Can I use Photoshop on both my windows and Mac PC's

[comtsguy01]

I purchased Photoshop CS5 in May for my Windows PC.  I also want to install it on my Mac, However the download they provided me with doesn't have a Mac version.  Can I get Adobe to provide me with a cost free Mac version?

I bought Lightroom 3 and was able to get both versions and have it running on both PCs...want to do this with CS5...

[Tai_Lao]

The answer is a flat NO.

Cross-platform licensing for Photoshop and for the Creative Suite has repeatedly and often been requested, and Adobe remains steadfast in not allowing it under any circumstances.

You'll need to buy a whole new Photoshop license for your Mac.

[comtsguy01]

wow that stinks, especially when you can do it with Lightroom.  If I can get a mac verison, I suppose my serial number won't work?

[Tai_Lao]

comtsguy01 wrote:

… If I can get a mac verison, I suppose my serial number won't work?

Absolutely not, it will not work at all.

[comtsguy01]

Thanks, I appreciate the quick feedback.

[Guest]

Apple has a solution for this.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/compatibility/

[Michael Riordan]

I don' t think this addresses the problem of needing separate serial numbers for PC or MAC. While it's true the Mac can run Windows, and through Windows it can run PC software, you would still need to purchase a license for each platform. Unless i missed something.

[Guest]

One can either get Windows for ~$100 or a second license of Photoshop for ~$700.

A single Photoshop retail license can be activated on two computers owned by a single user.

Adobe limits the license to the platform, not the hardware. They don't care if you run Mac OS X on generic PC hardware or Windows on Apple hardware.

[comtsguy01]

If I understand you correctly, I can use bootstrap and install Windows 7 (which I have) on my Mac.  Then, while in windows mode, install my windows copy of CS5 and it should work?

Thanks,Jack

[Michael Riordan]

Yes, but the original poster wanted to know if they could use their current Photoshop license for their PC on their Mac as well. 2 different sets of hardware and 2 different OS's. While it is true that you can run a single license of Photoshop on 2 machines, they have to be the same platform.

A user would need 2 licenses of Photoshop to run on their Mac and their PC, even if they had a mac and wanted to run windows on that hardware set, they'd still need separate licenses for the PC side and the Mac side.

[comtsguy01]

Here is my situation.  I purchased CS5 for windows (download) and got a serial number for the windows version.  If I understand what you are saying, I could now install Windows 7 on my Intel based Mac using bootstap, then when logged on in the Windows mode, I could install my Windows based verison of CS5 with my Windows based serial number and it should work...right?

[Guest]

Michael Riordan wrote:

A user would need 2 licenses of Photoshop to run on their Mac and their PC, even if they had a mac and wanted to run windows on that hardware set, they'd still need separate licenses for the PC side and the Mac side.

You are confusing hardware and operating systems.

If you are running the Windows OS on Mac hardware, you are running Windows.

comtsguy01 wrote:

...then when logged on in the Windows mode, I could install my Windows based verison of CS5 with my Windows based serial number and it should work...right?

Yes. That will work fine.