Where are you guys heading to after 5,1 discontinuation?

[sigmadog]

I understand, but why would you need two copies? You can run the same license on 2 machines at the same time. Yes, you own it but since they release new versions every year it can outdate very fast. In your unique case it probably doesn't make sense to upgrade for your needs, but what if there's features in the new versions that can make you better at what you do or make things easier? I think you're scared of change.

I use CS6 on my desktop and my laptop. My wife uses CS6 on her laptop, and we occasionally have an intern on another desktop. That's why we need 2 licenses.

As for being scared of change, I like how you young whippersnappers always assume NEW=BETTER. It's not the tools that make for good design: It's the mind and the ideas behind the design. A few years ago when "desktop publishing" was just taking off, everyone who was anyone was using dropshadows everywhere. What new CC feature is today's "dropshadow"? Looking back, it's clear to me that many designers adopt a herd mentality for whatever is considered the latest style or way of doing things, which is fine, but it's not a compelling reason to do the same.

Software does not make you a better designer.

You're going to turn into one of those people that puts out stuff that constantly looks like it's 10-15 years old.

You mean like "Classic" and "Stands the Test of Time"? Thanks! I'd much rather do that than constantly follow trends that disappear in a couple months.

EDIT to ADD: Here's a link to a blog post I did a couple years ago about why I don't subscribe to CC.

 

[sn1p3r845]

I use CS6 on my desktop and my laptop. My wife uses CS6 on her laptop, and we occasionally have an intern on another desktop. That's why we need 2 licenses.

As for being scared of change, I like how you young whippersnappers always assume NEW=BETTER. It's not the tools that make for good design: It's the mind and the ideas behind the design. A few years ago when "desktop publishing" was just taking off, everyone who was anyone was using dropshadows everywhere. What new CC feature is today's "dropshadow"? Looking back, it's clear to me that many designers adopt a herd mentality for whatever is considered the latest style or way of doing things, which is fine, but it's not a compelling reason to do the same.

Software does not make you a better designer.



You mean like "Classic" and "Stands the Test of Time"? Thanks! I'd much rather do that than constantly follow trends that disappear in a couple months.

EDIT to ADD: Here's a link to a blog post I did a couple years ago about why I don't subscribe to CC.

I've personally worked with designers who put out stuff that looks like it's from 1999 which blew my mind. Turns out, yes they were using older adobe software. $100/mo for four computers is actually quite cheap as an overhead expense for you to do your job.

 

[Chancha]

I've personally worked with designers who put out stuff that looks like it's from 1999 which blew my mind. Turns out, yes they were using older adobe software. $100/mo for four computers is actually quite cheap as an overhead expense for you to do your job.

I think that is an exaggeration. While it is true that Adobe's apps have come a long way in terms of cross-intergration, workflow/automation, internet/cloud etc, but the core of the desktop publishing / 2D graphics suite really hasn't changed much. I can easily use Photoshop 7 and give you the same multi-layer illustration as I would in CC, just a bit less effectively or with less flexibility without all the new interface and logical features like nested layer folders or smart objects. And for the guy's case he is using CS6 which is still more than recent.

I think the arguments against the subscription base are often very sound, at least in a small-business standpoint. Adobe knows this, and IMO they have strived to implement as much useful features that do necessitate using the cloud, such as the rather seamless integration between Lightroom Mobile and Lightroom Desktop. So there must be people with a need to cutting edge workflows that find the CC a pretty good deal. But on a longer term, Adobe is asking users to put a lot of faith into their ability and willingness to continue supporting various apps and its project files. The old days of perpetual licenses forever sticking onto a computer of its corresponding age provided no headaches like that. It is just a safer, and more sound investment.

 

[sigmadog]

I've personally worked with designers who put out stuff that looks like it's from 1999 which blew my mind. Turns out, yes they were using older adobe software. $100/mo for four computers is actually quite cheap as an overhead expense for you to do your job.

It's always a treat listening to others spend my money.

 

[nigelbb]

$100/month for two work stations = $1200 yearly cost = less profit OR raised prices to compensate

Adobe Creative Cloud subscription licenses two systems so it would cost $50 for two work stations = $600 yearly cost

 

[sigmadog]

Adobe Creative Cloud subscription licenses two systems so it would cost $50 for two work stations = $600 yearly cost

…(sigh)

Two people. A laptop and a desktop for each of us. That's 4 systems.

 

[&dj]

My 5.1 has been repowered with Dual Xeon X5860 3.33 GHz 6 cores 12 threads (12/24 in total) and a 980ti, it still cranks. I don't know where I would go next. I do CAD work and having a lot of cores makes a huge difference for renders. There is a shift underway to GPU rendering so hopefully in a few years having a well powered iMac with an eGPU might be an option, but the cost maxing out a Mac Pro trash can with 12 cores is crazy given the 18/36 core CPUs out there.

