A scary topic, Isolation Options

[artifax]

Hi

I joined this forum just to see your reaction to this article.

It frightens me. I have Aldus/Adobe PageMaker, PhotoShop and Illustrator. Aldus/Macromedia FreeHand and DreamWeaver.

Is my future with these companies being threatened?

http://www.sdmug.org/newsletter/more.php?id=61_0_2_0_C

[Paddy]

Welcome to TS, artifax!

Considering that a large number of design studios use Macs and Adobe software, I wouldn't say that we're in any danger of losing the major Adobe programs. Nobody has produced anything that can topple Photoshop...

I'm sure that Apple take all this into consideration when developing software. iPhoto was a forward-thinking response to the rise of digital photography. Adobe's Photo Album (PC only) is a later entry into the field, and an attempt to duplicate the functions of iPhoto, from what I've heard. Obviously, Adobe are not going to try to compete with software that is bundled with the operating system on the Mac side. There is nothing that iPhoto or Photo Album do that renders anything incompatible, cross-platform either. That, I think is a key point. Compatibility does not necessarily equal exact duplication - nor should it have to.

PageMaker won't be going anywhere - we've known that for several years. InDesign if far superior - I've been using it for several years now.

Macromedia have shown no signs of dropping Mac support - Dreamweaver and Flash are heavily used on both platforms. Yes, it took them a little longer to produce the initial version of Contribute for the Mac, but all subsequent releases have been simultaneous.

And, as I said in another thread, Microsoft's Mac Business Unit does quite well - I don't foresee them dropping Mac support any time soon either. IE won't be developed as a stand-alone browser for any platform. My only real concern is that lazy web site designers continue to produce sites that conform to some of the peculiarities of IE, but not to W3C standards. Until MS make a real effort to bring IE in line (which they may well be forced to do, as security issues encourage more users to switch to Firefox) that problem will probably continue.

This post has been edited by Paddy: Dec 22 2004, 09:16 AM

[Bruce_F]

I cannot speak for the authenticity of what I read, but to my understanding, there was a mutual agreement between Adobe and Apple concerning the software that Adobe dropped. According to the same article, Adobe was the instigator as they didn't want to keep it going for such a small community of users.

I support Apple going with Safari as an "integrated" browser. I do wish, however, that Microsoft would stop writing code that Safari or any Mac browser doesn't understand. Just go to MSNBC with a Mac browser and you'll see that NONE of the available browsers work properly.

[Gregg]

...and then there were the scare stories about how Apple was not going to survive.

It's still around.

[krissel]

Some articles have quoted Adobe's profits from PS as being 40% from Mac users so that's a pretty big slice off their nose if they are into the spite game.

We always are worried when we see the effect a firm like Adobe might have on Mac users but we don't pay attention to the interaction Adobe may have with the Windows users. Microsoft has added programs that compete with Adobe as much as Apple has but we don't hear or care about that, X-Docs for example which directly faces off against Acrobat.

As to the MS Office not being available for Mac, well the DOJ would just love to see that. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if companies like Adobe also feel pressure to continue major product lines to avoid any conspiracy connnections with MS monopoly. On the other hand, Adobe has mostly become the varied company it is by buying up and incorporating others' applications into their unified concept. Funny thing is, Apple could easily buy Adobe if it felt threatened, the cash is there.

But remember, too that with the Unix core underlying X, the open source community will be able to supply many programs that with tweaking could very well out pace PhotoShop and other graphics apps. Open Office has come close to meeting much of MS Office capability. OS X with its Cocoa programming interface makes it so much easier to compile applications that run native in nix.

I went to Adobe's site and downloaded one of their company outlook pdfs and read some interesting different perspectives on this subject. Some of the caveats to Adobe's success are noted:

Applications for digital video editing, compositing and special effects, audio creation, and DVD authoring face increasing competition as video professionals and hobbyists migrate away from analog video and audio tools  towards the use of digital camcorders and digital video production on their computers and DVD systems for rich  media playback. Our Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition, Adobe Encore DVD, and Adobe Premiere Pro software  products, as well as the Adobe Video Collection which contains these products, face competition from companies  such as Aist, Apple Computer, ArcSoft, Avid, Broderbund, Canopus, Cyberlink, Discreet, Magix, Microsoft,  Muvee, Pinnacle Systems, Roxio, Sonic Solutions, ULead Systems, and Sony.

