Adobe-Macromedia
You may well have heard of the proposed merger of Adobe and Macromedia. If you haven’t you have now. It’s not a cut and dried decision yet as it has to have shareholder approval which may or may not be forthcoming. In some ways this merger may be a good thing, pooling development resources and the like to produce even better products. On the other hand, as any Mac-user will no doubt tell you, Adobe is currently having a big spat with Apple which has resulted in some of their newer product lines being PC only. If this trend continued after the merger, if it goes ahead, we could end up with yet another large software company who, in much the same vein as the demon Microsoft, tries to dictate to it’s user-base what they can or can’t do with their own computer systems.
One day these companies will realise that, not only might such restrictions on usage be illegal, they are also totally unethical. Of course we all know that big business and ethics are not things to mentioned in the same sentence as I’ve just done.
I have a proposal. I was going to suggest that the whole world stop buying computers for 12 months. Let’s be honest. You aren’t going to die without a computer! If you already have one you can make it last another 12 months quite easily. Yes, I know the graphics aren’t the bees knees and maybe you could do with a larger hard drive and the like but come on. 12 months?
That was what I thought initially, but having thought even further I feel that around 3 months would actually do the trick. The likes of Microsoft and Google and maybe Adobe might not be hit too hard by a 3 month hiatus on the part of the buying public but computer manufacturers and retailers certainly will be. I think it might well put some of them out of business or, at least, in serious financial trouble. They might suddenly realise that shipping computers with pre-installed Microsoft or Adobe products is not good for business and STOP DOING IT.
That’s when Microsoft, Google and Adobe will feel the pinch, wake up to their unethical practices and realise that we just aren’t going to take this shit from the likes of them any more!
Comments ( 47 )
Switching to linux/bsd would do better, much so. Very few people on earth really “need” a Windows PC. For the rest of us, the OS switch can be done in a second.
That would be the real step forward, and would act as a message to your companies, at the same time.
What’s wrong with google?
As for switching to Linux etc. that’s all very well for those of us who have the skill to do it, or even have a modem that Linux will recognise, which counts me out. My point is that most people buy a PC or even Mac which has Windows on it along with probably an Adobe product and we aren’t given the choice to start with. People then tend to stick with what they are given either because they don’t have the skill/knowledge to change or just can’t be bothered with the hassle.
This is wrong and no amount of telling me what I should be doing after I’ve bought the damn thing makes it any better. It’s not the user that should be making up for the unethical practises of these companies. We should have the right to buy PCs or Macs with the operating system and software products we want not the ones we are given. Period.
Have you tried stopping their bots visiting your site…
Successfully so.
http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/exclusion.html#robotstxt
[Damn textile, how does it work?]
I agree for the PC (raw box) part.
As for the Mac, I’m in the row of those who think that you buy Apple because of, and thanks to, its OS. This sets the problem apart a bit. Anyway, should Photoshop not be available for Mac anymore, Mr. Jobs will probably find a clever solution, as always. And smartly win, as always :-)
For the linux part, just to be practical and effective: have you given a call to your nearest LUG? Or you prefer me to come over to England?
It is the user who should correct the errors of the producers/retailers:
a) for his/her own good;
b) to show the world the right way.
Who else should act? God, Bush, your friends,...?
You should, yourself!
Put your vote in the box. This is “democracy”...
Let them know: browse the net with a geko_on_linux browser and do not worry: the right people will “see” you, and understand.
So you’ll all have to count me out of the boycott. ;)
I say get the latest Adobe and Macromedia toys now before they get mashed up. Adobe/Macromedia is bound to go Corel on us. They will assuredly suck.
Word Jess??
And yeah, word. (And by that I mean I totally concur with webjones’ assertion.)
I guess their main interest is to gain control about Flash – I guess there’s no doubt that this is one of the most important internet standards.
Am I happy about that merger? Certainly not.
I tried Gimp years ago (Win version though) and it nowhere near compared to Photoshop (or even Paintshop Pro) in my book.
I have 2 machines – one of which I would like to make a Linux box. But I can’t go Linux all the way as things stand.
Sexier than macs by far. If you have more than one computer at home which many of us do all your files always turn up in the home dir wherever you are. Neat huh?
