Last week Adobe published a very brief announcement that as they are working very hard on a major version update to their popular Lightroom product they have made the decision to no longer support “older” operating systems:
In order to leverage the latest operating system features and technologies, Lightroom 6 will require Mac OS X 10.8 or above, or a 64 bit version of Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. Focusing our work on more modern operating systems and architectures allows us to spend more time adding functionality requested by users, including additional advanced imaging features and improving general application performance.
You can check out the post on Adobe's website and some of the comments here.
For those of you who don't know what this means, if you have a computer that is more than 4-5 years old you may not be able to run the next version of Lightroom at all due to the version of the operating system installed.  Especially Windows users with older computers since they are likely to have a 32 bit version of Windows installed.
I personally am glad to see Adobe take this stance. Â I would rather Adobe focus on making the software as efficient as possible versus supporting older operating systems. Â What do you think?
yay! Works for me, I’m already on W7 64-bit. I’ll gladly welcome any boost in performance.
Just so long as they don’t do to Lightroom what they did to Photoshop: insist you “subscribe” to the newest version via the Creative Cloud. I mean, really! You develop a software that the world uses as a gold standard and then you tell them, “Oh, listen, forget about owning your own copy; you have to pay, monthly, forever to access it. Sorry!”
Yeah, whatever!
^^^ I agree with Keith Starkey!!
I want the latest and greatest that Adobe can bring to the table. I’m an amateur photographer and member of the Creative Cloud. I’m excited that the performance will improve and also realize this is happening because Adobe changed their business model. The model of subscription based service gives Adobe a chance to forecast income. This allows investors to feel safe while allowing Adobe to fund research and development so we can have fun stuff to play with. In my opinion $10 a month is very fair considering most of us are blown away with the technology.
@Kirk,
No guarantees that this move will mean anything about the performance of Lightroom or Photoshop. I am just speculating that the task at improving performance should be a little easier when the developers don’t have to worry about supporting older operating systems. Crossing my fingers they do that.
Jeff
Jeff, I understand and agree with your perspective. My perspective is from someone who only started the Creative Cloud in January of 2014. Never used Photoshop or Lightroom till then. I don’t have a history or relationship with Adobe before that. So from my vantage I’m thrilled with my $10 a month membership. It seems that legacy users have a different view point than mine. To be fair I can understand some of the sentiment. That said though maybe people should give Adobe a break. Their old business model added turbulence to every aspect of their creativity. This new subscription based service will increase the quality and speed of future technological advancements and benefit even the worst critics. It might bother some people to need a newer operating system because it might cost them financial resources. But it doesn’t take an MIT doctorate to realize progress can’t move forward if everything is based on technology from several years ago. Those who can’t upgrade will most likely still have access to lightroom 5 anyway? At least Adobe seems ok with me having several versions of Photoshop. Photoshop CC and Photoshop CC 2014.
I enjoy everything you guys write and the podcasts also. Keep up the good work and keep it coming. Fantastic, honest and legitimate fit as descriptors.
@Kirk,
I don’t disagree at all in the overall direction of where Adobe is going. Creative Cloud is a HUGE win for me as well. Lightroom has always been pretty reasonably priced, but as a hobbyist I couldn’t afford or justify the price tag of Photoshop for very occasional needs until Creative Cloud for Photographers. I love it. The software is powerful, I just wish they would focus a bit more on some of the non-functional aspects of the software so that it didn’t take the very latest and greatest hardware to make it work well. Probably just the software developer in my (my full time day job) speaking there.
Thanks for the feedback and for contributing to the community. Glad to have you aboard.
Jeff
Good to hear.
Age of the computer isn’t necessarily something that dictated 32bit (x86) or 64bit (X64) after Windows XP. First, the CPU is either 32bit or 64bit, and that will dictate what you can run. Additionally, how much memory the system had might play a role, as 64bit systems are more effective at handling larger amounts of RAM.
If your pc has 2GB of RAM, it’s probably 32bit, if 4GB of RAM, the manufacturer may go either way, if over 4GB, it’s probably a better chance the OEM installed 64bit Windows.
If you need to check what you have, visit:
Windows Vista – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/32-bit-and-64-bit-windows#1TC=windows-vista
Windows 7 – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/32-bit-and-64-bit-windows#1TC=windows-7
@Gary,
You are right of course. As I was publishing the article I was debating about putting in links about how to check the OS version you have, but decided that it was too difficult to do generally at this point. I expect that when Lightroom 6 is released Adobe will publish some kind of a list and maybe at that point I will write a little longer article on how to check. I like the RAM method for distinguishing since a 32 bit OS can’t address more than 4GB of RAM (Microsoft chose to limit it in Windows to 3.5GB). Thanks for the links and for contributing to the site!
Jeff
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I meant I agree and understand your perspective because we see things the same way.
With the information from your last reply we are identical. I also didn’t want to pay a lot because it was a new hobby to me. At the same time I wanted to try it. In November 2013 Adobe had a deal for new people to join in for $10 a month. I balked because I was brand new out of the gate with my DSLR. When that promotion ended the price went up and I was kicking myself for not joining during the deal. I had read a lot about Adobe and concluded that in that particular time span many people were hating on them. I decided that if I wrote and asked them to allow me to join at the $10 a month they might secretly let me join. Well I wrote several letters and soon after they initiated the current $10 a month program for everyone. I joined the minute I found out.
My other point was if I can multiple versions of Photoshop then Adobe will most likely allow us to keep Lightroom 5 when they update to Lightroom 6. Like I mentioned earlier I have both Photoshop CC and it’s upgrade Photoshop CC 2014. Why would Adobe give it’s Cloud members these options if they would not reciprocate that policy to Lightroom 5.
Honestly I’m at the point now where I want to play with illustrator and some of Adobes other offerings. I don’t want to pay $20 for an additional program. And I don’t feel like I can justify $50 a month for the complete Adobe Cloud. Was actually thinking of writing more letters asking if they would allow amateurs to rent these programs at a reduced rate per month. Maybe there could be timers embedded in with the programs to determine how much time was spent in actual use. Idea being that graphic design houses and professionals are using these programs all day. Amateurs are not. Maybe a sliding scale could be applied to amateurs.