CS5 Photoshop cursor-gate

6 June, 2010

After speculation that Adobe was trying to be sneaky to find a way to avoid the SBOD with their new “hold on, I’m working here” John Nack does what it seems like he always does - clears the air and explains that Adobe products don’t exist in some magical world where everything has a perfect solution.

The reason (as I understand it) for the confusion is that there are times when a program is using all available resources and needs to tell the user that it is working and still responsive as opposed to times when the entire system is locked up.

Nack explains that:

we chose a route that modernized the app UI without misusing standard Apple UI or misrepresenting app responsiveness.

And all things considered, I think they were exactly right. The problem was that they didn’t explain this before the nerds saw it and started their nerdery. But how would they go about announcing it anyways? It is an awkward feature to roll out - “When our software is using a crap-ton of your resources, we now have a more accurate way to tell you you’re waiting” seems like a bad way to put it.

In the end I think this is completely a non-issue. It’s more of a function of Mac users being set in their ways, and their icons, and not wanting to change.