I predict there’s going to be a similar uproar to the FCX disaster in the coming weeks when folks get their 1st opportunity to hit the ‘buy’ button in the App store and install Lion. All the specs and talk from developers clearly indicate more legacy support is going away in this latest OS release and if you don’t already have Snow Leopard installed, the only other way to get Lion is buy waiting for Apple to start shipping it on new hardware. Here again, Apple has in fact documented this is the case, but how many dyed-in-the-wool Apple geeks will heed this warning before they line up online at the app store and hit that ‘buy’ button? We’ll soon see I guess…

So what happens if your system crashes or you replace the hard drive on your Lion system?

Well, I hope you’ve got a backup of your system and a Snow Leopard install disk, because you will need them to get back online to the app store to get Lion. Yep, that’s right, you have to install two operating systems to restore your system. If you’ve purchased or installed apps that only support Lion, you’re really in a pickle. Apple’s walled- garden approach is soon to become a big deal.

Michael

Honestly, I don’t have a problem with “eventually” having to bite the FCPX bullet, but I don’t want to have to do it so I can upgrade to Lion next month. That would be devastating!

I think most of my readers fit into the small 1-2 man operations. My main point is that, there’s no way you can permanently stay on FCP 7 as some people are suggesting. Eventually you will need to bit the FCPX bullet, or jump ship to Avid or Premiere.

On the other hand, if you are referring to post houses then the iTunes theory wouldn’t matter as if it is a professional outfit then their workstations will be used for work, an out of date iTunes won’t be a problem, and so neither would an older version of osx if it came to that.

I run CS5.5 and FCS3, don’t see why not as they are both very affordable. I work professionally in both. Over the last few months I drifted from FCS3 towards CS5 more often, the speed and the Dynamic link workflow was making FCS3 look like amateur hour. Since upgrading to CS5.5 I haven’t used FCS3 for a single project, professional or otherwise. CS5.5 for now is definitely the number 1 choice out there. As of yesterday, after discovering that FCPx (and I suppose therefore, Apple) no longer support FCS3, I deleted it from my system entirely, I was only really holding on to it to see what changes FCPx would bring anyway.

I can only see myself using FCPx in the future though, it gets so many things right straight of the starting line, it has problems of course but not exactly fatal flaws when you consider that Apple have said they are releasing updates and they will be doing so at an accelerated pace due to the app store roll out, I fail to see what people are worrying for, or are so angry about. Use the software you have now, download FCPx, it’s so frikin cheap it’s silly to not download it really, learn the new system on personal projects while your pro work is as catered for as it’s always been with either FCS3 or CS5.5 (I don’t like AVID but if you must then I suppose you could use it). Then when/if FCPx is ready to suit your needs then switch, but at least you’ll have got a head start on learning the new system by running it on your personal stuff.

Just as a side thought, I don’t like that it can’t import layered photoshop files, but I was wondering, can motion 5 do it? if so then problem solved, it would be good if someone could check that out and let us know.

Final point, the real trick is to not tie yourself to software. and even for large post houses, if your editors are worth their salt they’ll be able to edit in whatever NLE is set before them anyway. They are so similar it’s trivial to make the change, plus they all support pretty much all the same technologies so existing facilities won’t be to badly effected either. So if FCPx really does turn out to be unsuitable then why would you give a shit? Just use something else.

I’m going to start learning Premiere for sure.

You’re right. It’s a total pain to have to go in and re-program all those shortcuts. Then what if I edit on my laptop. Or on someone else’s computer. It’s just really bad all the way across. IMHO.