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Killing Adobe XD because they couldn't buy Figma for $20 billion means to me that they would never have been a good owner for Figma. XD may have not had as many

Killing Adobe XD because they couldn't buy Figma for $20 billion means to me that they would never have been a good owner for Figma. XD may have not had as many features as Figma, but it was still a decent program and could have been a very good competitor to Figma for far less than the cost of buying out that company. The buy-in of Adobe's subscription model was a compelling reason for my employers to provide only XD to me for my work.

asah 3y ago
Google Video was killed after the YouTube acquisition and YT flourished under Google.
- deaddodo 3y ago
  YouTube was bought mainly because Google Video was failing as a platform. About the only thing it ever offered over YouTube were longform lectures and presentations. Combining the two platforms (e.g. allowing longer videos but using YouTube's social interface) just made YouTube better.
  - silvestrov 3y ago
    Isn't there something about that seeking in movies was only possible in Google Video and not on (original) YouTube? So they ended up with the YouTube frontend and mostly Google Video backend?
    - deaddodo 3y ago
      Yes, modern YouTube's infrastructure inherits more from Google Video than classic YouTube, but the frontend descends from YouTube's (albeit, completely Ship of Theseus'd at this point).
  - jwells89 3y ago
    I was a bit bummed when Google Video was shuttered. In some ways its simple to-the-point UX was nice compared to that of YouTube, which had become cluttered pretty early on. It was also sometimes a backup for when videos on YouTube got taken down.
  - gowld 3y ago
    And because the owners of YouTube couldn't afford to run it, so it needed a wealthy investor.
ActionHank 3y ago
Staff likely fled teams working on XD as soon as the news surfaced around the acquisition. They probably have no one left who can move quickly with the product or the code base to catch up now.
- jpk 3y ago
  Interesting guess, but citation needed.
  - ActionHank 3y ago
    You will never get confirmation or citations for this sort of thing. What you can do is think for yourself as a dev in that team, would you stick around?
    - pavel_lishin 3y ago
      > What you can do is think for yourself as a dev in that team, would you stick around? Are paychecks still coming in, and do I still have a mortgage to pay?
      - ActionHank 3y ago
        Most people move between jobs.
      - mlyle 3y ago
        You'd stick around until when the Figma team is expected to replace you, and not take any proactive steps to better your situation in the meantime? And you'd work just as hard, too?
        pavel_lishin 3y ago
        > And you'd work just as hard, too? I never said that.
        3y ago
chrisfinazzo 3y ago
This isn't the first time Adobe has taken a decent app w/ potential and run it into the ground: Dreamweaver did many things, not all of them well, but it was never actively terrible. Over time, its functionality got split out into more apps that didn't actually require people to write web code - a disappointment that shouldn't surprise as Adobe's heart was still w/ print production and never really committed to the development side of things. I would have expected that after Flash went EOL that more resources would go to the editor, but they just mined it out before going subscription, a dealbreaker that made me seek out Panic's Coda and (later) BBEdit. I know it still exists in Creative Cloud, but unless you are deep in the Adobe ecosystem, there are better options available.
- whywhywhywhy 3y ago
  Fireworks actually had a lot of features people gushed about Sketch and Figma having close to a decade before they existed. Adobe never understood this and tried to push web design into PS and AI then killed FW.
  - lolinder 3y ago
    > and AI then killed FW. I did a double take here before remembering that AI is also the acronym for Adobe Illustrator. I'd totally forgotten about AI!
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  I want to believe in Dreamweaver but when I try it "just doesn't work" or it does work with a 5 second delay for the screen to update when I type. Webstorm doesn't promise as much but at least I can get stuff done with it.
- kccqzy 3y ago
  Adobe just didn't manage the pivot to web design very well. Dreamweaver had been run into the ground. So was Fireworks. And look at where Flash is.
  - chrisfinazzo 3y ago
seltzered_ 3y ago
"The buy-in of Adobe's subscription model was a compelling reason for my employers to provide only XD to me for my work." Yep, Adobe XD was at least something I could use when in a giant 'enterprise' company that already partnered with Adobe on subscriptions and didn't like using any other companies for creative products.
gffrd 3y ago
> The buy-in of Adobe's subscription model was a compelling reason for my employers to provide only XD to me for my work. And this is how we all end up using spatulas to drive nails.

