Adobe Buys Macromedia: Good News or Bad?

I'm scared...about losing Dreamweaver. It is by far the best software on the market. Adobe better not screw around with it!

You have good reason to have anxiety over the possibility of Dreamweaver's eventual demise given Adobe's treatment of PageMaker. After Adobe acquired Aldus Corporation in 1994, PageMaker, which had once helped revolutionize the world of desktop publishing, began its slow death, which to this day, still has not come to a complete end. Adobe released only two major versions of PageMaker in a span of ten years before finally announcing no new development on the product in favor of its new page-layout application InDesign. For the first two versions of InDesign, Adobe did not even offer an upgrade path from PageMaker even though it provided one for Quark users. But despite neglecting this once fine product, Adobe is still willing to make money off of it by continuing to sell it at its online store, even though the last version (7.0) was released almost four years ago! Come on, Adobe, $500 for practically obsolete software? Let's hope that Macromedia's current products receive better fates than what happened to PageMaker (To be fair, Adobe InDesign is a terrific page-layout application and has finally embraced its PageMaker converts with InDesign PageMaker Edition, but that does not diminish Adobe's poor treatment of PageMaker over the years).

I must confess, this is troubling. On one hand, nobody uses Freehand, and Fireworks pales in comparison to Photoshop. However, Dreamweaver is such a well designed, useful, essential tool - I'm concerned that Adobe will approach it from a designer's viewpoint, rather than a developer's viewpoint (as a designer/developer myself, I say this without bias). The thing that makes Dreamweaver so good could be lost in a slew of unasked-for new features. Additionally, I agree with the previous post about PageMaker - what a sad little death that once-excellent application died.

Monopolies are never a good thing. Regardless of what the CEOs of both companies are saying about "savings" and "cost cutting", it's a 100% certainty that the very users of their tools will soon be priced out, a la Discreet's 3D Studio line. What's to stop them?

Adobe software is junk. Version 7 does not support Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition which, in my humble opinion is the very best operating system. It survived a hack of almost 18,000 threat level --- above 1,000 is dangerous according to Zone Alarm Professional. I also think Spysweeper by Webroot is great and Microsoft likes it also since they offer it to their MSN customers.

I have all the same doubts as mention, but what if they pull this off. We could have Adobe CS with:

Photoshop with Fireworks (dump ImageReady)
InDesign
Illustrator
Dreamweaver (lets not speak another word of GoLive)
Flash
Acrobat

That would be a pretty amazing complete tool set

Freehand is most certainly still in use in spite of Macromedia's inept development of it since version 8. Freehand is immensely useful in print shops for plate output and has several features (multi-page layout, multiple color-spaces in a single document, find and replace, etc.) that Illustrator still hasn't caught up with.

Both drawing packages certainly have their strengths, but there is still a large audience that prefers Freehand, especially for its relative ease of use and power-user features. When Adobe killed Pagemaker, Freehand took up 90% of the slack for me for small newsletters, CD packaging, etc.

What worries me more, however, is the fate of other gems in the Macromedia line - Contribute, Captivate, Robo-Help... there are a lot of companies who have standardized on these tools and I hope we hear what Adobe's intentions are soon.

The only upside in this whole thing for me is that I won't have to maintain two separate software suites. That won't be much cconsolation, though, when we lose great products to Adobe's pervasive Not Invented Here syndrome.

If they combine too many things, the steep learning curve of adobe's and macromedia's software will become impossible for novice users. The price will probably be unaffordable too.

As a developer, my first thought goes to the employees of the two companies. You can be certain that many of the overlapping products will give way to massive layoffs of workers; some of the more talented will move on to other departments, but many will be thrust out into the job market with little notice. These kind of mass integrations of the biggest firms of their kind do little for the consumer in the long run.

This all sounds unpleasantly familiar. Adobe made a similar move several years ago when they aquired Syntrillium Software, the makers of Cool Edit 2000. Cool Edit was the best sound recorder I have ever used and it was reasonably priced. It's been since repackaged as Adobe Audition and its price got jacked way up. I think that's exactly what's going to happen with Macromedia's software. Scary.

Talk about an enormous product line! Some will inevitably have to go. Captivate is already losing out to the very popular Camtasia. I can't foresee Adobe continuing to spend development resources on it. Robohelp - yes, Contribute - maybe. Flash and Dreamweaver - here to stay.

Please on please don't take away my FreeHand software. Compared with Illustrator it's much quicker to learn how to use it.

I am not a graphics or desktop publishing pro...but I do use digital audio editing software in my daily business life....wait; that's an understatement...it's how I make my living. Adobe recently acquired the Syntrillium company and their Cool Edit products...and destroyed them. Instead of keeping those products best of breed...the new products are second rate imitations of higher end programs that are overkill in my part of the business. They took the best aspects of my tool kit...and threw it away.

