Adobe reveals 'known issues' with Apple's new Lion OS

Has the war between Adobe and Apple just hit restart? It could be possible as Adobe has published some incompatibility issues with the new version of Mac OS X, Lion.

Actually, Adobe has posted a very long, detailed list of problems between its software and Lion. Here's a snapshot of some of the most notable quirks:

• Java Runtime needs to be installed manually, otherwise applications may behave inconsistently
• Rosetta support no longer included with Lion
• Adobe Reader plug-in and Acrobat plug-in are not compatible with the Safari 5.1 browser
• Scrolling behavior opposite of expected
• Flash Player: May cause higher CPU activity when playing a YouTube video; settings dialog does not respond to mouse clicks
• Illustrator CS5, Illustrator CS5.1, InDesign CS5.5: Crash reporter doesn’t appear or only appears after long delays
• Dreamweaver CS4: Color Picker returns incorrect sample color
• Photoshop CS3, CS4, CS5: Droplets don't work
• Premiere Pro CS5: Universal Counting Leader is missing countdown numbers.

One also has to ask: Why weren't these problems foreseen and/or addressed before Lion was released? After all, we've known that Lion was coming for months. It's not like this new version of Mac OS X was just rushed out.

The answer could be found in Apple and Adobe's tumultuous history. The most significant roadblock in the past between these two foes had to deal with Adobe's Flash technology. Basically, Apple's iPhone as well as the iPad don't support Flash in favor of HTML5. (Although there are some tricks and apps for getting around this.) CEO Steve Jobs has made it clear that he doesn't care, and that Apple has no intention of working to reverse this.

To make his points crystal clear, Jobs straight out called Adobe "lazy." Adobe responded by accusing Apple of undermining business and even the future of the Internet.

Now, although not having Flash support on the iPhone and iPad can be annoying sometimes, it is possible to live without it.

However, for desktop browsers, Flash support is absolutely essential as so many websites still use this technology for video streaming and more. Furthermore, these problems extend into Adobe's Creative Suite, which can be the livelihood for many video editors, designers and developers. Thus, although there are some tips provided by Adobe to get around these issues, both Apple and Adobe need to resolve the bugs before someone gets hurt.

For more information, check out ZDNet's Ed Bott's in-depth post about these problems with Lion. In the meantime, I'll be waiting for Lion to finish downloading and installing on my own laptop.

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