Adobe Drops the Ball on Vista Compatibility

Adobe this week informed its customers that they will need to pay for new versions of many of its products if they expect to run them glitch-free on Windows Vista. The reason? Adobe has no plans at all to ensure that many of its most expensive currently shipping products work properly with Microsoft's new latest operating system.

"All Adobe products available as of January 30, 2007 were released before Windows Vista became publicly available and so have not been fully designed for or tested on this new operating system," Adobe notes in a message posted to its Web site. "However, many of those products run under Window Vista with minimal issues."

While some Adobe products, like Photoshop Elements 5 and Adobe Reader 8 were or will soon be updated for full Vista compatibility, most of the company's professional products will not be updated for free. "Adobe is already preparing to release the next versions of its professional creative products, including Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, and After Effects, in the Spring and Summer 2007 and does not plan to issue updates to current versions of those products for Windows Vista compatibility."

In other words, users of these applications will need to pay for the next versions of these products in order to achieve full Vista compatibility. Many of these products cost several hundred dollars apiece.

Critics are charging Adobe with harming customers as payback for Microsoft's decision to compete directly with Adobe in various markets, including Web publishing, document creation, and high-end graphics. Adobe, to date, has been silent about these charges.