I had a few questions about general issues relating to this venture, which would seem relevant to everybody with an interest:
Is Quasado 'safe' from Abobe?
Many supporters will want to write out their checks payable to Quasado right now. It’s our duty, after all
. But what comfort do Quasado have that Adobe won’t jump on them from a great height and file a copyright infringement claim to bring development of Expressive to an immediate halt at any time in the future? The whole point of Expressive is to mimick FreeHand as closely as possible, and with Adobe's track record as it is, it’s hard to believe they will just stand by and allow this to happen. This is a question that could hold many folk back from making a vital contribution that Quasado need to make Expressive a reality. Is there any encouragement available to the community in this regard?
Do Quasado's programmers have FreeHand experience?
Quasado’s development videos are impressive and demonstrate an awareness of the required feature set in principle. But, in addition to the available features, there are aspects of using a program that are hard to describe in words, and more to do with how it 'feels' in the user's hand. A comprehensive feature set that’s clunky and just doesn’t ‘feel right’ in practice could be a big disappointment: FreeHand will always be a tough act to follow, more than for just the available features.
I'm guessing it's unlikely that Quasado's programmers are long-standing FreeHand users familiar with the subtleties of how FreeHand 'feels' and responds in the user's hand? So are we (the 'backers') and you guys the ones who Quasado will be relying on for guidance in this regard, or do Quasado have experienced FreeHand users working with them on the ground to guide them through these subtleties, and to give Expressive the best chance of doing its stuff as well as FreeHand still does?
Getting the word out
It’s already clear that Quasado Expressive is a serious venture with massive potential to provide us with a real alternative to FreeHand. Aside from this thread and the usual word of mouth, is it too early to be thinking about more ways to get the word out about this excellent venture, for example, an ‘I support Quasado Expressive’ logo or similar to use on our emails and websites etc. (similar to when FreeFreeHand was launched)?
Encouragement!
If Quasado are provided with the finance and guidance they will need to make this a reality, and if Adobe don't come along and bury them, it would seem that Expressive certainly has the potential to be everything a FreeHand user needs.
The development milestones published on Quasado's website provide a clear indication that they have a well-founded plan in place to make the dream a reality, and whilst the loss of FreeHand is very sad, I think Expressive is the best news we've had to date and likely to be well worth the wait if they can pull it off. Kudos to all involved.
Regards to all,
Nigel
