I know its early, but: BEST HEADLINE OF 2006.

Thanks, Nate. I was inspired by the Emigre references on Bennett’s and Donovan’s STEP cover (Team 4)

Once I got the Adobe Creative Suite (1), I abandoned Quark at 4.1 for my home office. I still have it installed, just in case, but I have no plans to go back unless they make a stronger product and/or I’m forced to for some reason. At my current job I pushed for and got CS 2 which works well.

My last full-time job used Quark 4.1 then upgraded to 6.5, because our boss was a Quark booster. I have a feeling they’re still using it (a year later). A big part of that was the vendors we used for printing and promos. As an in house shop, we were more beholden to getting things done quick and cheap rather than easily and better. Also, it was cheaper to upgrade than it was to switch (or so went the theory). I think these things are Quark’s mainstay: people who are comfortable in Quark and have been using it for years, or are held back by external factors.

But, as Kyle wrote, healthy competition benefits us more than anything. So it’s a good thing in that sense. I’m not looking forward to splitting my work between them, however, if QX7 really does help Quark make a comeback. But it’ll be much harder for Quark to get people to re-switch back to them than it was for Adobe to get them to switch away in the first place.

It would seem that if Quark really wanted to turn the tide back in its direction free and supportive CUSTOMER SERVICE would seem to be the bigger calling card than the software itself - almost all of the major complaints that I’d had and many others had with the past Quark support often had very little to do with the program running / not running and almost everything to do with feeling left in the lurch by non-available customer service reps.

Additionally, the cost of the upgrades and the overbearing efforts to create an airtight copy protection on their software seem also to have pushed users quickly towards the sunnier shores of Adobe products.

I’ve little doubt that Quark has made significant gains in the “smoothness” of its interface and with its connectivity to outside party software, but I’m most curious to see if they’ve actually restructured the company thinking in a way that opens them back up to their users.

Among design students, Quark remained one of the few programs that was difficult to get a copy of. It was always overpriced and packaged as if it were the Mercedes of programs (when Mercedes mattered). But with their last releases, with the automatic 1 GB file sizes - even if nothing much was done - it was easily the symbol for fat, bloated programs. It is still too expensive compared to the market. It offers little more than a program - no customer service, no nothing.
Dont get me wrong, InDesign still needs another version update to be as eloquent as Quark once was, but it is obviously the future when it comes to communication with other programs and files - that aspect which computers are SUPPOSED to be made for.

Wow, I thought we would hear at least one comment from a Quark fan who has been eagerly waiting for the v7 release. Perhaps the majority of users really have switched to InDesign.

I started liking InDesign at v1.0, and love it at v4 (CS2). I still have a copy of Quark 4 I use infrequently for one client— otherwise it’s InDesign all the way.