 

[F1Mac]

I don't know which Mac I'll buy when comes the time to upgrade my Mac Pro(s), including my 5.1, but I'm sure it will be a Mac no matter what. I love OS X, I'm not tempted by the Hack option, and I've been using Apple products for 20 years. That won't change, despite Apple's frustrating moves at times.

 

[GtrDude]

im curious at this point where you guys heading to/or what you planning to do once apple stop 5,1 support? Jump ship? Or live your remaining lives while holding on to 5,1?

I got my Mac Pro in 2014.
Getting an HP Workstation right now. It's Z840.
All I can say is my goodness you get so much for the money on the Windows side.
I have a 10 year old Workstation Z800 that came with Win7 and I like it.
NEVER had a single problem with it. Use it for recordings and such.
So I have no problems getting another HP Workstation in the 800 line.
Pro Tools runs great on these machines as does anything else I throw at it.
Plus it's got all these hard drive bays. I'm using 4 3T hard drives and its super smooth.

 

[pat500000]

I got my Mac Pro in 2014.
Getting an HP Workstation right now. It's Z840.
All I can say is my goodness you get so much for the money on the Windows side.
I have a 10 year old Workstation Z800 that came with Win7 and I like it.
NEVER had a single problem with it. Use it for recordings and such.
So I have no problems getting another HP Workstation in the 800 line.
Pro Tools runs great on these machines as does anything else I throw at it.
Plus it's got all these hard drive bays. I'm using 4 3T hard drives and its super smooth.

welcome to the club.

 

[William_si]

No choice here, i need dual CPU or a very high end E5 (barely enough) which is not very hackintosh supported.

So 5,1 until end and hope someone fixes dual 2011 hack support or Apple gets me a trashcan with at least an E5 v4.

Compared to HP tower or another non rack dual socket 1366 system the 4,1+ is very cheap here, so HP Z* makes no sense.

 

[flowrider]

Where are you guys heading to after 5,1 discontinuation?

I have no frapping idea

But, ay any rate my 5,1 aint goin' nowhere

Lou

 

[haralds]

My 5,1 is using dual 6 cores at 3.0Ghz with 48GB of RAM, a flashed Gigabyte HD7970 - GV-R797OC-3GD - and lots of SSDs and spinning disks. So far, performances is fine and I have a huge amount of money invested in apps.
Longer timer, the GPU is going to be the issue. I'd like to go to a larger display.
But I would not want the nMP closed design. If there is no option within a year, I will most likely add a hackintosh, but keep the 5,1 as I have my 3,1 and 2,1.

I use Windows 10 daily for development and some games, but would not want it as a main system. I do not like the UI and found it to be brittle.

Winclone makes recovery simply via fully cloned partitions, recovery on a native box is dicy. And rebuilding my typical systems with apps, dev sys, and games literally takes days of trundling.

 

[pertusis1]

My 5.1 has been repowered with Dual Xeon X5860 3.33 GHz 6 cores 12 threads (12/24 in total) and a 980ti, it still cranks. I don't know where I would go next. I do CAD work and having a lot of cores makes a huge difference for renders. There is a shift underway to GPU rendering so hopefully in a few years having a well powered iMac with an eGPU might be an option, but the cost maxing out a Mac Pro trash can with 12 cores is crazy given the 18/36 core CPUs out there.

It's a funny question, in a way. I got my 5,1 in 2012. I did the usual upgrades (dual 3.46, XP 941, MacVidCards 7970, 48 GB RAM, a few big spinning storage/scratch drives, and a used 30" ACD), and the thing is still awesome. My kids are using it a ton for FCPX, Compressor and Logic, and it cuts through the work like a hot knife through butter. It's five years old, and still faster than any computer that any of my friends have. Obviously, I do not work in silicon valley

At any rate, I'll likely go with an Apple product. If I had to switch today, I'd likely get a low-end trash can and wait for something better. I've switched to PC products three times in my life over cost and software availability, and regretted it each time. I love the raw power of the 5,1, and will dearly miss it's upgradeability, but the loss of that is not enough to get me to switch back to PCs.

 

[dpny]

Went to a tMBP. It's faster than the 5.1 it replaced and handles CC with no problems. The days of me needing a desktop are over.
[doublepost=1486879251][/doublepost]

There are a lot of reasons why this is not true for me:

• Even though it's not the latest, CS6 is still professional level software for print production
• I own it
• $100/month for two work stations = $1200 yearly cost = less profit OR raised prices to compensate
• CC features are mostly bloatware from my perspective
• I don't do App-design or interface design, so CC benefits are wasted on me
• I only need 3-4 applications (InDesign/Illustrator/Photoshop/Acrobat) and don't care about the rest
• My old-school belief that "It's always better to own than rent"

Slightly OT: you can do that if you're a small shop. But the place I work is global. We send and receive files to vendors all over the world, and don't have the freedom to tell someone to send something to us in a four year old format.

