What do you(s) think of the announcement about Adobe and Macromedia?? between the two companies they have most of my money!! ;) do you(s) think it'll make for better software? d do you(s) think some apps will be dropped or megred?? do you(s) think the prices will get better ? or do you(s) think the upgrades will happen ever more frequently??? if you aren't sure what i asking about, visit either developers website and ther should be something on the Home page :) retrocity

Tough call. I don't think I'm happy but it just may be the trepidation in me squealing. For sure, Photoshop won't "go anywhere" and I'd be willing to bet the same of Illustrator but Freehand is no slouch and Dreamweaver/Freehand integration is something Adobe won't want to discard so easily. I say that thinking Dreamweaver is why they wanted MM. Golive has never attained a strong following. Prices better? Hard to say. I know a lot of people complained MM released too often. And I've thought their products a bit pricey. I have Flash but I really use SwishMax the most. I also have Dreamweaver but listening to my co-worker scream at Dreamweaver's antics have made me "scared" to get into it. As to the news, it made Yahoo news (my homepage), so there's no real worry about finding the report (LOL).

Well, I guess instead of trying to save up for TWO design packages -- Adobe Creative Suite and Macromedia Studio MX -- I guess now I only have to save up for ONE design package. 'Course, it'll probably cost $2000 or more, but it's not like I could afford the old prices anyway. Yeah. I'm going to be broke for the rest of my life, pretty much.

I wonder what this does to CS2. Think there will be a new version in 12 months incorporating MM stuff? Or some variation thereof?

I'm not especially thrilled by it. It's hard to see how reduced competition in the marketplace can be a godd thing. It seems hard to believe that Adobe would want to keep both Illustrator and Freehand supported at the same time. Dreamweaver generally stomps all over GoLive, so I could see why they might want that. Of course, it may have all be about getting ahold of Flash. Adobe's attempts to break that market never really seemed to go anywhere, IMHO. All those daft Adobe/Macromedia "patent" wars over application look and feel seems a bit silly now.

I think it can be great, as long as there are enough smaller companies trying to bite the ankles of the big dog. There is a bit of a 'danger' of higher prices because of the monopoly position of the big company. But I am very happy with the current versions, so I can live without pricy future updates (wait! I said that after every new version of Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive and Flash...) Just wait and see. Mergers like these often result in a re-orientation of some products for specific markets (like PageMaker is nog an office kinda layout proggie). I think GoLive will go (though it is my app of choice), or maybe they turn it into a similar FrontPage-like program for office use. (name: GoWeb 2005 Hoof) I think FreeHand will be incorporated in Illustrator, with a choice of palettes/shortcuts from one of the other for the user. (name Illustator CSF) FireWorks will be dropped, but some of the ideas that Adobe was jealous of, will appear in ImageReady. (name FireReady, or ImageWorks 2005 Hoof) Creatives all around the world will do whatever they see in their minds, with whatever package is there for them...

A lot of people are making noises about having Adobe adopt the "superior" MX interface - I certainly hope not! It remains to be seen whether Washington or Brussels (I think the deal and the companies EU activities are probably big enough to need EC approval) will require them to divest one of Illustrator?Freehand or GoLive/Dreamweaver before they approve the deal - Adobe has bought the publisher of Freehand before.

There will be a Death of GoLive. Fireworks is just a washed down version of what can be accomplished in Illustrator, Photoshop and Image Ready although Fireworks is more powerfull than Elements. Freehand MX never went to a Freehand MX 2004 so I think that will be out as well. The best of both IMHO are Flash, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop/Image Ready and of course Acrobat. This would make an expensive package but cheaper than buying 2 suites.

i'm with you in that dreamer (...cheaper than buying 2 suites) it should make it easier to pitch to management instead of going to them @ every upgrade! i hope they make "lite" versions of the less popular ones rather than let the apps die a slow and painful death (like PageMaker) i for one like FireWorks for quick and dirty navigation pieces instead of launching PS or ImageReady. :) retrocity

Hopefully they will leave most of the Macromedia programs alone...likewise for all the Adobe apps. It might be nice to see better cross talk and import features between all the programs, but messing with interfaces would just tick experienced users off. Let's hope they remember that before they start tinkering with everything. Let's also hope that Adobe slows down all the upgrades so we can actually afford them when they come out. CS2 came out way, way too fast. And I believe that some of the CS2 programs didn't even change all that much. The same could be said of CS though... More power to Adobe if they can take over without ruffling everyone's feathers...

Eighteen months between releases has always bee the Adobe "standard", and that's pretty much the Cs to CS2 interval (I'm pretty sure I bought my CS apps in late 2003). The CS realease of Illustrator was more like two years after version 10, presumably held back to fall in with the rest of the suite.