Adobe software breaks down on Mac OS X Lion

Apple's newest OS surfaces compatibility issues with popular Adobe apps like Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Flash Builder, and Photoshop

More than a dozen Adobe products are not working properly on Mac OS X Lion, Apple's new desktop operating system, continuing Adobe's struggles to make its software compatible with Apple products.

The issues -- listed by Adobe on its website -- aren't as cut and dried as the problem with Flash on iOS, which is that Apple blocks use of Flash on iPhones and iPads.

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But Adobe says many of its products are missing functionality under Lion, which was released earlier this week. In addition to the fact that Lion drops support for older PowerPC applications, the Adobe issues may be enough for some users to delay upgrading.

Software often has to be rewritten to continue working properly on new versions of operating systems, or to take advantage of an OS's new features. But Adobe and Apple have a contentious history, with Apple refusing to support Adobe's widespread Flash technology on mobile devices due to concerns about battery life, security, and performance.

Adobe doesn't suggest any deliberate attempt by Apple to cripple Adobe products on Lion, but Adobe Senior Product Manager Jody Rodgers blogs, "The cat is out of the bag! Mac OS X 10.7 aka Lion is roaming the streets and you brave Mac IT admins have been deemed Lion Tamers by the public at large. Or at least by me. I've managed a few OS compatibility assessments in my past and it is no easy task to gather up all the necessary info from the software publishers that are used in your environment, run/coordinate testing, etc."

Known issues in Lion affect Adobe software such as Acrobat, Adobe Drive, Contribute, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, Flash Player, Lightroom, LiveCycle, Photoshop and Premiere Pro.

Adobe initially said, "Flash Player may cause higher CPU activity when playing a YouTube video [on Lion.] Possibly related to disabled hardware acceleration," but later retracted this issue, saying, "Lion provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard."

Still, other Flash problems remain. For example, some users may find the "Flash Player settings dialog does not respond to mouse clicks," and "custom native mouse cursors are not animating properly on Mac 10.7."