Is this true about Neo 10.1

[StillWaiting]

That Neo 10.1 is not compitable with Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion, which has been in release for over 16 months?
We were very surprised to learn that Neo 10.1 does not support Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion.

 

[PrepressDan]

I thought it worked on 10.8. I am on 10.9 right now and I know it does not work but I thought it did on 10.8.

 

[StillWaiting]

This is the reply I got from Esko support:
Currently, yes it is true that Neo is not compatible with 10.8/10.9. Our development team is working on this issue and a new release that will be compatible with 10.8/10.9 is in the works.

I replied with:
It appears that the Neo software version 10.1 is not compatible with Mac OS 10.8. Mac OS 10.8 was released on July 25th 2012.
We need to upgrade the Mac OS's on our department computers for compatibility with other major software.
If we upgrade our department computers to Mac OS 10.8 we will no longer be able to use Esko's Neo software program that we use on a daily basis.

And have never heard back from them.

 

[macdevin]

Did you expect something different from esko??

 

[StillWaiting]

Nope, I didn't. Esko has been working on Neo to be compatible with Mac OS 10.8 for 562 days...

 

[PrepressDan]

I am willing to guess that they are doing as little to Neo as possible being that it will be replaced with the "Unified Editor". The Unified editor will eventually replace Neo, Packedge, Artpro, Icut Layout, Icut Preflight, Plato & Powerlayout. If you keep maintance contract on Neo, you will get the Unified Editor for no additional charge. I know that they are in Alpha (pre-release) testing of the very first version of it right now. The first version will be designed to run Mac / PC and have the capabilities to migrate people off of iCut Layout (nested signage tool). After that they will have another version with more "prepress" functionality like Neo, Artpro & Packedge.

 

[abc]

Some feedback from my Esko colleagues:

'The status is that Esko will release an update of Neo that is fully compatible with 10.9 to all Neo customers this week Friday, the 14th of February.'

 

[macdevin]

I am willing to guess that they are doing as little to Neo as possible being that it will be replaced with the "Unified Editor". The Unified editor will eventually replace Neo, Packedge, Artpro, Icut Layout, Icut Preflight, Plato & Powerlayout. If you keep maintance contract on Neo, you will get the Unified Editor for no additional charge. I know that they are in Alpha (pre-release) testing of the very first version of it right now. The first version will be designed to run Mac / PC and have the capabilities to migrate people off of iCut Layout (nested signage tool). After that they will have another version with more "prepress" functionality like Neo, Artpro & Packedge.

Esko is doing as little as possible to keep their programs updated. It's one thing to decide to re-write the program for the future, But to leave your users with no way to run their apps for over 1 1/2. and expect them to pay for support?

 

[tigersticks]

Neo 10.1 works well for us under 10.8, as does Nexus Manager. What we really need is support for 10.9. Hopefully, this will come soon.

 

[PrepressDan]

Esko is doing as little as possible to keep their programs updated. It's one thing to decide to re-write the program for the future, But to leave your users with no way to run their apps for over 1 1/2. and expect them to pay for support?

Could not agree more. The programs that they are not updating are the old Artwork Systems programs. Its a shame.

 

[PrepressDan]

BTW, Neo 10.1.3 is available for download now. It is 10.9 compatible.

 

[Doh]

Could not agree more. The programs that they are not updating are the old Artwork Systems programs. Its a shame.

Not only the Artwork Systems software. PackEdge and Plato is still based on lwbrix. Although ported to Windows from IRIX and VMS but they are still 32 bit and single threaded...
A dual core PC with 4GB RAM still does fine so no need to buy a 12 core 24GB RAM workstation for those editors. Same goes for ArtPro, 32 bit, single threaded, 4 GB maximum RAM utilization...

And the maintenance cost in % is more or less the same as when they where "state of the art".

At least there are some progress on Automation Engine...
But still a huge maintenance fee for what we get...

 

[PrepressDan]

I just got a pre-release version of MaxUp. This is the new (unified editor) version for Sign and Display. It is a great improvement from older Esko software (packedge, plato, Artpro, Neo). This piece if built on their new Jelly kernel that is 64 bit (Mac and PC). While the wait sucks for them to update the software, from what I am seeing in MaxUp is pretty impressive. Clean GUI and very very fast.

Attached are some screen shots

 

[chevalier]

Now if they would just buyout, license or replicate Phoenix and dump Plato….

 

[PrepressDan]

Have you been using Phoenix? How do you like it? What does it cost?

 

[chevalier]

I'll leave the pricing of Phoenix to the guys at Tilia Labs. I strongly recommend to anyone using Plato or other software to at least reach out to them for a demo license.

I beta tested it extensively and it can do pretty much everything that Plato and Heidelberg Signastation do but better, cleaner and faster. I have to say Plato is by far the biggest let-down in all of the ESKO package. It is completely obvious that the R&D money is going into layout via AE and elsewhere.

My thoughts on Phoenix:

• It has the best die snap algorithm out there. None of this fix the trim box, or center it on the art board, prepare station BS that Heidelberg and Esko require or force you to manually align everything. Even some of my more nightmarish files (die lines converted from strokes, slugs and measurements in die color, etc.) snap into place without effort. It. just. works.
• It has the cleanest user interface out there. Plato and Signa are well beyond clunky. Plato is absolutely pitiful in this regard. I'd like to take the ux/ui guy in charge of Plato to the woodshed a few times over.
• It runs on Mac OS and Windows.
• It has a command line interface easily enabled or disabled so you can drive it deep, revert forever, and inspect the history of what you've done.
• It isn't built on an ancient codebase like Plato
• It isn't a "me too" let's strap packaging onto a commercial printing layout program like Signa

What doesn't it have that Plato does have?

• ESKO's proprietary smartmarks
• ESKO's ink-eater

 

[Doh]

ESKO's proprietary smartmarks are one of the few but very important things that makes it so dificult to switch/alternate interactive applikation.

No matter hos much "standard PDF" they will claim the new MaxUp/Jelly is, it still needs to adopt PDF/X5 for standardized, not proprietary external references and PDF/VT for standardized variabler text and image content to replace SmartMarks...