Hey people, Today we’re going to get our Geek ON! We are going to talk about Operating Systems & Processors & A big part of the Adobe Creative Suite Line up. Why? You ask. Well a couple of reasons.
1) Adobe made a recent announcement that the company would no longer be supporting the non Intel based Power PCs made by Apple in any future software versions.
2) In October, Microsoft will be releasing its newest operating system ( OS ) Windows 7. This will come in 3 varieties and 2 types of operating systems a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version.
This brings up the question.
Is the Adobe suite ready for 64 bit OSes?
Do you ready need to get a 64 bit Computer system?
Does it make adobe software faster, stronger, better?
Buckle up my pretties, it is going to be a bumpy ride.
Let me point out that all this talk about the tech can get really
involved and confusing but it does serve a function here and I will try
to keep it down to how does this affect my Adobe software.
So lets first talk about what is a 32 bit OS and what is a 64 bit OS?
A 32/64 bit OS is the software that makes your computer run and provides you with a desktop with icons on it. Microsoft Windows is an OS, just as MACos is an OS made by Apple. In their current versions you can get either OS as a 32 bit version and as a 64 bit version. This means that the OS can though some serious math access more memory from the ram in your computer. In a 32 bit version, the most ram you could have in a system is 4 GB (gigabytes). In a 64 bit system, you can go up to 128 GB, assuming that you could find a motherboard that supported more then 16GB. Now if you have worked with Adobe software for any long period. You know that the one thing Adobe software loves is more memory.
Now if you have the software, you’re also going to need the hardware. You need to have a 64 bit processor (CPU) to run your 64 bit software. To stay on topic I leave it as you should talk to your local computer repair guy but what you have now but if you have a newer computer like a Intel Core duo, Core2, Quadcore or an AMD Phentom or AMD64 X2 dual core then you are ready for 64 bit action. I also mentioned memory a short minute ago. Memory is the Ram in your system again, check with a computer guy about what you have and what you can get. If you are going with a 64 bit OS, the more memory, the better for you.
To try to focus this more I’m going to use my own computer setup as a real world example. I have a AMD64 X2 2.2ghz dual core system with 2GB of ram and I’m running the Beta version of Windows 7 (they call it a release candiate version). Now while I have 2 GB of ram and should have more like 4 to 6 GB the system runs fine. I don’t have many problems. I have My Adobe Creative Design suite installed and it runs fine. So we now get to the First of the questions. Is the Adobe suite ready for 64 bit OSes? The Answer is YES. Several adobe CS4 software are certified for 64 bit system. The good news is that Windows 7 64 bit is supporting most 32 bit programs such as Adobe illustrator and Dreamweaver.
So with 1 question down and 2 to go. I am taking a break to allow people to take in all the tech talk and maybe even ask some questions. I’ll be back to answer the rest. Stay tune and feel free to chime in.
