac and the PowerBook and the PowerMac, will trying to do so on all three present activation problems?”

CS2 has been discontinued by Adobe and before they did, they were nice enough to issue versions that did not use activation. You should be fine installing it on multiple computers as long as you have a license to legally use it in the first place.

[Walter Miale] “4) Here is another possibility: Install Affinity on the iMac, after installing an up-to-date OS.”

That would be the long term solution because anything that you do short of that is just another patch to get you by on old outdated software. I really like Affinity Photo and I don’t mind not paying Adobe a monthly ransom at all.

[Walter Miale] “Can I boot the iMac from an external drive?”

Yes, just hold down the Option ⌥ key while booting at you will get a screen that shows all of the bootable drives that are attached.

[Walter Miale] “I guess I could use advice on which OS to us, and how to go about this. I have the internal drive partitioned, so I can install a new OS on one of the partitions. Is this a better idea than putting the new OS on the external drive? “

The internal drive will be much, much faster because I’m guessing that you are using USB 2.0 to attach your external drive which is excruciatingly slooooow. Also it sounds like every time you need to use CS2 you are going to need to reboot so you want that to be as painless as possible and partitioning your drive so that one partition is Snow Leopard and the other is OS X 10.11 El Capitan which is the last OS X to support the 2007 iMac, will be your best approach.

[Walter Miale] “5): Could/should I use Photoshop Elements instead of Affinity? I suspect it might be easier for me to learn. Please advise. If I use Photoshop Elements, is it available safely and ethically for free?”

Photoshop Elements is not free. You can get it in the Apple AppStore for $99 but it doesn’t come even close to Affinity in features which is only $49 so Elements would be the wrong approach. Get Affinity instead. It’s cheaper and better and works a lot like CS2 so you will learn it quickly.

[Walter Miale] “6) Is there an easier and faster way I can upload and an image ASAP? (jpg or preferably raw)”

Upload where? To the Cow? Try this:

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[Robert Withers]

Hello John,
I too find this a persistent problem with computer manufacturers/software. When I worked in 16 mm we used editing devices that were 20-30 years old with no problem. Eg, flatbed Steenbeck editing desks.

My sense is that periodically (5-10 years?) we are forced to buy new stuff because of the conscious-or-not collusion of computer manufacturers and software publishers.

I am editing my film/video on a Mac computer running 10.8.5 and both computer and software date to 2013. This works very well but I am paying rental on software which enables the publisher to continually update with versions that I can’t use on my system. But I’m working on a long-term project so don’t want to change software, even if I could access versions that would work on this hardware.

We don’t have to buy new stuff as often as they want us to, but we will have to buy it. Meanwhile I want to get out of the software rental game and go to old or new purchase software that will be quirky, limited, or unstable and not how I want to work. And I don’t expect to keep any particular hardware running forever if I want to use it everyday.

I miss the machine tools ☺

Good luck,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[John Rofrano]

[Robert Withers] “My sense is that periodically (5-10 years?) we are forced to buy new stuff because of the conscious-or-not collusion of computer manufacturers and software publishers. “

I doubt that it is collusion or that any conspiracy theory applies here. The simple fact is that manufacturers must continue to add new capabilities in order to attract new income or else the business will fold. I’m running macOS Sierra on a 2010 Mac Pro which is now 7 years old. Will I need a new computer in the next 3 years before it turns 10 years old? Perhaps, but 10 years of service from a computer is an incredibly long time for it to last. You really can’t complain at that point.

[Robert Withers] “I am editing my film/video on a Mac computer running 10.8.5 and both computer and software date to 2013. This works very well but I am paying rental on software which enables the publisher to continually update with versions that I can’t use on my system.”

I agree. Subscription software is the latest scheme in extracting money from your customer base. Now companies have no incentive to improve their software to attract customers because they can simply hold their existing customers for ransom by having their software stop working if they stop paying. I will not subscribe to this form of ransomware. It’s a loosing proposition for the customer.

[Robert Withers] “And I don’t expect to keep any particular hardware running forever if I want to use it everyday.”

Yes, but when your hardware dies, you can always buy used hardware that someone didn’t use every day! There are lots of refurbished 2010 Mac Pros that have a lot of life in them. I picked up a 12-core Mac Pro for $2375 a few years back and it’s still running great. They are priced down into the teens now so you can still buy old hardware and continue to use your old software if you want. I have a partition with Snow Leopard on it for when I need to use DVD Studio Pro and it still works great.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[Al Bergstein]

Walter, I assume you are using Techsoup to purchase your software? It allows you to purchase modern software at greatly reduced prices. If you are not aware of it, you should fill out the paperwork and get setup. It will help you stay current at an affordable price. https://www.techsoup.org/

Beyond that, John’s advice is spot on.

