Snow Leopard and Windows 7 are coming soon. For anyone unaware, Snow Leopard is next version of OSX and if history is any indicator, Apple will give buyers of new Macs no choice but to buy it. Windows 7 is Microsoft’s hope for a homerun after the less than stellar Vista and will also be preloaded on almost all new Windows machines. So, why is this important to InDesign users?
Because as of now, Adobe has made no announcements regarding which, if any, versions of its software will be compatible with either system. In some ways this is understandable since they recommended Leopard and then had to sit and wait while Apple fixed one bug after another fixing hiding and printing problems. Vista had its own share of problems but at least Adobe didn’t go out a limb and recommend it.
This fall the landscape will be changing again. Both operating systems promise to fix the problems in the current versions while introducing some new features but the emphasis from both Apple and Microsoft seems to be more on removing bloat and increasing speed. Apple claims that Snow Leopard takes up six gigs less space (it’s Intel only so the savings are likely to be in the PPC code) and having tested Windows 7 I can attest to the smaller footprint as well. This should mean that anything that runs on Leopard or Vista will be okay on Snow Leopard and Windows 7.
But the real test will come when the early adopters start reporting in. Let’s hope for a smooth transition for Windows and Mac users.
This article was last modified on December 19, 2021
This article was first published on August 9, 2009
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