Adobe isn’t pleased with Apple’s OS X Lion

By Jeffrey Van Camp Published July 22, 2011

adobe-battling-os-x-lion — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Apple does not like Adobe. Steve Jobs himself wrote a public letter banning Flash from iOS devices and has forced developers to avoid Adobe (and other) development tools in favor of its own iPhone and iPad developer environments. Well, the bad blood has made its way to the other side. One day after the release of OS X Lion, Apple’s new OS, Adobe has written a blog post titled “Lion Tamers” accusing the new OS of being buggy and incompatible with its Adobe Reader plug-in.

“The cat is out of the bag! Mac OS X 10.7 aka Lion is roaming the streets and you brave Mac IT admins have been deemed Lion Tamers by the public at large,” writes Jody Rodgers, senior product manager of enterprise & volume for Adobe’s Creative Suite. “Or at least by me. I’ve managed a few OS compatibility assessments in my past and it is no easy task to gather up all the necessary info from the software publishers that are used in your environment, run/coordinate testing, etc. You are seeking the cold hard facts while a percentage of your users are barging down the door to upgrade due to justifiable work reasoning such as “shininess” and “Ars said I should.” Actually they said “Don’t just run out and upgrade your system as soon as you finish this review.” But who reads the second paragraph of the Recommendations section anyway?”

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The post then links to a list of “known issues with Adobe products on Mac OS 10.7 Lion.” It’s a lengthy list, but most issues seem relatively minor. However, if you use these applications, it might be wise to hold off on 10.7 until Adobe comes up with fixes.

Adobe doesn’t like that the Library folder is now hidden
Java Runtime needs to be installed manually
Rosetta has been removed so Adobe CS2 and earlier are no longer compatible
Adobe Reader and Acrobat plug-ins no longer work inside Safari. Documents can be opened in the Adobe Reader or Acrobat applications.
Mounted drive support isn’t working right in some situations
Flash Builder does not work properly. Adobe doesn’t recommend you upgrade to 10.7
Flash Catalyst does not work properly. Adobe doesn’t recommend you upgrade to 10.7
Photoshop droplets don’t work
and more

Generally, Adobe seems to remain committed to developing and fixing issues on Apple’s platform, but it seems miffed about the issues caused by the new release. Is Adobe just mad about Flash, or is something larger going on here?

Jeffrey Van Camp

Former Deputy Editor

As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…

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