I have not bought a new computer for some time, as ebay allows you to find good values used.

The changeover from Rosetta to a purely 64bit system has been much better for things like memory use. As we move into 4k more and more, the need for RAM is great. My perfectly working 32GB 1080p editing machine is crashing on 4K footage. I could choose to not shoot 4k or look for a new machine (or software) that can handle it.

One thing I would be concerned about, and you might want to investigate is compatability between versions. I assume that now and into the future your creations will be able to be opened by newer versions of Photoshop. But I also know that my mother in law wrote a book on Pagemaker in the 90s, and there is no way I can open it anymore on any modern version of Pagemaker. We had to look into rewriting the whole thing. Just words to the wise. They don’t always maintain backwards compatability forever.

good luck!

Al

[Walter Miale]

Oh yeah—-The Reply button. Sorry for the confusion. Heres the query again:

As per instructions I installed El Capitan on a dedicated partition on the internal drive. Now when I click on Startup Disk in System Prefs, the drive partitions other than El Capitan are greyed out, so I cant restart on the old system. So of course I cant access Eudora etc. plus I cant figure out how to get started w Apple Mail. HELP!

Further: should I install the El Capitan update ASAP (question mark). . .
. . . and then install Affinity, and-or. . .
go back to the OS 10.6.8 partition (assuming I can get there!) and install CS2

[Robert Withers]

Righto, John. But I don’t want to wait for my current computer to die. I want to retire it gracefully and keep it around so I will be able to open old files and work with the older OS and older software in case I might need to. Larry Jordan says he does this.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[John Rofrano]

[Walter Miale] “As per instructions I installed El Capitan on a dedicated partition on the internal drive. Now when I click on Startup Disk in System Prefs, the drive partitions other than El Capitan are greyed out, so I cant restart on the old system. So of course I cant access Eudora etc. plus I cant figure out how to get started w Apple Mail. HELP!”

Reboot your Mac and when you hear the chime, hold down the Option ⌥ key until you see a screen with hard drive icons. One will be your El Capitan partition, one will be your Recovery Partition (if you have one) and one will be your Snow Leopard partition. I actually renamed the my Snow Leopard partition from “Macintosh HD” to… “Snow Leopard” so it would be easier to distinguish.

Select the Snow Leopard drive my highlighting it and press enter (or click the mouse on it) to boot into it.

[Walter Miale] “Further: should I install the El Capitan update ASAP (question mark). . .

Yes. It’s always a good idea to apply all of the security and other updates as soon as possible.

. . . and then install Affinity, and-or. . .
go back to the OS 10.6.8 partition (assuming I can get there!) and install CS2″

I would start by installing CS2 on Snow Leopard and see if it works as you expect. Then you don’t have to spend any money on Affinity until you get tired of rebooting at which point, buy Affinity and “move forward”. 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[Walter Miale]

Many thanks for your excellent help, John! Yes, I’ll re-install CS2 before Affinity.

While I was in El Captain a little while ago I was so rash as to open Chrome. Now, back in Snow Leopard, Chrome wont open. “The application requires OS X 10.9 or later.” Of course I’d like to use Chrome or an up-to-date browser after I get going with El Capitan, but I’m still in Snow Leopard for email and misc, and would like to use Chrome from OS 10.6 as a backup possibility if possible. I could use another browser for now (WHICH??) while I’m in Snow Leopard but I bookmarked most of the open tabs—Can I access them from either system? I’ll also have to access the History.

[John Rofrano]

Yea, I’ve seen this happen with my system too. Your Mac is seeing the /Applications folder from the other partition and using it instead of the local /Applications folder. The questions is which one got confused? El Capitan or Snow Leopard? I’m guessing that El Capitan saw Chrome on the Snow Leopard partition and updated it.

One way to recover, is to export your bookmarks from Chrome. Drag it into the trash and empty the trash. Then re-install Chrome from Snow Leopard so that you get the correct version again. Then don’t use that with El Capitan. You might need to temporarily rename it, install Chrome in El Capitan and then rename it back again. The key is to make sure that you are pointing to the correct /Applications folder when you start Chrome on each OS. Putting the correct version in the Dock should help.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[Walter Miale]

Hey the tabs are back on Chrome! (although the Dock icon wouldn’t work). A link turned up in an email in Eudora & I clicked & there it was. . . . . . Am I the only one who finds it nervewracking to tinker with software?