Adobe licenses - moving to Mac from PC

Captivator · 16 Apr 2011 at 11:34

Per a thread I started on the hardware forum I am thinking about shifting my laptop from PC to Mac to give me the option of iOS development. I run an e-learning business and the main tools of my trade are the Adobe elearning suite. At the moment the license allows me to have two copies going concurrently - one on the office machine the other on my laptop. At about 1500 quid a pop I ain't blasé about just buying another license. I guess I cannot use my PC license on my Mac laptop iOS. So I guess I just have to bootcamp windows. That is fine - unless anyone can tell me any compelling reasons why that will stink and I should get a native mac version. I imagine photoshoppers and video pros must also have faced similar issues with adobe licensing and am interested if anyone has any perspectives?

Feek · 16 Apr 2011 at 13:09

I know it's possible to transfer the Photoshop licence from Windows to OS X version because a guy at work did it when he bought a Mac Pro. Perhaps the same is possible with the Adobe software you're using, it's worth logging a support call with Adobe to ask.

Captivator · 17 Apr 2011 at 08:54

Feek said:
I know it's possible to transfer the Photoshop licence from Windows to OS X version because a guy at work did it when he bought a Mac Pro. Perhaps the same is possible with the Adobe software you're using, it's worth logging a support call with Adobe to ask.

Apparently you can do it for a nominal fee. Trouble is it is all or nothing. As my desktop is PC I need to stay windows. You can't split a single license PC and Mac for the two concurrent installs allowed.

Does anyone notice any substantive difference at all between adobe products on the native OSx and Windows versions? And if I can ask a really stupid question are the working files cross compatible?

SiriusB · 18 Apr 2011 at 14:44

You could run a Windows install via a virtual machine on your Mac. VMWare Fusion and Parallels are the most popular two options.

I don't know how much of a performance hit you would take running via a Virtual Machine, but if your Mac is suitably beefy I don't imagine this being a huge issue.