In the last few weeks, I’ve gotten a few emails from readers with great questions, feedback, and encouragement. Thanks for the support!
One common question is about Adobe Creative Suite. As I mention over on the Office page, Adobe CS 4 is the last version to run on our Power Mac G5s. If you are interested in the actual system requirements, head over to the Adobe help site.
What you will notice missing is this – only “Design Premium and Standard” and “Web Premium and Standard” will run on G5s. “Production Premium” and “Master Collection” will not. This is likely because they include software like Premiere, Adobe’s film editing app, and After Effects, a visual effects app, which both moved to Intel only with CS4. The last version of Adobe Premiere to work on G5s is 6.5, which was released back in 2002. The last version of After Effects to work on G5s was included in CS3.
Confusing? I suppose. Navigating old system requirement pages is a skill to be acquired for those of us running old computers.
By the way, I also get asked where to find these old software packages. I’d recommend going legal routes, even though you can’t necessarily buy older versions quite easily. Ebay is an option. Sometimes, I see Mac retailers like Megamacssporting good deals. If you are just wanting to grab Photoshop or InDesign, don’t be afraid to go a little bit older. I’ve done a lot of web design and graphic design using CS2 in the past, and they remain really capable tools for G5s.
– Nathan