I’m worried about this merger. I love the current MM products, even with the problems DW has (and I’ve learned my way around every one!) I hope FW doesn’t go away, photoshop sucks for web graphics, and psp doesn’t have as many cool tools. Updates? I’m worried for sure. And yes, a few products are undoubtedly going to fall by the wayside, and I doubt they’ll be on the adobe side unfortunately. And right after I got that MM engineer to agree to improve the rendering engine in DW to emulate FF more closely re floats.
Re Google. I use the autoblink script from Threadwatch to keep google links off MY webpages- I didn’t notice anyone mentioning that little recent bit of web nazi-ism by the company who vowed to “do no harm.”
You will have to enlighten me about Google links bj cuz to be honest I don’t know what you are talking about which is probably why they haven’t been mentioned yet.
How so?? If you mean for things like roll-overs and animations, then you’d use Image Ready, not Photoshop.
Stuart – Adobe has GoLive (I’ve not used it, but I heard it isn’t very good).
I just started playing around with MM Freehand and it seems interesting (and very very different from Illustrator). I’ve not tried FireWorks yet as I’m pretty attached to and familiar with Photoshop. ;)
I’m sure you’re right on the Adobe-Flash issue. :nod:
Of course, you know I’m a hardcore LINUX user. From my point of view, I have none….well, none that causes me any worries out of this merger, (like I care anyways) and watching everyone running to the hills becuase of it. In my neck of the woods, there is a very large open-source community, and I don’t think any of us realy care about what the MS Windows and Mac users do. My machines are pure UNIX base OP Systems and they work at 100% top rate. The crap that hits the Internet in the form of SPAM, viruses, Worms, Spyware, etc… does not realy effect me, only that I see the net getting slow sometimes while MS Windows users are weighted down with this garbage!
Windows is homogenious to the computing world and therefore is the number one target for your pocketbook. People pay big money to have an OP System that is idiot-proof. That is where everything goes downhill… The less you know, and the more you want, in terms of reliabilty, the more trouble MS Windows users get into.
“Why would you want to buy a car that you cannot look under the hood…” Linux Magazine 2001
I guess what I’m try to say here is, that already I can go into unix websites and veiw formats that are unix only. Security is a issue that we don’t take lightly. Even on my web site, I have LINUX *apps that are of no use to a MS Window user. Why? They can’t get the plugins to view the format becuase they (micro-soft) wants you to pay for it…. If there is no profit from it, then why would they build a plugin for it?
I say keep buying those products. But remember: you do have a choice!
=)
Check out: www.mepis.com (this is a live boot version so you can check it out before installing)
I was using fedora, but had a bunch of trouble with it. This Mepis has pretty much everything I use right one one CD. It’s definitely worth your time looking into (and maybe your modem will work too).
Switching to Linux (and using other open source softwares) and helping other do the same is me doing my small part.
Rollovers and such should be done with CSS, not graphics.
I personally like the combination of Photshop and Illustrator – and I prefer them as discreet applications. That is why I’m apprehensive about Adobe/Macromedia trying to create a “Swiss Army Knife” application.
Also, as of last night, my hard drive has now reverted to pure WinXP SP2. I have to say this modem problem has totally ticked me off and it seems to be a problem with the kernel which means it really doesn’t matter which flavour of Linux I try. I think I shall steer clear of it for the time being and revisit it when I have a new machine. I like Linux. I don’t have a problem with Linux, my modem does.
Last night, right when I was looking for the most simple way for you to have debian running on your machine you moved the right step.
The first one of three, that is.
Now just two more moves for you:
1) Delete XP as well.
2) Buy another modem on ebay (they’re rather cheap, more and more).
You’ll be a free man within short :-)
[Seriously told Stuart, I would personally weight the whole linux story much more than a small plastic modem box…]
And I now have more knowledege ogf linux config than is strictly necessary or useful.
http://www.codeweavers.com/
An interesting detail in Adobe buying up Macromedia, is that they recently decided to integrate Opera in the Adobe Creative Suite 2. While I’m not keen on industry giants dictating what the web should look like. I think that Adobe will be able to act as a counterweight to Microsoft. Something they will be even more keen to do now that Microsoft decide to compete with the PDF format with the planned introduction of Metro. And guess what, Metro is to be heavily integrated into the Longhorn OS. Don’t you just love how they force you to have a program installed wether you want it or not.
More about Opera getting integrated in Adobe:
http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2005/04/04/
More about Metro:
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Goes_After_PDF_with_Metro/1114537406