What about boycotting Adobe CS5?
As a graphicdesigner working with photographs as well as with vectorised illustrations, doing several possible meanings of printing-matter etc., I am depending on Adobe products as Indesign. Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand (still one of the best programs ever), etc.
The problem, that occurs recently, is: updates are produced and sold within shortest intervals. And these become shorter and shorter.
As some clients, printers, publishing houses, we graphicdesigners work with – or their suppliers, whose products we have to work with – change immediatily to the newest updates, we smaller ones are forced to do also. At least to compete with compatibility of changed data.
On the other hand updates make programs bigger and bigger, are - widely lesser neat to handle and content more and more unnecessary stuff. (We all are used to learn new shortcuts on the keyboard meanwhile, when Adobe thinks we did learn the recent ones quite long enough)
And what annoys me at most: they become more expensive. At last so expensive, they even dont pay off anymore within this shortest update-intervals!
What is my work useful, what is it giving me the fun, the satisfaction, the sense of life I've chosen it for once, when it doesnt even pay the money I put in for the tools?
So I cry out loudly this complaint, maybe its not in vain and there are others, suffering the same way, willing to protest.
Views: 12
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Steve McNamara on -
Hey, Gernot - I'm with you 186%.
Adobe is churning out "new" suites to make a fast buck, and the products are simply not worth the upgrade. in fact just the opposite.
Examples: Dreamweaver CS4 was a major step backwards in usability from CS3. The "preview" function no longer allows for click & view, but instead requires that you signup for a bogus Adobe online service ... that never works. Likewise, the Flash insert function adds unnecessary files and no longer allows a preview. The list goes on and on.
Oh, and i was surprised to see Adobe deleting complaints from their forums.
Overall, the development of the Adobe CS suites remind me of Microsoft and the development of Vista.
I really wish Apple or Google would step in and create competitive products. I'd be the first to order.
-
Permalink Reply by Narendra Keshkar on -
I felt the same that how quickly adobe launched CS5? Usually when a newer version comes then it is expected that it will have new features and solved issues of previous version. The motive to launch a new version is to make the user experience more better, faster and efficient in which new features to be added, old technical issues solved, development has to be done after knowing user's need and feedback. I'm wandering that how Adobe did this within this short time?
-
Permalink Reply by J.S. Gilbert on -
I still haven't figured out CS4, when along comes CS5, which actually seems to have many of the features I thought I'd find in CS4. Upgrade pricing for the production suite is not conducive to a small shop like mine, that also has to upgrade hardware and tons of other software programs, cameras, microphones, flotsom and jetsum.
And no doubt, as we all watch the Flash ship sail off into the sunset, I'm sure there will be a hefty price to pay for the3 priveledge of using whatever Flash's successor might be.
Although unlike Steve, I am quite happy to not have Apple getting into the mix. Their practice of new OS's not supporting slightly old hardware and software, issuing a new iPhone every week and their complete facist attitude towards shoving Itunes down people's throats and keeping gestapo like reigns on something simple like iPhone apps development means that Thinking Different is more like "Thinking Profits". They make adobe look like a benevolent kind uncle.
-
Permalink Reply by Gernot Lauboeck on
-
I hope Scott Adams is not annoyed for distributing one of his strips here … but his answer is one the best on this topic ...
- Attachments:
-
-
Bild 1.png, 138 KB
-
-
Permalink Reply by Mark Baugh on -
I could not have said it better.
-
Permalink Reply by Mary Baum on -
Actually, I found Dreamweaver CS4 a huge improvement over CS3. In fact, I switched to the CS4 bets months before the suite shipped, and at that point I had just started writing real html/css. I had been a GoLive dilettante in CS - CS2 and didn't change until CS3 made me. Now I'm like a reformed smoker on the subject of designers coding: don't get me started!
In CS5, I was really annoyed that Adobe didn't include the full story on HOW to work with WordPress, Drupal et al - I had to subscribe to lynda.com's videos for a month or so to figure it out. But I've got it now - I feel as if I've bent WordPress to my will and can offer it to clients with a fair degree of confidence that a WP site will conform to their branding.
