What's frustrating...

[cyclopsdx]

I've just been perusing the Adobe 'Products' section of their website because I have to purchase some new web-based software for some of my staff, and I counted 99 products on the Product list. Granted, there are software bundles incorporated as part of that list, but there are 8 Flash-based products, 6 Photoshop and 4 Acrobat, to name but a few by title.

I've also had the unpleasant experience of having to use InDesign CS5 recently and they've gone and added more Ai-type integration into it, i.e., more complex layers, to name but one 'gimmick'! Their products are becoming more and more similar in terms of toolsets, which begs the question - eventually, will they all end up having the same tools and palettes and doing the same tasks?

So, essentially, they're regurgitating all their products across multiple bundles and variations of products and expecting us to buy applications that will, probably, all end up doing the same things, yet they claim that FreeHand is redundant and unworthy of updating because it's too similar to their own product, Ai?

Words fail me.

[Head]

How true.

I’ve often contemplated the scenario where a software developer has engineered their flagship product to a point where it does everything needed by its users. What happens then? A company can’t live on OS-compatibility updates alone, so they have the choice to either add something new to their product line, ‘overdevelop’ their existing products, or turn their products sideways into something else.

Could it be that Adobe are all out of new ideas? Perhaps they’ve accepted that they’ve taken the CS suite as far as it can go as a set of individual applications, each with its own strengths, and are actually in something of a dilemma over where to go next.

The word ‘bloat’ has been often used to describe AI for some time, and the rest of Adobe’s suite now seems to be following suit, with the result that the individual products are indeed all becoming rather similar. If Adobe keep this up, they’ll very soon end up with one single application that does everything in the world but won’t work in practice because nobody will understand how to use it or have the computing power to process it.

And of course they’ll have bought up all the competition, leaving us with no choice but to sharpen our old scalpel blades.

Now, what Adobe really ought to do is take a complete u-turn, and embark on a process of stripping down each of their apps to streamline them into a set of individual tools that are powerful, efficient, easy to use and actually do what we all need.

And they could market FreeHand, just as it stands, as the first real-world example of this new groundbreaking approach to providing their customers with a set of design tools that actually work for those customers who live in the real world of commercial creativity and deadlines.

Hey, I'm serious! FreeHand has kept me alive for 20 years. And although I also use Illustrator when the need arises, I remember the day when it took me about an hour to figure out how to load a colour into the swatch list and then apply it to a line. Blimey, intuition has never been Adobe's strong point. But then that probably explains their convoluted approach to most of what they do. Including their attitude towards FreeHand.

Words don't often fail me, Cyclops, but like you, I'm finding them real hard to come by when I look at what's going on...

[cyclopsdx]

Good point about the 'bloated' app approach. I wonder what will happen once Adobe realise that we don't want more and more fancy options but all we want is fast, intuitive processes to support our creative workflow? I, for one, tend to customise my toolsets and palettes because I simply have no use for most of the 'gimmicks' they include - they have no monetary or creative value for me, which is why FreeHand will always win over Illustrator in my workplace.

Maybe we'll get to the point where they'll start to simplify their individual products? I can't see integration into one application because Adobe will lose most of their revenue stream

It will have to come to a head at some time in the future; they can't keep adding 'fluff' for each update (although, just solid, stable, working versions would be enough for me!). Unfortunately, most of the innovation for their apps has been emulated from their competitors - and we know what's happened to most of those.

Between creation and execution we have crashes, upgrades and convoluted processes. Sad that we can't just get on with the part of the job we love without all the hassle that goes with it!

[FFH Mark]

[Monika Gause]

[cyclopsdx]