Known Issues with Adobe products on Mac OS 10.7 Lion
All Products: Files stored in Library Java Runtime needs to be installed manually, otherwise applications may behave inconsistently Crash Reporter Scrolling behavior opposite of expected Rosetta support no longer included with Lion Mac OSX 10.7 …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second OS-upgrade cycle in a row where Apple ships a major Mac release and Adobe has to publish a compatibility caveat list: the Snow Leopard crash warning of August 2009 set the template, and Lion repeats it. The difference this time is structural rather than incidental — Apple used Lion to strip out legacy components entirely, dropping Rosetta so PowerPC-era applications stop working at all.
Apple had already prepared the ground by requiring users to be on Mac OS X 10.6.8 before upgrading to Lion, but that update did nothing to replace the Java Runtime Lion omits. Adobe's advisory tells customers that without a manual Java installation its products may behave inconsistently, while 9to5Mac's pickup highlights that Flash Player loses hardware acceleration under Lion — a meaningful performance regression for the single most-installed Adobe runtime.
First-order effects
- Users who upgraded to Lion find Adobe applications erratic until they manually install the Java Runtime themselves, since Lion no longer bundles it.
- Any customer still relying on Rosetta-dependent PowerPC software loses it outright on Lion, and Adobe's own toolchain inherits the fallout through disabled Flash Player hardware acceleration.
Second-order effects
- Enterprises and pro users dependent on older Adobe workflows have reason to stay on Snow Leopard, slowing Lion adoption exactly where Adobe's installed base is densest.
- Adobe is pushed into issuing compatibility patches across Creative Suite and Flash Player on Apple's release schedule, making each OS launch a forced maintenance event rather than an optional one.
Third-order effects
- Apple is shifting runtime maintenance off the OS and onto vendors and end users — Java, Rosetta and similar legacy layers become third-party responsibilities, a precedent pointing toward a more tightly controlled Mac platform where only App Store-sanctioned code runs reliably.
The trend: With each major OS X release Apple strips out another legacy dependency, transferring compatibility cost from Apple to developers like Adobe and to the users caught between them.