Adobe scores Macromedia for 3.4 Billion

If Freehand merges with Illustrator... That's Bye Bye InDesign!

EVOLUTION... NO DESTRUCTION 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.

Better to have Adobe swallow Macromedia than Microsoft...

I don't know what cave i was in when this news came out but let me say ... OMG! This is insanity. I'm typically an optimist and love to see a good shake-up but this ... this is too much. I love both companies and use many of their products, even together on the same projects, but I think this can only spell disaster. What possible good can come from it? I'll hope for the best but I too am not going to hold my breath. Maybe this is an opertune time to start a new company that's lean nimble and can compete at a lower cost. Slowly growing customer support until it has become a true market force. Then sell to Adobe for 3.5 billion ...

To me this merger is like the merger of snowboarders and skiiers. Graphic Designers and web designers are different beasts. This can only mean menial products for both graphic and web designers. Maybe google will come out with a product for web designers. They already bought blogger.

I just can't see that it's a good thing as it can only stifle competition and shouldn't really be allowed by the regulators. Whatever happens, one can guarantee that the products won't carry on as they are which is a great shame as both sets of products have their adherents and their uses.

My bet is they sunset Cold Fusion over a period. Maybe even sell that piece off. Maybe morph it into more of a media server, pdf, flash, etc. Charging 10k for an enterprise level solution when .net is free, php use is growing, etc etc.

I use flash all the time and I really hope that adobe doesn't try to change or replace it. I also think that they should keep most of the rest of macromedia's software the same (like dreamweaver and director), and not try change the way you use them to match adobe's other products.

This sounds bad as in fewer companies competing for the same group of users. As for the Adobe/Macromedia wars as to which company is better, well who knows. I saw one post that said they get "all" new software with new releases of Macromedia Studio. I wasn't always so. In fact, I believe it was the first edition of "Studio" that Macromedia had just introduced a new version of Flash, then followed it 3-4 weeks later with the Studio containing the Dreamweaver/Flash/Freehand/Fireworks combination. There was such a howl from the users, Macromedia gave a discount for users who had already bought the new version of Flash if they wanted the Studio. In that regard they did the "right thing". My only beef with Macromedia has to do with users who are/were switching from PCs to Macs. I requested an upgrade for Dreamweaver, but requested it for the new Mac instead of for the old PC platform. I was initially told that I would have to buy the full product that an upgrade was not allowed....that is until I threatened to use the Adobe equivalent, because Adobe was quite happy to let me send in the PC versions and send out the Mac versions of software I had already purchased (i.e. Photoshop). Obviously, there will probably be some programs that will bite the dust. Illustrator vs. Freehand (personally my vote is for Illustrator); Photoshop/ImageReady vs Fireworks, I'd have to bet on Photoshop/ImageReady...Flash? probably safe; ColdFusion? probably safe. All those of us who used to love ColdFusion Studio raise your hand and tell everyone what happened to that program when Macromedia bought Allaire. My guess is Dreamweaver and GoLive will morph into something that will eventually get a following, even though most of us won't like it. At least there are still good text editors out there...

Remember when Adobe bought Aldus Pagemaker? Anyway, I think it's interesting that Apple comes out with all their high-end video / motion apps, and the rest of the market starts to merge like this. It's hard to believe that Quark is still kicking around. If Apple comes out with a pro version of Pages, I think that will change and we'll be left in a world where 99% of the graphics and page layout market is split between Adobe on the PC and Apple on the Mac. Just a thought...