For document generation solutions — specifically, the desktop and server-based PDF file creation markets —  Adobe Acrobat and our server solutions such as Adobe Acrobat Elements Server, Adobe Distiller Server, and Adobe  Document Server face competition from many Acrobat clone products marketed by companies such as Ansyr  Technology, eHelp Corporation, Global Graphics, Software995, and others. In addition, other PDF creation  solutions can be found at a low cost, or for free, on the Web. Additional competitors in the server-based document  generation market include DocuCorp, Document Sciences, Formscape, Optio, and StreamServe. However, some  PDF creation solution providers in the market today use technology from us, licensed as Adobe PDF Libraries, to  implement the PDF creation capabilities of their products or solutions.  In the higher end of the market, the release of our new Acrobat product called Acrobat Professional allows us to  provide similar value as, and compete more directly against, other creative professional PDF tool providers, such as  Enfocus, Dalim, TeamPDF, and Zinio. 
For document collaboration and document process management solutions, where electronic document delivery,  exchange, collaboration, and archival needs exist, our Intelligent Documents product family faces competition from  entrenched office applications such as Microsoft Office. In addition, some content management vendors provide  collaboration and business process management capabilities that could directly or indirectly compete with our  offerings, although we view our solutions in these areas as an extension of those supplied by such vendors.   Microsoft has also brought to market new products and technologies to address emerging Intelligent Documents  market needs. 
In the Professional version of Microsoft Office 2003, they have introduced a new information  gathering program called InfoPath 2003.  They have also introduced Windows Rights Management Services in their  new Windows Server 2003 product, which is designed to allow corporate networks to manage and enforce  restrictions built into documents. Microsoft has also introduced enhanced collaborative document review, document  security, and document distribution capabilities in its versions of Microsoft Office 2003.  These new and updated Microsoft products and technologies, and their marketing initiatives supporting them,  indicate Microsoft is targeting the electronic document distribution, collaboration, and forms markets, markets that  we are also focused on.

So you see, Adobe doesn't have smooth sailing ahead and Apple isn't the only one who presents a stumbling block. If they have loyal HighEnd users in the digital Mac market they would be very foolish to turn their backs on us.

As to Apple's future, the following was from an exec in Cupertino explaining a bit about how the scene looks from the Mac's end:

Our developer program has seen a 75% increase in participants over the past year. So we're really getting some exciting rejuvenation. We see applications not only coming from our traditional Mac developer base but also from Unix developers. That makes possible things that were never possible on the Mac before.

A great example of that is Maya, the industry's leading 3D-rendering application for professionals. That came over to OS X because of the Unix core of the system. We are also seeing developers from the Java world, because Mac OS X includes Java 2. So OS X is getting great software, no doubt about that.

And it will get more. The software development language for OS X, Cocoa, allows new generations of applications to be built quickly. We see a ton of them coming out now.

In the short term you may lay a case for one to worry a bit, but ultimately when more people are exposed to the benefits of the virtually virus, spyware free OS that is extremely stable, and the newer 64 bit processors that love apps rewritten to take advantage, there will be pressure to stick with Mac development.

Just my opinion.

[artifax]

THANK YOU ALL !!

You just made my Christmas Merrier, my New Year Happier and my future with Apple Brighter !!

BLESS YOU !!

[krissel]

Don't be a stranger...

[Xairbusdriver]

Not a graphics expert, just a happy Mac 'camper', but wishing you a hardy to TS! This is the friendliest, help site (IMHO) you'll find for general Mac info. We do have many experts, hope you can be another, but we are also a group who have a sincere desire to help by simply sharing our experiences with all things Mac.

Welcom! And don't forget to visit every day!

[Gary S]

Don't worry and have a happy holiday artifax.

What Krissel said is very encouraging. Just go along and use the programs you enjoy and
be machappy, as Bernie would say.

I have to go back to Photoshop now. Bye!