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Adobe is a great software company. They are a corporate software company and they do things that software companies do because they have investors to care for.

Adobe is a great software company. They are a corporate software company and they do things that software companies do because they have investors to care for. Microsoft, Google, Apple (more of a software company than a hardware wouldn't you agree), Sun, Oracle, etc are the same way. Maybe there's a better way to govern a software company, not sure, but the ones that work that way have made it to the top and stuck around. By "that way" I mean obvious self-interest, it's what investors want. Having said that, Adobe has done a great many good things for developers, and part of that is the Macromedia legacy they inherited (bought). - Adobe has some of the best developer support in the industry. Their documentation, training and support has always been excellent. They have given developers and designers a lot of power through their tools. They have given developers the power to do a great deal with the web, and this is evident in the desire many of us have to get HTML5 to do what Flash can already do. We want the web Macromedia and Adobe envisioned, but we don't want it to be in their clutches, which is understandable, but I would be amiss if I didn't credit Adobe with that vision and the vision of those they've enabled. - Adobe has supported open source, and open protocols and standards. They pursued ECMA4 through a standards body (and lost that fight), but still. They have a decent proprietary flash player for Linux which they didn't have to do, I doubt they did that for any other reason other than for developers. Their Flex SDK is open source. There's a whole list here of open source projects they have: http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/site/Home http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/site/Home - Adobe AIR has a bad rep for no good reason. I also thought negatively of Adobe AIR until I started developing with it. It's fun to work with, I made a desktop app in JavaScript quickly (an IRC Client), and it works on three different platforms without any real effort to make that happen. I hope Adobe AIR is successful, because I think it is a promising runtime, that can only get better. Anyway, I think I'm a better software developer today because of Adobe. One of the first client side apps I've produced was a Flash color picker. It was fun and easy to build and it put me on a path to be a software engineer. Sure this download manager thing is annoying, but you know Sun had the exact same thing when you downloaded the Java Runtime, which by the way also installs the Yahoo Toolbar last time I checked. Microsoft installs the MSN Toolbar, Google puts their toolbar on PCs from various manufacturers. If you are RMS or a die hard GPL proponent, you are probably not going to agree with me, but that's ok. I also want HTML5 to supplant Flash wherever it can, but if Adobe gets around to making their Flash player work better on Macs, I don't really want to see Flash go away. So you had to deal with a download manager, so what. I don't hate Adobe for that. I think they're a great company. If I ever started a software company I'd hope to become a smidgeon of what Adobe is.

marcamillion 16y ago
Well...I will agree that they were a great software company. I haven't seen too much innovation coming from them, outside of their traditional bread and butter (and that innovation is incremental at best). However, I do agree that many software companies do this - but I disagree that it is in their own self interest. I think it is in the management's short-term self interest because they are rewarded with stock options that mature in the short term that they can then cash out. So they might make additional revenue from advertising in the short-term, but what does that do to their loyal customer base in the long term. I did encounter something similar (not as grotesque) with Sun when I installed Open Office....but for some reason it never rubbed me the way this one did. Also...much to my surprise, when I was installing Avast Free A/V, I was shocked (and disappointed) to see a screen prompting me to install a 'free and secure web browser from Google'. The last time I saw that, was for their desktop search product, which also annoyed me then....as it did annoy me this time. I guess it is something that these companies go through, but it doesn't negate the fact that it annoys some customers.
- iamelgringo 16y ago
  I haven't seen too much innovation coming from them, outside of their traditional bread and butter (and that innovation is incremental at best). I suspect you haven't used their flagship apps much. I've used the Adobe Creative Suite on a regular basis for 10 years, and it's simply great software. There are always a few rough edges, but over all, it's wonderful. Premiere CS 4 as far as I'm concerned is the best ProSumer video editing app on Windows (It's been a while since I've used Final Cut. I got fed up with Apple years ago.). After Effects has been nothing short of a phenomenal application for years. I did an animation project last year with my wife who produces Video, and their Puppet Kinematics tools are really, really cool. After Effects can be entirely GUI driven, or you can script procedural animations in javascript. I've just started using Adobe On Location for shooting live video, and it's really pretty amazing. I'm proficient with both PhotoShop and Illustrator as well, and frankly, they are a joy to use. Every new generation of the CS suite, they add more and more features that I've read about in graphics research papers the previous couple of years. I know that Adobe has been getting a lot of crap recently for it's run ins with Apple and the problems that Flash has running on Apple hardware. But I suspect that might have a bit more to do with Apple than with Adobe. So, I rather disagree with your assessment on Adobe.

marcamillion 16y ago

Well...I will agree that they were a great software company. I haven't seen too much innovation coming from them, outside of their traditional bread and butter (and that innovation is incremental at best). However, I do agree that many software companies do this - but I disagree that it is in their own self interest. I think it is in the management's short-term self interest because they are rewarded with stock options that mature in the short term that they can then cash out. So they might make additional revenue from advertising in the short-term, but what does that do to their loyal customer base in the long term. I did encounter something similar (not as grotesque) with Sun when I installed Open Office....but for some reason it never rubbed me the way this one did. Also...much to my surprise, when I was installing Avast Free A/V, I was shocked (and disappointed) to see a screen prompting me to install a 'free and secure web browser from Google'. The last time I saw that, was for their desktop search product, which also annoyed me then....as it did annoy me this time. I guess it is something that these companies go through, but it doesn't negate the fact that it annoys some customers.

iamelgringo 16y ago
I haven't seen too much innovation coming from them, outside of their traditional bread and butter (and that innovation is incremental at best). I suspect you haven't used their flagship apps much. I've used the Adobe Creative Suite on a regular basis for 10 years, and it's simply great software. There are always a few rough edges, but over all, it's wonderful. Premiere CS 4 as far as I'm concerned is the best ProSumer video editing app on Windows (It's been a while since I've used Final Cut. I got fed up with Apple years ago.). After Effects has been nothing short of a phenomenal application for years. I did an animation project last year with my wife who produces Video, and their Puppet Kinematics tools are really, really cool. After Effects can be entirely GUI driven, or you can script procedural animations in javascript. I've just started using Adobe On Location for shooting live video, and it's really pretty amazing. I'm proficient with both PhotoShop and Illustrator as well, and frankly, they are a joy to use. Every new generation of the CS suite, they add more and more features that I've read about in graphics research papers the previous couple of years. I know that Adobe has been getting a lot of crap recently for it's run ins with Apple and the problems that Flash has running on Apple hardware. But I suspect that might have a bit more to do with Apple than with Adobe. So, I rather disagree with your assessment on Adobe.