Good or Bad?

[somuchfortheafter]

http://slashdot.org/articles/05/04/18/1355233.shtml?tid=98
what do you think??

personally I think it will lead to greater graphics products for all.

[dataw0lf]

No, it will lead for worse graphics products for all. The two largest media distributors joining forces? Who's going to be their competition? Who's going ensure that they continue to produce 'good' products (arguable since some would say they don't produce good products).
Anytime two large companies merge that deal in the same basic product, it's never good for the consumer.

[Stormy Eyes]

what do you think??

I don't care. I don't use Adobe products very often, and when I do use an Adobe product, it's Reader for viewing an occasional PDF. I don't install the Flash plugin on my machines, either.

[kiddo]

>_____< another monopoly! I'll have to contend with the GIMP and hand coding for websites (until NVU *may* get to dreamweaver's level -- meaning that it lets me do XHTML strict -- that'll be in a few lightyears I think, sadly). I guess one of the last standing competitors are OSS projects. But we're not at their level yet I think -- just look at the GIMP's text tool (I know, they added the ability to EDIT what you previously typed.. wow) which doesn't have any bold, italics, underline, stroking, paragraphs, letter spacing, word spacing, line spacing, height, width... you get the idea.

[james_mad]

This is probably going to be bad for a while. Lets use our favorite company, microsoft, as an example. Remember the netscape vs ie days, both browsers stepped up their game, and ms came out victorious. Well since ms has taken over (monopolized) they rarely add more features: ie 6 came out almost 4 years ago. However, firefox has risen up and many people have gone over. Hopefully the same will happen: People will get fed up, gimp and other os software will step up their game, and the competetion will be back.

[carlc]

Bad

[bvc]

bad generally speaking

[Psquared]

I thought Macromedia and Adobe did different things. This just looks like Adobe sees limits with its document processing and wants to expand the range of its offerings. Rather than re-invent the wheel, they are buying a good company with a good product.

I don't see the IE vs Netscape comparison. :-?

[DirtDawg]

Yeah I agree this seems bad. What little competition Adobe has now will be all but quashed.
Those greedy bastards.

[benplaut]

Yeah I agree this seems bad. What little competition Adobe has now will be all but quashed.
Those greedy bastards.

well... they is a small "other side"... Corel bought PaintShop Pro :razz: (my favorite)

[somuchfortheafter]

you guys are paraniod, lol

[Stormy Eyes]

you guys are paraniod, lol

Oh, I'm paranoid all right. I could tell you all about it, but the stories I'd tell are NSFW.

[panickedthumb]

Oh, I'm paranoid all right. I could tell you all about it, but the stories I'd tell are NSFW.
Argh, what does NSFW mean again? I KNOW that I used to know that.

But I don't like this one bit either. Just another megacorporation.

[somuchfortheafter]

well when i toured adobe in san jose they were really really nice lol

[benplaut]

Argh, what does NSFW mean again? I KNOW that I used to know that.

But I don't like this one bit either. Just another megacorporation.
Not Safe For Work

[panickedthumb]

Not Safe For Work
right on, thanks

[kassetra]

http://slashdot.org/articles/05/04/18/1355233.shtml?tid=98
what do you think??

personally I think it will lead to greater graphics products for all.

Ok, speaking from over a decade and a half working with Adobe / Quark / Aldus / Macromedia products... let me give you a bit of the seedy industry history...

Aldus originally created PageMaker.
Adobe bought out PageMaker.
With no competition, PageMaker languished.
Quark XPress jumped into the scene with updates/new features/etc.
PageMaker had competition.
Adobe came out with a plethora of new products to compete.
Somewhere in that mix of a mess, Macromedia emerged with Flash (formerly FutureSplash) and Freehand (which is bought from Aldus)...
So then Adobe re-vamped Illustrator to compete with Freehand.
Adobe also dumped a buttload of features into PDF/Acrobat to compete with Flash.

Until this merger, Adobe had Photoshop (traditional print), Macromedia had Flash (web/internet products)... and the competition/overlap created MUCH better products. Everytime Macromedia innovated, Adobe jumped to catch up with more "web" features... (Adobe is the print industry's Microsoft)

It's not IE vs. Netscape - it's Word vs. WordPerfect.