I hope that Adobe doesn't ruin Dreamweaver, it might be nice to have some support for PDFs in Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Adobe had better leave Dreamweaver mostly the same though. Maybe they can combine Fireworks and Photoshop for the better...

Since no one has mentioned it yet, what about ColdFusion? As someone who works with it every day, I'd really hate to see it discarded.

As a LiveMotion 2 user, I'm hoping there will be an upgrade path to Flash. Always wish Macromedia would have given one, but alas, they didn't. REAL Flash integration with GoLive will truly rock!

While firework may not be as flashy as photoshop, but it was well builed for it purpose, work extremely well with dream weaver and useful for quick editing job. I just hope that adobe doesn't mess with flash,firework, and dream weaver, considering that adobe golive was horrible, not even compatible with IE when it was first release, and even now it is still wayyyyy behind dream weaver right after front page.

I am optimistic that GOOD in the two company's merger will outweigh the BAD. or one thing, Adobe might have "killed" PageMaker but has given birth to a new and much, much better layout software in InDesign. In webdesigning though, I share the sentiments of others that Adobe should retain and improve on Dreamweaver.

As a longtime user of both Adobe and Macromedia products (even when some were under the Aldus brand name), I have some mixed feelings.

I think Adobe was unfair to longtime users when they released the Creative Suite. I had licenses of Photoshop, Illustrator, PageMaker, GoLive, LiveMotion and others. But I was expected to pay the same upgrade price for CS1 as someone who only owned Photoshop. Not fair. I have to wonder if I can expect the same nonsense regarding upgrades to my StudioMX suite. Someone with just Photoshop should not get the same kind of upgrade pricing. I should get a better deal.

Macromedia handled StudioMX a bit better, giving users who had two or more Macromedia apps a better price than those upgrading from just one.

I fully expect some apps to be "cannibalized" over the deal. GoLiveCS2 will be its last version. Maybe some of its features will be grafted into "Adobe Dreamweaver.

I think Photoshop will gobble up both ImageReady and Fireworks. 64-bit operating systems and more addressable RAM will allow this.

Freehand will be eliminated. Sure, Illustrator does not have multi-page functions. FH users will just have to get used to using InDesign for multi-page layout. I just hope Illustrator can gain a larger pasteboard. I do a lot of sign and billboard design and it would be nice to be able to do layouts at full size there like I can in Photoshop (and other CAS-specific apps like FlexiSign or even CorelDRAW).

Flash may get significantly better. Macromedia was also working on some video authoring stuff. So those efforts may be used to improve Adobe's video creation software.

But yeah, I guess we may be paying more. And a lot of software development jobs may go to India and elsewhere to pay down that huge merger debt.

Can anyone think of any corporate merger or acquisition that ever deliberatly benefited anyone other than the monied principles of the surviving entity?

As much as I love both suites for their respective purposes, my concern is for the educational market. Although Adobe educational pricing is great relative to retail, school wide licensing is for the most part prohibitive. Macromedia very much allowed for school wide use with a pricing accessible to educational budgets. I hope students don't lose out again...

Anyone worried about the fate of FreeHand can look to CorelDRAW as an alternative. Much easier to learn than Illustrator and helps support an alternative company. Avoid the monopoly.

I am not sure what Adobe will do with the Macromedia Server products like ColdFusion and Flex. Can anyone comment on this?

I think this is a good news. This merger will bear fruitful results. This will provide a good competition to Mr.M's office suite products. A big player like Adobe can thwart and pose significant threat to M. Which ofcourse leads to fierce competion and ultimately leading to better products to customers. But ofcourse M should not buy Adobe, that will be a disaster.

Overlooked in the merger are the products aimed at content developers, especially content that is not always destined for online. Adobe has already let FrameMaker, the Cadillac of documentation development tools, languish under their stewardship since they purchased Frame a few years back. And now this announcement sheds a new light on Macromedia's decision to eliminate the entire RoboHelp (the market leader and best-known name by far for online help development) development team less than a year and a half after buying eHelp. Adobe's own product documentation and support forums are atricious, while Macromedia customers have grown accustomed to both quality and responsiveness in these areas and may rue having to endure Adobe's approach. Acrobat, no longer facing the competition of the fledgeling FlashPaper, will continue down the raod to bloatware. We can hope only that Adobe is not too attached to GoLive and that they allow Dreamweaver to remain as the premier web content development tool.

bad. respectable competition breads better product, better work, better company. as a developer, not many "chose" either or; always both. but better at one. Intriqued and focused to grasp the other.

This will be a nightmare.

First, one of the most important standard web plug-ins, Flash, is now going to become a hideous mutant blend of Flash and After Effects. and Adobe will concentrate mainly on making all these Macromedia tools (incl. Dreamewaver) dependant on Photoshop (witness Encore & AfterEffects).

Personally, I prefer Fireworks over Photoshop in a lot of ways UI-wise.

