Freehand Has Left the Building?
by Donovan Beery, (16 comments)
Obviously not a surprise to those who have followed the Adobe/Macromedia story, but Macromedia has announced the Studio 8 bundle today.
As they mention, “Studio 8 is the essential software suite used to design, develop and maintain interactive online experiences.”
It appears that Freehand is not included in the bundle – as it has been in the past.
Comments (16)
Nathan Chase said:
Neither is Director, which has become the lost cause of Macromedia for some time…
Posted on August 8, 2005
JonSel said:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/freehand/productinfo/faq/#2_1
They claim they are not discontinuing the program, but have simply removed it from the Studio 8 bundle. We’ll see.
Posted on August 8, 2005
nate said:
And why then include Fireworks? Freehand was arguably a better program than Illustrator (still a nightmare by usability standards), but Fireworks compared to the Photoshop/Imageready dynamic duo? It’s like David vs. Goliath only without the slingshot and more stompy-stompy. Kill Fireworks, give me back my old friend Freehand.
Posted on August 8, 2005
Donovan Beery said:
Fireworks does have the ability to open Photoshop documents, and convert them to a format usable to Dreamweaver. Once this feature is integrated in Photoshop, I assume we will see the end of it as well.
Posted on August 8, 2005
Bennett said:
Nate, “Arguably” is the key word. I guess we have already been there. Have you checked out AI CS2? Some major issues have been resolved and the Live Paint and Live Trace features would be enough for me to switch from Freehand (unless it already has those features).
Posted on August 8, 2005
Frederik Paul said:
It’s always been a riddle to me how someone can compare PS/IR with FW; FW is a completely different app and its integration with DW, its features and general usability is far better than the PS/IR combo. Loss of FW would be a major desaster for many web designers, and PS is just not suitable for this job. Loss of FH is another thing, because then we simply wouldn’t have a choice anymore and almost everyone would have to live with AI, something that’s a nightmare in my own eyes and regarding choice.
Posted on August 9, 2005
Tom Nemitz said:
The oppressors may try to force Illustrator on me, but I won’t have any of it! Freehand is the King! Vive Le Freehand!
Posted on August 9, 2005
Michael Dogan said:
Let me all tell you a story about a takeover I experienced while I was working part time as I went to design school:
Have you folks ever heard of Tip Top Tailors? They’re a Canadian business and casual mens wear retailer. We were owned by a larger company that had a lot of other interests — and not only fashion.
We were bought out by dum dum dum “the competition” (Grafton Fraser — a mens wear conglomerate) one day — just as our parent company was on the brink of Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.
I still remember the Memo from our Regional Manager:
This will, in the end, make Adobe’s suite a better product!
Posted on August 9, 2005
Drew Davies said:
“They claim they are not discontinuing the program….”
I’m pretty sure that means Freehand is already being buried out back behind the Macromedia office building. Keep in mind this is the same company who purchased Fontographer and continue to claim that it’s not being discontinued, despite the fact that it’s essentially impossible to find on their website, and hasn’t been updated since 1996. Goodbye, Freehand.
Posted on August 9, 2005
Jonathan Hughes said:
in re: Fontographer Thankfully, fontlab bought it a few months ago and I believe they’re planning on releasing an OS X version:
http://www.fontlab.com/Font-tools/Fontographer/
Posted on August 9, 2005
Ben Whitehouse said:
Hey, let’s all chip-in and buy Freehand! What do you say?
Posted on August 11, 2005
nate said:
I’ve got $5 for that. Good idea, Ben.
Posted on August 11, 2005
drs18 said:
When Adobe bought Aldus and got Pagemaker, the programmers of Aldus Freehand chipped in to keep Freehand back. Sadly, it looks like Adobe wins after all. I’m an Illustrator user, think CS2 is amazing, and could never get the hang of Freehand. Yet, there’s something unseemly in this, and as a designer who swears by knowing my tools, I deeply sympathize with Freehanders right now. If you take up a collection, use PayPal and I’m in!
Posted on August 12, 2005
Bill Kerr said:
I heard that!
Posted on August 18, 2005
gregor said:
Freehand Has Left the Building
Dear God, I hope so. Freehand has become a huge disappointment with each new release since version 8. Seems like the last upgrade I bought was simply to get it to authenticate via it’s licensing schema…
Posted on September 4, 2005
Jonathan said:
I will certainly miss Freehand. What a good friend.
About all I can say for Illustrator is how wonderfully it has been integrated into InDesign. Outside of that, it will never compare with Freehand. Maybe they’ll combine the best of each and call it Free Illustrator!
Posted on March 22, 2006