-
Could it be…?
-
[David Lawrence] “‘m also convinced the timing corresponds to AppleInsider’s article a year before release about the layoffs in Pro Apps. I know Apple PR claims these were all “support” people but the evidence of the release suggests otherwise.”
Oh yeah. There’s plenty of other evidence as well. Pete Warden, who spent years on the FCP team, and knew most of the people who were laid off, blogged and tweeted about it at the time. He made and still makes the claim that it was a chunk of the development team that was laid off. I tend to believe him over what Steve Jobs had to say later.
https://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20000083-264.html
https://twitter.com/#!/petewarden/status/9014940274
https://www.macnn.com/articles/10/02/19/affects.signature.apple.pro.level.software/
-
This would be such a massive climb-down for Apple. It is hard to envision the company culture allowing for it.
-
[Bob Cole] “This would be such a massive climb-down for Apple. It is hard to envision the company culture allowing for it.
“
True, that. It would be even harder than admitting that there might be a valid reason for a mouse having more than one button.
-
[David Lawrence] “There clearly was a major fork in development at some point mid-stream.”
That fork was at WWDC 2007 when Apple suddenly nixed the 64-bit Carbon API plan. This is likely why FCP7 was so underwhelming compared to FCP6 and FCP5- FCP7 was going to be 64-bit, but the FCP team had the same rug pulled out from under them as Adobe and any other developers of apps that dated back to the OS 9 era. Mid-2007, Pro Apps all of a sudden had to punt on their plans for FCP7 and simultaneously start a ground-up re-write of FCP.
Adobe made it to 64-bit a year ahead of Apple because they rolled their own playback engine while Pro Apps waited for the full gestation of the AVFoundation APIs that were slated for 10.7 in 2010 but wouldn’t be in the hands of consumers till 2011 (they wound up getting added as private APIs in 10.6.7).
[David Lawrence] “Sequence.icns (still in 10.0.3) is proof.”
It could also be proof they had an evolving idea of how they would implement their goal of eliminating clip collisions and maintaining audio sync for video+audio clips versus just audio. Looking at that image, I see an attempt to do it with something resembling tracks, but with zones for different kinds of media. I don’t think that was necessarily a fully baked idea that got abandoned. I find it more likely that it is a step on the path that got us here, especially given its continued presence in the .app bundle.
[David Lawrence] “I’m also convinced the timing corresponds to AppleInsider’s article a year before release about the layoffs in Pro Apps.”
There was another very significant development disruption confounding FCP development following the death of 64-bit Carbon, and that was the false start of 64-bit QuickTime with QTKit and the development of QuickTime’s ultimate successor in AVFoundation and CoreMedia. As that shift took place from 2008-2010, the burden of handling much of the pro video codecs and processing was being shifted from the Pro Apps team to the CoreOS team. That doesn’t explain away the 40 layoffs, but it is reasonable based on what we now know about the APIs that FCPX calls to imagine a redundancy arising between the dev team on FCP and the dev team on OS X and iOS that was taking over responsibility for dealing with that significant component of what FCP does.
You could be right, I could be wrong, but I think my scenario is at least as plausible as yours.
Best,
Andy -
I’ll bet this started when a certain trainer claimed he knew that Apple had ported FCP 7 to a 64 bit version then scrapped it. Nonsense.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann
Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.
-
Stop being so sour!
FCP is dead. Over. Fini. Killed. Murdered. Transformed. Changed gender. Call it whatever you want to call it.
FCP X is one of the best applications I ever used. So much attention to the details. To me, it makes Premiere and Avid look like a toy. I am getting really tired by the old editing crew that wants editing to stay like it was in 1930 and doesn’t accept change. Some of you where the guys that adopted digital editing while the then old crew was still cursing it. The attitude towards FCP X has changed dramatically since 10.0.0 which I consider a beta that lasted till 10.0.2. I think with 10.0.3, we have the first release that is worthy of a non-beta tag, broadcast support excluded.
Times change. The world changes. The Internet changes. Broadcast is changing. Everything changes.
Embrace the change or don’t change but stop the complaining. And don’t waste your time hoping that Apple will ever launch FCP 8. Apple is not such a company. I think that even a viewer and switch for the magnetic timeline aren’t likely to be included by Apple. There is a vision behind the product and I think it is the right one, if you want a viewer and tracks… just use Avid or Premiere. Apparently, most people that are dissatisfied with FCP X still want FCP 8 very badly so Premiere and Avid aren’t perfect either. Neither was FCP.
-
[Floris van Eck] “Stop being so sour!”
I would suggest that you stop telling others what to do or feel. You can control your own actions, trying to control others is a bit presumptuous.
[Floris van Eck] “To me, it makes Premiere and Avid look like a toy.”
Hyperbolic overstatement.
[Floris van Eck] ” am getting really tired by the old editing crew that wants editing to stay like it was”
And I am getting tired of your getting tired. Try a nap.
[Floris van Eck] “Embrace the change or don’t change but stop the complaining.”
Or stop complaining about the complaints. Or stop reading the complaints. Or don’t, it’s a free forum.
[Floris van Eck] “Apparently, most people that are dissatisfied with FCP X still want FCP 8 very badly “
Apparently many see X as unusable in their workflow. They are not necessarily ludites, they will embrace change when they find that it works for them.
The earth’s atmosphere is changing, if you can believe those crazy scientists, but it’s not changing for the better for me. Does that make me someone who hates change, or just someone who has a house by the shore?
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
Floris,
I just read through this thread again and I don’t see a sour note in it. I see people speculating on what happened and why, and then coming to the conclusion that nobody should hold their breath for the triumphant return of the old FCP. Who’s being sour? And afraid of change? Really? I don’t think a single person who posted on this thread is afraid of change. Considerate and careful in making decisions than affect their business, to be sure. Afraid? No.
Tim
-
[Floris van Eck] “FCP X is one of the best applications I ever used. So much attention to the details. To me, it makes Premiere and Avid look like a toy. “
Wow. Then you need a new pair of glasses, Floris. You aren’t by any chance named after the Dutch TV show, are you?
-
[Herb Sevush] “The earth’s atmosphere is changing, if you can believe those crazy scientists, but it’s not changing for the better for me. Does that make me someone who hates change, or just someone who has a house by the shore?
“What a marvelous line.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up