Adobe CS3 - From Windows to Mac - Is it worth it?

Hi there. I had previously made a topic with various questions about switching to a Mac and now I am very certain that I will be buying a black MacBook (hopefully when I go to the Mac store next week, which is 2 hours away ).

I'm buying the Mac for my first years of college (and hopefully it will last me the rest of my years in college!) I am looking at majoring in Networking and maybe get a second degree in Computer Programming. I'd also be taking one or two graphic design courses just to try them.

I have a very big issue and that is whether I should switch my license from Windows to Mac on my Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium (Education). I've been told how the process works and I understand it clearly.

I currently have it on my Windows XP machine that runs all of my CS3 applications almost perfectly!

Would my best option be to leave it as a Windows license and not worry about putting it on my Mac?

OR should I buy a copy of XP/Vista OEM and install it on the MacBook via Bootcamp and then install CS3 on the MacBook that way. Which would enable me to keep it on my desktop and have it on a laptop for use on the go. (Since the CS3 license states that I can put the software on up to two systems of the same OS platform, but not run them at the same time.)

OR should I switch the license completely over to Mac, hence making it unusable on my desktop machine?

I know this might sound a bit confusing. Hopefully you can help me!
Thanks!
--Garrett

I think the real question is whether you are going to switch completely over from Windows to OS X. Therefore what I would suggest is that you get your Macbook, live with OS X for awhile and for your Photoshop needs get Parallels/VMware/BootCamp on it and see how much time you spend in either environment to determine if you are going to want to switch your CS3 license over completely (and toss Windows to the curb in the process.)

I can tell you from my own experience using Photoshop in the Windows world and the OS X world it works quite marvelously under OS X, and my previously precious copy of Photoshop 7 for Windows is gathering dust in my CD rack. This from someone who has many years of experience with Windows and even using the Windows version of Photoshop 7 on Linux using Codeweavers Crossover Office.

As for your other concerns, Mac OS X comes complete with a development environment for doing programming and scripting with bash, perl, python, and all that good stuff. Windows not so much.

That's what I'm thinking because I would like for my desktop to have some use after I get my MacBook. How does VMware work? Would it run well with 4GB of RAM on a MacBook and a 2.4ghz Intel Dual-core?

I would migrate the license to OS X, and there are several good reasons to want to do this.

Firstly, CS3 will perform quite poorly in a Virtual Machine (say Parallels) on a MacBook, because it will only use one core, or at the very least won't be able to use all the available RAM on the machine. If you go down the Bootcamp route, then you're looking at putting aside X number of GBs of storage for a Windows installation, plus enough space to store and work on your images.

If you're going to switch fully, you want to be using your primary applications in OS X. There is plenty of integration to be had within Mac OS, so having such a key application outside of this makes no sense.

You can always hook up your MacBook to your larger screens at home for that 'desktop' experience.

Zoolook said:

I would migrate the license to OS X, and there are several good reasons to want to do this.

Firstly, CS3 will perform quite poorly in a Virtual Machine (say Parallels) on a MacBook, because it will only use one core, or at the very least won't be able to use all the available RAM on the machine. If you go down the Bootcamp route, then you're looking at putting aside X number of GBs of storage for a Windows installation, plus enough space to store and work on your images.

If you're going to switch fully, you want to be using your primary applications in OS X. There is plenty of integration to be had within Mac OS, so having such a key application outside of this makes no sense.

You can always hook up your MacBook to your larger screens at home for that 'desktop' experience.

Click to expand...

Alright, but as far as sotrage goes, I'm not too concerned because I'm getting a 250GB harddrive in the MacBook PLUS I already have a 250GB external hdd that I could store all my graphics on. Plus, since I'm just getting a MacBook, I've heard it doesn't run as well as it would in a MacBook Pro. Also, my XP desktop is pretty beefy and not that old.

Should I just wait a little bit before migrating it as walkerj said?

I guess you could download a trial of CS3 for mac and use it for 30 days. I'd say thats enough time to see if you like using it under OSx rather than Windows.

For crossgrading adobe products see my post here

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114316&highlight=letter+destruction