On his blog, John Nack of Adobe comments on the 64-bit compatibility of Lightroom and speaks of the upcoming CS4. His words will certainly cause a big controversy. It states that the next version of this software will be compatible with 64-bit machines, but only under Windows.
To justify this difference in treatment, he explained that the CS suite is still developed in Carbon, and that Apple had, suddenly, decided at the last WWDC not to develop 64-bit version of these libraries.
Adobe will therefore need a great deal of work to rewrite Photoshop under Cocoa and subsequently offer 64-bit compatibility of its software, which they will include with CS5.
To add salt to the wound, Nack indicates that a 64-bit version provides a performance gain of between 8 and 12%, but much more under certain conditions. Indeed, the 64-bit addressing allows software mainly to exceed the threshold of 4 GB of memory, which can load images (especially large ones) much faster images yet maintain performance fluidity, even with many images opened simultaneously.
Then comes the controversy: is it Apple's fault or Adobe's? The truth is certainly between the two, or more precisely about the war they are engaged in over a few overlapping software titles. Indeed, it has long been clear that carbon is a dying API. Adobe could have, long ago, started the transition but they know that maintaining CS is very important to our platform, and were very disappointed that Apple certainly does not help.
Perhaps it was wise of Adobe to announce it via a blog, long before CS4 debuts, therefore envoking an early storm, hoping that such negative attention will die down at release time, as to avoid plummeting sales. Incidentally, a large outcry *could* encouraging them to change their plans without undue delay. That is what we hope.
[translation by CliveAtFive]
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