I agree with you about owning rather than leasing, and we've all done the math to know how much Adobe is screwing us. But most places use CC, so we must.

There are also a few nice features in among all the bloat.

 

[antonis]

Luckily for me, my work is not OS dependent on the client side (working on enterprise infrastructures mainly consisting of Linux, as a middleware architect / administrator). Although I've been using macs since 2000 and currently using a 2015 MBP, if I had to change my laptop now I wouldn't even consider a Mac from current apple's lineup. It was nice while it lasted, but apple decided that the party is over. I've already using a custom-made PC desktop for all-around home computing, including AAA gaming (something that no mac model, current or older, can accomplish).

It seems that my future laptop will not be a mac, as well (unless apple changes direction - not likely). When time comes, I'll probably consider something like Dell or a SurfaceBook. It will depend of which one of them will run Linux better.

 

[2128506]

Already planning hackintosh build, double the performance for half price of nMP (Apple failed miserably on desktops it seems). Will start on it once trashcan is back from repair shop and put up on sale.

Would go back to Windows/Linux, but locked into OS X too deep already.

 

[JoelTheSuperior]

I'm in two minds about it honestly.

I think Apple most likely won't update the Mac Pro. I think their long term plan is going to be to push the MacBook Pro harder, and offer eGPUs to those who want them in the future. That, or just don't and continue pushing the MacBook Pro as is. As sad as it is, the fact is that users like us are a tiny minority to Apple and they may well have done the maths and figured that the MacBook Pro is good enough for the vast majority of users and thus paying much attention to us isn't warranted.

So with that in mind, part of me wonders - do I just need to accept this, use a MacBook Pro as my sole daily driver (despite it being a lot less powerful than my desktop) and move on?

Right now my desktop is a hackintosh, but recently I have been increasingly considering that I should just run Windows on it. I think the days of hackintoshing may well be numbered, especially as Apple no longer makes a tower Mac and as such there's no longer any incentive for Nvidia to produce Mac drivers for their newer GPUs. I could use an AMD GPU but I do think this is a sign of things to come.

I'm also thinking I should probably start using Windows now, rather than when I am forced to. I need to learn the tools that I'll be using on Windows (i.e. for music production, Logic Pro is no longer an option, as much as I love it) and surely it'd be best to get a head start on things.

I must say, I've been playing around with Windows the past few days and it's genuinely nowhere near as bad as I remember it being. In fact, I must say it even felt downright fast on my hardware. At the same time though, I genuinely do find that macOS has some incredibly high quality apps available for it and I honestly don't believe that Windows matches it in this department just yet.

I'm honestly not sure what I'll do longer term, but I suspect switching to Windows is likely.

 

[pastrychef]

I'm in two minds about it honestly.

I think Apple most likely won't update the Mac Pro. I think their long term plan is going to be to push the MacBook Pro harder, and offer eGPUs to those who want them in the future. That, or just don't and continue pushing the MacBook Pro as is. As sad as it is, the fact is that users like us are a tiny minority to Apple and they may well have done the maths and figured that the MacBook Pro is good enough for the vast majority of users and thus paying much attention to us isn't warranted.

So with that in mind, part of me wonders - do I just need to accept this, use a MacBook Pro as my sole daily driver (despite it being a lot less powerful than my desktop) and move on?

Right now my desktop is a hackintosh, but recently I have been increasingly considering that I should just run Windows on it. I think the days of hackintoshing may well be numbered, especially as Apple no longer makes a tower Mac and as such there's no longer any incentive for Nvidia to produce Mac drivers for their newer GPUs. I could use an AMD GPU but I do think this is a sign of things to come.

I'm also thinking I should probably start using Windows now, rather than when I am forced to. I need to learn the tools that I'll be using on Windows (i.e. for music production, Logic Pro is no longer an option, as much as I love it) and surely it'd be best to get a head start on things.

I must say, I've been playing around with Windows the past few days and it's genuinely nowhere near as bad as I remember it being. In fact, I must say it even felt downright fast on my hardware. At the same time though, I genuinely do find that macOS has some incredibly high quality apps available for it and I honestly don't believe that Windows matches it in this department just yet.

I'm honestly not sure what I'll do longer term, but I suspect switching to Windows is likely.

I agree with your views about the GPU situation. Without drivers for newer Nvidia GPUs, the desire/need for PCI-e is drastically reduced. This also includes the need for eGPU enclosures. What's the point if you don't have powerful, modern graphics cards to put in them?

My hope is that AMD continues to make strides in their lineup...

