brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

This, from DP Review:

If you're not one to update your computer gear often, you might want to reconsider. Adobe has issued a notice future releases of Creative Cloud programs will no longer support older versions of MacOS and Windows operating systems.

'As we prepare for our next major release of Creative Cloud, we wanted to share some information on updated operating system requirements,' says Adobe. 'To take advantage of the latest operating system features and technologies, the next major release of Creative Cloud will not support Windows 8.1, Windows 10 v1511 and v1607, and Mac OS 10.11 (El Capitan).'

Adobe notes all past and current versions of Creative Cloud applications will continue to work on the aforementioned operating systems. Creative Cloud Desktop — the management application for all Creative Cloud apps — will continue to be supported on Windows 7 or later and MacOS 10.9 (Mavericks) and later.

According to Adobe, 'focusing [its] efforts on more modern versions of Windows and Mac operating systems allows [it] to concentrate on developing the features and functionality most requested by members, while ensuring peak performance that takes advantage of modern hardware.'

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

It may sound harsh but to develop, test and service code across N releases of Mac and windows is unbelievably expensive. Everyone whines about the cost, well this is one way to slow them down.

Haydon

That will kill some of their business. There's still plenty of people using Windows 7.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

If you look at the cost vs losing them it's still cheaper. Some will bail while others will reluctantly upgrade. I'm sure they have run the numbers and the consequences.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

True. I have long been in the practice of upgrading every title I have when the update is announced. It sometimes costs me money, but otherwise it feels like I'm driving a car with 3 good tires and one bald one. :-)

Haydon

Whether there's merit or not, it will provide an avenue for other companies to pick up a migration of new customers. All one has to look is look at the marketshare of computers running OS versions. It was only THIS year that Windows 10 took the lead over Windows 7.

Bill_de Loc: US

I wonder if there will be a price difference for those who no longer will be getting the latest and greatest and those who are?

It is not uncommon to have to upgrade an operating system to use the latest software. I am curious how that works with a subscription plan.

Has this been done with other software yet?

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pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Actuall window 8 started the quality for windows. They go beat up with 8.0 for removing the desktop but put it back in 8.1. Functionally it was very good but one always focus on the negative. 10 of course, has been a winner and I only hope they maintain the same quality, aka very thorough beta testing.

Not sure what you mean by other companies picking up the migrators. Where are they going? if you're on 7 and have to move up will they go to Mac or win 10? Not understanding what you are implying.

BebuLamar

For me the question is can I still subscribe to CC and not upgrading to new version because I don't want to upgrade the OS?

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Yep, I keep my OS and apps as up-to-date as possible.

I am an early adopter of the latest OS - pretty much as soon as it is available for download. (provided Lightroom & Photoshop have no issues with it of course)

Things run much smoother when apps and OS are current.

I have driven on my share of the Maypop brand :)

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

I haven't seen the numbers, but I'm sure you're right. It's always been this way. There are some still running XP.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

I believe the answer to that is 'Yes'. Then, the question becomes, "For how long?".

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Yeah. Here is the PetaPixel article

Adobe’s Next Major Creative Cloud Release Won’t Support Older OSes

https://petapixel.com/2018/08/29/adobes-next-major-creative-cloud-release-wont-support-older-oses/

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

From https://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

Win10 - 45.4%
Win8 - 6.9%
Win7 - 23.1%
Vista - 0.1%
Win XP - 0.4%
Linux - 6.2%
Mac - 9.5%
Chrome OS - 0.1%
Mobile - 8.4%

Photocraig

As a Computer Industry vet for 30+ years, I can attest to not only the $$ cost to maintain what we called "Backward Compatibility." but there is a functionality cost paid by restricting new functions to only those supported by the oldest OS Release supported. We often associate application functions to those Apps. But, besides security updates and bug fixes. new OS releases also add more functionality and capability to the OS that allows greater latitude for the application developer.

At a certain point, usually 3 releases, it becomes impractical to limit new development to the functional constraints of the old OS Releases. Just like life, trade offs are a choice.

For those "One Release Behind" folks like me, it is still important to not stay too far behind in an environment of ever "advancing" Software and Hardware developments. Eventually users have to decide if their computer use is special use dedicated to an old stable release like Windows 7, or if they are using a growing tool set such as Photoshop and Lightroom etc. and OTHER tools on a computer they also use for general purpose computing and Internet applications. And it isn't just Hardware. Printers and other peripherals will require updated OS levels, too.

Good to see Adobe is giving users a choice, limited as it is.

But the costs are real both for the Developer/Vendor and for the user.
C