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Adobe to phase out Freehand, GoLive

macnn.com — Adobe said that it will discontinue Macromedia Freehand illustration and and its own GoLive web design product, as the company simplifies its product line following the recent purchase and aquisition of Macromedia.

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  • SentOne, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Wow that really blows, Been using freehand since version 7, liked it a LOT better than AI, and never even thought about going back. Not saying Illustrator isnt a great peice of software, But it just sucks that people won't have a choice between the two. Good way to eliminate the competition, buy them up then phase them out.
    • msaleem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13This is actually not true, and Adobe has responded to inaccurate reports.

      http://digg.com/software/Adobe:_GoLive_and_Freehand_development_WILL_continue

      Several online Web sites have posted information in the past couple of days stating that Adobe Systems will discontinue development and support for two of its products: GoLive and Freehand. Adobe says the reports are not correct and the products are not being discontinued.
    • markob, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Who's elimination competition? They BOUGHT Macromedia, why would they waste resources on making 2 same purpose programs? GoLive is also similar to Dreamweaver, thus they are discontinuing it. AI is to Freehand is like Photoshop to Paintshop Pro, way more professional, of course they'll keep a better product.
    • hami, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'm huge Freehand fan, after using Illustrator for years. Drawing in Freehand and it's multi-page, multi-size layout is such an improvement on Illustrator.

      According to the Adobe website, in the Freehand FAQ, Adobe says we should still buy Freehand.
      http://www.adobe.com/products/freehand/productinfo/faq/#item-1-4

      You never know, maybe they will re-brand it 'Illustrator Pro' :P
    • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Surprise of the century! What next, Fireworks being dropped in favour of Photoshop?!
  • unaicthus, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Freehand rocked. Oh Well.
  • hotpepper, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7Good riddance.
  • Cmain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Well there is always Illustrator... which in my opinion is better. Sucks for the people that liked Freehand though. Now they have to learn a whole new set of tools.
  • optikinescant, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Kind of saw this one coming, wonder how long til ImageReady takes a dive and Fireworks steps up to pull its weight.
  • EamonnMurphy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I decided to use GoLive CS2 for 3 websites which I have created recently and I feel that there are many features which are better executed over Dreamweaver when it comes to xhtml and CSS (CSS in particular). I hope that they integrated the CSS features of GoLive into Dreamweaver. Freehand will be missed, as I have long preferred it to illustrator as I found it to have a better workflow and the integration with Flash was more than handy.
  • heymark, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I hope they don't get rid of Fireworks. I absolutely love fireworks and have been using it for a long time. Does anyone know anything about that?
    • Tyrekicker, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I agree, there are many aspects of fireworks I just love. If I had my way, they would create a merged product, produced with the collective strengths of both photoshop and fireworks.

      Photoworks perhaps?
    • TheKingInYellow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1the only good thing about fireworks is its ability to localize compression areas. if adobe could combine fireworks quality controls into image ready they'd have a winner on their hands.
  • COlson87, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Thank God. Dreamweaver was the best thing to come out of Macromedia since Flash. Though I personally loved Freehand (I found it easier) Adobe's Illustrator works a lot better with Photoshop. I always had a hard time getting files from Freehand to Photoshop, so I can see that as being one of the major set backs. That and Illustrator may be a tad more powerful for those advanced users.

    On a side note:
    How is anybody supposed to compete with the new Adobe?
  • fatdog789, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Marked as inaccurate.
  • danboarder, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5NO DIGG . This is a rumor going around the web. I first heard of this when Adobe bought MM, and they had to clear it up, and now here we go again.

    As msaleem noted above, digg the following Yahoo story with correct information and more links in the comments: http://digg.com/software/Adobe:_GoLive_and_Freehand_development_WILL_continue
    • C00001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's not inaccurate. did anyone that's linking to the other digg story actually read the yahoo article?
      --"%u201CClearly Dreamweaver and Illustrator are market leading when it comes to web design/development and vector graphics/illustration,%u201D said the Adobe statement. %u201CCustomers should expect Adobe to concentrate our development efforts around these two products with regards to future innovation and Creative Suite integration.%u201D'

      Of course they won't come out and say "Don't buy our software". but they are very clearly easing into GoLive and Freehand being dicontinued.
  • liveinabin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Well, even if they do phase out Freehand and GoLive, I'm certain the most popular features of both will make their way into their Macromedia alternatives. After all, the development teams for those packages are probably going to be working on the new stuff.

    To perhaps answer that 'How is anybody supposed to compete with the new Adobe' question, I think their main competitors will come from the open source scene, which is really getting good right now. I wouldn't be suprised if some of these free programs (that are already more than competent) start building up momentum before they finally start to monetize and really take Adobe on.
  • Yarnage, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Did anyone read msaleem's or danboarder's comments? This story is entirely inaccurate.

    Why is everyone just digging this without reading anything?

    ADOBE WILL CONTINUE GOLIVE AND FREEHAND DEVELOPMENT!
  • rieuwa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5actually.. it is entirely correct.... I'm sorry to say .

    I was at the annual Adobe Live 2006 conference in London last thursday, and during his key-note, the VP of adobe systems announced this... Can't remember if he said that there would be one more development cycle... don't think so...
  • cartel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0reported as inaccurate

    please digg http://digg.com/software/Adobe:_GoLive_and_Freehand_development_WILL_continue instead
  • dvdd127, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Who needs GoLive when there is Dreamweaver.....and who needs Freehand when there is Photoshop, and Fireworks??
  • charbarred, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The problem is that there is no other major company developing these kinds of apps. They are unrivaled, which is always a problem. (Unless you think Frontpage can give them a run for their money). I know there are great free illustration packages out there, but it was sort of nice to see adobe and macromedia trying to outdo each other over the years. If no one rivals them, they can go the Microsoft way and not release any updates for years.
  • jacoplane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What are good alternatives for those of us who cannot afford either Freehand or Illustrator?

    Is Inkscape any good? http://www.inkscape.org/
  • nacs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This story is FALSE.

    See here for more info:
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20060601/tc_macworld/adobe20060531

    (Reported inaccurate)
  • shefftim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hardly surprising. Two rival companies used to have similar competing products. Macromedia had the edge with Web apps, Adobe with Graphics. One buys out the competitor and rationalises the product lines. My guess is Adobe really wanted Flash & Dreamweaver.
    It'd be nice if they could port all the extra features Freehand had to Illustrator. It's bad because there's now no real competitor to push innovation & it gives Adobe a near monopoly on the pro graphics markey. But hey - it's business. ExpectFireworks to go next - ImageReady's bundled with Photoshop & I wouldn't expect them to jetison IR in favour of Fireworks.
  • wolver1ne, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I still wish Adobe LiveMotion was brought back. With After Effects workflow and Flash fucntionality it would be a winner.
  • Laurent, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1What's with all the Freehand love? Freehand sucked... It's like saying that GoLive was better than Dreamweaver... ;oP
  • Slipdisc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2adobe said *****. get it right.

    inaccurate
  • TheKingInYellow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1(^_^) YIPEE SKIPPE!!! freehand sucks and i'm so happy that it's going away forever.

    ADOBE's next target should be Quark. DESTROY QUARK!
  • BUses, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This story is goog - see here for more info: http://www.euro-truck.biz
  •  

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