What a sad day it is…
It’s official. Macromedia is now gone, swallowed into the “Walmart of software companies”: Adobe. Upon visiting Macromedia.com, I was welcomed with a new, albeit ugly new site design full of whites and grays. The layout is generally the same, but the colors, backgrounds and everything else have been stripped of all sexiness.
What does this mean for me? Well, firstly, it means that I’m now forced to either stick with my outdated Macromedia software, which will be fine for the next 6 months to a year I figure, or learn to do my web design the Adobe Way, using multiple high priced design programs for simple things that Fireworks did all on it’s own.
Photoshop has kinda tightened up in the past, namely it’s interface, panels and stuff. It is a tighter interface than any Macromedia program, although I much prefer the collapsable panels in Macromedia’s apps. Photoshop’s options bar at the top is much more user-friendly than Firework’s and Flash’s. But fancy layout or not, it’s what the program does that makes it preferred to the designer.
Reason’s why Fireworks beats Photoshop for us “Web Guys”:
- Freehand/Illustrator-like vector drawing tools that work with the raster elements in the artboard.
- Quicker program launch, by far.
- Color Picker picks from ANYTHING… desktop, other apps, other open files, etc. VERY handy.
- Import of vector data maintains it’s editable vector state. Yeah, I know it’s not really vector for print and stuff, but print-schmint, I’m only interested in web stuff here.
- Non-destructive filters
- Batch process are easier to do on the fly in Fireworks, no need to set up actions and stuff prior to the batch
- Full PNG support
- Web graphic “Export” can bypass Image Ready, or the giant “Save for Web” dialog box.
- Non-destructive filters
- Being able to use the Delete key to delete selected elements
- Default keystrokes match standard default keystrokes
- Lower Price… don’t want to have to buy all of the extra stuff I’ll never use that’s built for Photographers and print designers.
I’m sure I can think of more reasons, but this is a good start of the big reasons. What I expect will happen with this whole “Big fish eats little fish” scenario is that the end user… me… is going to have to change how we do stuff to conform to how Adobe thinks we should work. Not happy about it, but then again, I’m not a shareholder, so I’ve got no say.
Farewell Macromedia. You will be missed.