 

[iMcLovin]

I had an iMac 5K, it had too many drawbacks for me to stick with it as a work machine, since I do a lot of work that requires a powerful machine and I also like games. This summer I needed something more powerful. But could already start feeling that Apple neglected their Pro machines and felt like going for a Mac pro then with 3 years old hardware would be a really bad deal - in fact it would really be an upgrade at all. So built my own then, paid about 8.000$ (what you get on the pc market for that price is crazy compared to Mac), so for me, train has already left....Not waiting for apple to discontinue the Mac Pro, for me its discontinued the way apple treats their pro market. I will still buy apple ipads and phones since they make great products, but I will never start using apple as a professional machine again. The OSX is a nice OS, but I don't mind windows as an OS at all, and nonetheless, the OS is just something I'm looking at between working in different programs anyway. I am just as efficient on my PC as I was on a Mac, but I'm able to do so much more...And the fact that I can upgrade hardware when I want and with what I want, is a great thing. So hasta la vista Apple. Also the creative update to Win10 coming this spring and the neon update coming this fall is both more interesting updates to me than what OSX has managed to do for the last 2-3 years, so Microsoft is on a good run.

 

[jeff7117]

I'm in two minds about it honestly.

I think Apple most likely won't update the Mac Pro. I think their long term plan is going to be to push the MacBook Pro harder, and offer eGPUs to those who want them in the future. That, or just don't and continue pushing the MacBook Pro as is. As sad as it is, the fact is that users like us are a tiny minority to Apple and they may well have done the maths and figured that the MacBook Pro is good enough for the vast majority of users and thus paying much attention to us isn't warranted.

So with that in mind, part of me wonders - do I just need to accept this, use a MacBook Pro as my sole daily driver (despite it being a lot less powerful than my desktop) and move on?

Right now my desktop is a hackintosh, but recently I have been increasingly considering that I should just run Windows on it. I think the days of hackintoshing may well be numbered, especially as Apple no longer makes a tower Mac and as such there's no longer any incentive for Nvidia to produce Mac drivers for their newer GPUs. I could use an AMD GPU but I do think this is a sign of things to come.

I'm also thinking I should probably start using Windows now, rather than when I am forced to. I need to learn the tools that I'll be using on Windows (i.e. for music production, Logic Pro is no longer an option, as much as I love it) and surely it'd be best to get a head start on things.

I must say, I've been playing around with Windows the past few days and it's genuinely nowhere near as bad as I remember it being. In fact, I must say it even felt downright fast on my hardware. At the same time though, I genuinely do find that macOS has some incredibly high quality apps available for it and I honestly don't believe that Windows matches it in this department just yet.

I'm honestly not sure what I'll do longer term, but I suspect switching to Windows is likely.

That just about sums up exactly what I went through last year. Windows is no OS X, but it isn't as bad as it used to be.

 

[iMcLovin]

I must say, I've been playing around with Windows the past few days and it's genuinely nowhere near as bad as I remember it being. In fact, I must say it even felt downright fast on my hardware. At the same time though, I genuinely do find that macOS has some incredibly high quality apps available for it and I honestly don't believe that Windows matches it in this department just yet.
.

WHat kind of high quality apps do you miss? I think most of the experience people have with windows is the lack of knowledge of what exists. Make a list and maybe I or others can help to give you good equally good programs suggestions to windows.

 

[BenTrovato]

Hackintoshes are great. Oddly enough my best performing Mac was a hack I built myself. I was blown away by how great it performed. The learning experience was fun, and of course some updates would brick the machine and I would need to restore but you get really quick at it. It wan't a work machine though, it was for tinkering. However, if I did it again I would go with one of the supported models which people don't seem to have any issues with. Apple's products do look nicer though if that means anything.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

This month my Mac Pro 5.1 (mid-2012) bought 'new' open box in April 2014 is probably gettings it's last service cycle thru Apple Care (05-2017). So still running two cMP's - 3.1 / 5.1 - atm. When Apple kills the MP for ever and it's getting harder if not impossible to upgrade and/or -date, I'll for sure exchange my Apple eco-system for Microsoft Windows on i.e. a HP Desktop. Being a Windows 10 Insider atm, I must say WOW!

Perhaps even get myself - probably my last Desktop in life! - a Microsoft Surface Studio!

A Clean-and-Mean Machine!

Cheers

EDIT: deleted the wrong name for the HP Desktop!

 

[thestickman]

Once Apple locks me out of updates/upgrades I plan to run Windows 10 on my 2009>2010 cMP. I'll hate not being able to track in Logic X but I will use it on my old Mackbook as a sound generator. Cubase is solid & there is always Reaper & Pro Tools 12.7. I hate the idea of using Windows 10 because the fonts are so freaking ugly compared to OS X/macOS.