MAKING THE SWITCH - From Apple to Adobe via a Windows 7 PC

DMN by Jeremiah Hall

Years ago I bought a Macintosh. It was blue, white, and had this new thing called a firewire port. And the software I bought to edit with? Adobe Premiere.

But fortunes change. Adobe had to abandon Premiere for Mac, so I switched to Final Cut Express nearly a decade ago. Then I upgraded to Final Cut Pro. Then the aging G3 turned into a G4. Then finally a G5. And Final Cut Pro. . . er, Final Cut Studio, followed me wherever I cut.

Like so many people, I don't upgrade at the drop of a hat. I only do it when I need to. So as I was saving my pennies to purchase a new Mac Pro (the G5 getting long in the tooth), Apple dropped a bomb - Final Cut X.

I was excited... until it came out. I discovered that two of the things that I do with with Final Cut Studio, namely importing Photoshop layers and the wonder that was DVD Studio Pro, were no more. I would have liked to use Color, but didn't have the machine for it. I never liked Motion, and always preferred After Effects.

So I could always just reload FCS on a new machine, right? Not really. Apple pulled their updates for FCS when they released FCX. [Note: It's been strongly hinted that Apple will allow sales of Final Cut Studio 2009.]

Now what do I do?

I was working on a DVD for a client when I looked down at the computer, my aging G5. I thought about what Apple was building computers with, and what differences there were between a new Mac Pro and, for instance, a new Dell, Asus, or Lenovo. I looked at the open window on my screen - Adobe Photoshop. What else do I use? Adobe After Effects, Final Draft and Lightwave. Final Draft and Lightwave come out of the box with both PC and Mac versions on the disc, so no need to switch them. Just take them off the old and install them to the new. Then I formulated a plan. read more...