Furthermore, there's a whole set of code hints for html 5 you can download. So if you're looking to add that to your sites, that's all ready to go. (I've been a little reluctant, but I have the code hints installed - it's ready to go. I have added some css 3, mostly text-shadow. And I'm huge with @font-face - again to the loss of Adobe. I'll probably use some of their faces via Typekit, but I greatly prefer fonts I can just upload, like the ones from fontsquirrel.com and fontspring.com.)
Ironically for Adobe, it's going to convert me from a Business Catalyst fan into a WordPress true believer, at a cost to them of how many potential hosting fees at $39/month? Because it's forcing me to learn some php too . . . at age 50 . . . (Note: conversion from BC is pending my investigation of WordPress shopping carts and membership-site plugins - I don't know for sure if they work as advertised.)
Photoshop CS5 is going to save me weeks of my life over the next year, compared each of the past many years, in background removal and other such tasks alone, with the content-aware fill feature.
InDesign's multi-column features in Paragraph Styles, likewise, though the proportion of print to web work in my life continues to decline.
So while I sympathize with the sentiment, I'm getting huge value out of this particular upgrade, just from those three apps.
-
Permalink Reply by Steve McNamara on
-
Thanks to that detailed opinion, Mary. Interesting stuff about WordPress. And overall I find you highly credible.
It may be that for some uses the upgrade is great. But for me, and the things I do at present, I'm skeptical. For the things I'd like to do with my site next year, I'm interested in learning more.
Cordially,
Steve
-
Permalink Reply by Mary Baum on
-
As I was writing about Dreamweaver I had the sudden thought that if a designer has been using Dreamweaver the way I used to use GoLive - as a wysiwyg tool to avoid coding sites, the usability trajectory from CS2 onward will seem to be straight downhill.
As far as I can see, you basically can't use Dreamweaver that way anymore. But you really couldn't, starting with CS3, and that's a conscious decision that I think Adobe made to support real web designers. So I made that decision too.
I can go on for paragraphs more, but then I'll be in what I call reformed-smoker mode, and designers who really, really don't want to learn to write code will tune out anyway.
I'll just point out that I made this decision to learn at 47, and I'm 50 now. So any designer or art director who's 30 or 40 or 75, please don't tell me you're too old. You can do this. Html/css really are English, and if all else fails, there's this site called lynda.com that I thought was going to be too expensive - it's 37.50 a month for all the training videos PLUS the practice files.
Okay. I've said my piece.
Also, if you spend all your time in Illustrator and nothing else, I'm not sure there's anything in this upgrade that's worth the money. And I haven't opened Flash even once.
-
Permalink Reply by Mary Baum on
-
Steve, thank you for the compliment! That's high praise. I should have thanked you first, before talking again about Dreamweaver and coding.
Can I blame the reformed-smoker impulse?
-
Permalink Reply by Steve McNamara on
-
Mary, you are thoughtful, intelligent and you have good manners.
Which makes me think you are a Democrat.
:)
-
Permalink Reply by Mary Baum on
-
Thanks again!
Except I can't stand the phone scripts - so I''m even short with fellow Dems on the phone. Only, instead of hanging up on them, I cut them off with: "Okay. 20 bucks." I confess I'm not a big donor. But if that's going to be my reply, any more at a time could get expensive. ;-)
I've toyed with, "How much will it take to get you to stop reading that goddamn script?"
-
Permalink Reply by J.S. Gilbert on
-
Well this thread was interesting on two fronts. I now own CS5Production Premium. There were just far too many benefits to ownership for me, not the least of which is the 64 bit aspect. On a recent project, I determined that the speed increases the new software afforded me were the determining factor in being able to accept an assignment with razor thin profit margins. I saved approximately 75% of the time I normally spend on repetitive processes.
The second thing I learned is that the lovely and talented Mary Baum knows her way around Wordpress. Since I don't really know anything about websites beyond andI am in need of some fixing up on my Webpress site and a couple of little mobi sites too. Now the big question is, Can I afford Ms. Mary Baum?
Groups
-
Ads of the World
559 members
-
Non-Traditional & Altern…
407 members
-
Creative Directors Club
403 members
-
Copywriter Group
231 members
-
Social Marketing Group
191 members
Birthdays
Badge
© 2012 Created by Steve Hall.