And lets face it, Adobe products, other than Photoshop to some degree, are never mission critical in the ways that Macromedia products can be. Adobe is biting off way more than they can chew, support-wise.

This sucks.

As a small time web designer, I chose Studio MX over Adobe for the ease of use and better value for money. The program fits me like a glove and I like the ease of swapping from code to design mode.

I am afraid the Adobe vesion will not only become bloatware, but also "Skyware" - price beyond reach of the average developer.

I feel this big merger will bombard the user with multiple high profile solutions which will have very few takers finally. Yea only if Adobe takes all its steps of modifying the Macromedia's s/w carefully,then only it can be a hit.This may include packaging Flash with Adobe suit.
Otherwise all this drama may end being a big flopshow.........

I afraid of what they going to do with Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Given that this two work perfectly well with each other. Its pretty scary.....

Ah, I would hate to see Freehand disappear. I've always preferred its method of working over Illustrator, and its GUI feels nice and familiar when you're bouncing between that, Flash and Fireworks. So if I have to do multiple pages in InDesign, will that mean I have to get Illustrator too to create vector art? Some of us don't need a huge page layout package and Freehand does it nicely!

So far I've heard no mention here about Director, which is in itself discouraging. Our whole product line of standalone CDROM distributed software is written in Director. I know of no alternative (no, Flash is not it, unless Flash is tremendously expanded).

I'd been a bit worried about Director's future even with Macromedia (because of Flash), but now, I'm even more so.

I think the direction Flash was headed in, with ActionScript 2.0, was great and I hope it continues. I think that Flash MX should be developed so that it can do what Director can.

I would like to know why the editor thinks that Windows, Internet Explorer and Office lag?

If there was other (better) software that the masses wanted, they would buy that instead.

Director is the only CD-ROM development tool. Why would it go unless CD-ROM development goes. Lingo is still more powerful than action scripting for game development. Besides doesn't Macromedia have a website called Shockwave.com devoted soley to Director developed content. Flash is great for online content, but it is not a CD-ROM development tool. Developers will be using director for the next decade contrary to what Adobe does with the product.

I have been using both suites for quite a long time now. I think Adobe will not change Dreamweaver. It has already gained a large share of Web designer and developers. They may eliminate GOlive or merge GOlive into Dreamweaver. I want to see few GOlive features in Dreamweaver though.
Flash will take over the LiveMotion2 and Illustrator will take over Freehand. I guess Firework will merge in to Imageready.
Adobe has been cruel to the product the buy over the years but in Dreamweaver case, this might not happened.
I would like see how adobe enhances the Adobe Flash and Adobe Dreamweaver.

ADOBE SUCKS...i love my flash...and i want Studio MX...but im poor...if adobe buys macromedia then wtf is goin to happen to the beautiful products like Dreamweaver and Fireworks...i officially hate Adobe...and yes they will become the Microsoft of graphics... the company that everyone hates, but no one can use anything else because its too complicated... i guess im just mad because i love macromedia and its products....

Competition is what is being lost here... I mean, being a college student and being offered Studio MX for $99?!?!? You're kidding me, right? Creative CS is, at the cheapest, $389. And now, they'll be no one to check Adobe with their pricing. People hark on "well, maybe Flash will become more of a drawing tool" but in order to do that, they'll have to redo Flash from the ground up. And that means f-cking with the program in ways that i can't even conceive of now. And it seemed like Macromedia was half-assing DIRECTOR since MX, anyway. How will Adobe treat it? As far as Dreamweaver is concerned, I can see Adobe realizing that DW is way more advanced than GoLive, but i can see them trying to maintain the GoLive name because they've worked on it so hard. But they'll try and merge DW and GL, for sure, which means, if you have GL, you better learn it, quick.

I hope to see the MAXIMUS for Graphics Software, not killing Illustrator or Freehand, but merging both. Freehand has strong weapons against the Illustrator and vice-versa. I use both softwares Adobe's and Macromedia's for my work, I combine perfectly the Photoshop with Freehand (cause the versatility of managing files) and sometimes Illustrator, which is some short in liberty on formats of work, but has great tools. So don't see this like a destruction from the ideas of a company but an evolution of two species to something superior. Well I know this guys will bee smart enough to think like this, and not loosing any followers.

Those dissing GoLive are obviously not GoLive users. GoLive is the match of Dreamweaver in many respects, and better in some. Both blow Front Page out of the water, unless your shop is 100% one-with-Microsoft.

That said, GoLive will surely die, simply by virtue of its poor market share. Dreamweaver rules, and will continue to do so, as will Flash. Most other MM titles are at risk.

I just hope they take their time and cover everyone. Photoshop is evidence that the company can do at least one really right. Illustrator, inDesign, and, yes, even GoLive -- and the integration of all -- offer evidence that they can do more than one thing right.

Alas for GoLive, my main career tool. ...and good riddance too.