With this merger, I can nearly 100% guarantee we will NOT get a native Linux version of any of these products now. Macromedia *was* working on a native Linux version to be released late next year... with a perfect crossover-office version coming out late this year... Adobe has had stated in the past that they do not consider Linux a viable platform for their products, nor would they for many years to come.

[panickedthumb]

Well that's sour news.

Hopefully they'll continue with the Linux version since it was already planned. But that's wishful thinking at best

[kiddo]

Adobe has had stated in the past that they do not consider Linux a viable platform for their products, nor would they for many years to come. Harr! Then they won't get my money. Ever. Not that it changes much... *coughs* go GIMP! go Bluefish & NVU! *just submitted a bug about xhtml detection*

[bvc]

so Kassetra, do you think dreamweaver will remain stagnet as they attempt to improve golive, will they continue devel on dreamweaver and take advatage of its superiority, or will there be some sort of integration into one awesome product?

[kassetra]

so Kassetra, do you think dreamweaver will remain stagnet as they attempt to improve golive, will they continue devel on dreamweaver and take advatage of its superiority, or will there be some sort of integration into one awesome product?

Yeah. Dreamweaver is toast in about two years.
PageMaker died out very quickly after they purchased it.

They purchase these products and then just let them die. They always promise they won't... but they do, and they let it die by not updating it, and yet showing you the NEW IMPROVED features in another of their "regular" products... and of course, giving you a discount to move from one to another.

Bye bye flash. Bye bye dreamweaver. Hello omnipresent pdf. Hello more expensive licensing fees. Hello higher subscription fees. Hello stagnant products.

[benplaut]

Yeah. Dreamweaver is toast in about two years.
PageMaker died out very quickly after they purchased it.

They purchase these products and then just let them die. They always promise they won't... but they do, and they let it die by not updating it, and yet showing you the NEW IMPROVED features in another of their "regular" products... and of course, giving you a discount to move from one to another.

Bye bye flash. Bye bye dreamweaver. Hello omnipresent pdf. Hello more expensive licensing fees. Hello higher subscription fees. Hello stagnant products.

hello open source rebellion to develop new standards and good authoring programs http://ubuntuforums.org/images/smilies/eusa_pray.gif

[panickedthumb]

I don't know if they'll be getting rid of flash anytime soon-- but the future of the linux flash plugin is in peril.

Personally, I say get rid of it! I have always hated sites that unnecessarily use flash. The only thing I'll miss is homestarrunner, and I'm sure they'd find another way

[kassetra]

I don't know if they'll be getting rid of flash anytime soon-- but the future of the linux flash plugin is in peril.

Personally, I say get rid of it! I have always hated sites that unnecessarily use flash. The only thing I'll miss is homestarrunner, and I'm sure they'd find another way

Flash will get tied into pdf or illustrator, (or even both), actually.

Yeah, but people pay big $$$ for flash work! There goes my cash cow!

[bvc]

Yeah. Dreamweaver is toast in about two years.
PageMaker died out very quickly after they purchased it.

They purchase these products and then just let them die. They always promise they won't... but they do, and they let it die by not updating it, and yet showing you the NEW IMPROVED features in another of their "regular" products... and of course, giving you a discount to move from one to another.

Bye bye flash. Bye bye dreamweaver. Hello omnipresent pdf. Hello more expensive licensing fees. Hello higher subscription fees. Hello stagnant products.I knew you'd say that simply because I know what you do? That's the truth to, concerning the past and history tends to repeat itself. Pretty much hear it every day at work in the graphics industry (which I quit 2 weeks ago) :-P ....ah...feels good :grin:

[bvc]

you have a cow? :razz:

[kassetra]

I knew you'd say that simply because I know what you do? That's the truth to, concerning the past and history tends to repeat itself. Pretty much hear it every day at work in the graphics industry (which I quit 2 weeks ago) :-P ....ah...feels good :grin:

LOL being in the business you know exactly what I'm talking about. They eat competitor's products once they buy them. It's like the Adobe black hole (although recent science kills that analogy for me...) ...

Seeing as how I've already been controlled by Adobe for years with their PDF format... I'm not looking forward to this new development. (C'mon guys, PDF reader on linux really could use libraries newer than five years ago!)

[bvc]

(C'mon guys, PDF reader on linux really could use libraries newer than five years ago!)LOL
yeah, I boot to win if I need to do anything 'pdf'

this really, really bites

The only option is for linux to come up with its own, but you know as well as I do that's the only way we ever get anything good, with the exception of firefox.