asah 3y ago

Google Video was killed after the YouTube acquisition and YT flourished under Google.

deaddodo 3y ago
YouTube was bought mainly because Google Video was failing as a platform. About the only thing it ever offered over YouTube were longform lectures and presentations. Combining the two platforms (e.g. allowing longer videos but using YouTube's social interface) just made YouTube better.
- silvestrov 3y ago
  Isn't there something about that seeking in movies was only possible in Google Video and not on (original) YouTube? So they ended up with the YouTube frontend and mostly Google Video backend?
  - deaddodo 3y ago
    Yes, modern YouTube's infrastructure inherits more from Google Video than classic YouTube, but the frontend descends from YouTube's (albeit, completely Ship of Theseus'd at this point).
- jwells89 3y ago
  I was a bit bummed when Google Video was shuttered. In some ways its simple to-the-point UX was nice compared to that of YouTube, which had become cluttered pretty early on. It was also sometimes a backup for when videos on YouTube got taken down.
- gowld 3y ago
  And because the owners of YouTube couldn't afford to run it, so it needed a wealthy investor.

ActionHank 3y ago

Staff likely fled teams working on XD as soon as the news surfaced around the acquisition. They probably have no one left who can move quickly with the product or the code base to catch up now.

jpk 3y ago
Interesting guess, but citation needed.
- ActionHank 3y ago
  You will never get confirmation or citations for this sort of thing. What you can do is think for yourself as a dev in that team, would you stick around?
  - pavel_lishin 3y ago
    > What you can do is think for yourself as a dev in that team, would you stick around? Are paychecks still coming in, and do I still have a mortgage to pay?
    - ActionHank 3y ago
      Most people move between jobs.
    - mlyle 3y ago
      You'd stick around until when the Figma team is expected to replace you, and not take any proactive steps to better your situation in the meantime? And you'd work just as hard, too?
      - pavel_lishin 3y ago
        > And you'd work just as hard, too? I never said that.
        3y ago

chrisfinazzo 3y ago

This isn't the first time Adobe has taken a decent app w/ potential and run it into the ground: Dreamweaver did many things, not all of them well, but it was never actively terrible. Over time, its functionality got split out into more apps that didn't actually require people to write web code - a disappointment that shouldn't surprise as Adobe's heart was still w/ print production and never really committed to the development side of things. I would have expected that after Flash went EOL that more resources would go to the editor, but they just mined it out before going subscription, a dealbreaker that made me seek out Panic's Coda and (later) BBEdit. I know it still exists in Creative Cloud, but unless you are deep in the Adobe ecosystem, there are better options available.

whywhywhywhy 3y ago
Fireworks actually had a lot of features people gushed about Sketch and Figma having close to a decade before they existed. Adobe never understood this and tried to push web design into PS and AI then killed FW.
- lolinder 3y ago
  > and AI then killed FW. I did a double take here before remembering that AI is also the acronym for Adobe Illustrator. I'd totally forgotten about AI!
PaulHoule 3y ago
I want to believe in Dreamweaver but when I try it "just doesn't work" or it does work with a 5 second delay for the screen to update when I type. Webstorm doesn't promise as much but at least I can get stuff done with it.
kccqzy 3y ago
Adobe just didn't manage the pivot to web design very well. Dreamweaver had been run into the ground. So was Fireworks. And look at where Flash is.
- chrisfinazzo 3y ago

seltzered_ 3y ago

"The buy-in of Adobe's subscription model was a compelling reason for my employers to provide only XD to me for my work." Yep, Adobe XD was at least something I could use when in a giant 'enterprise' company that already partnered with Adobe on subscriptions and didn't like using any other companies for creative products.

gffrd 3y ago

> The buy-in of Adobe's subscription model was a compelling reason for my employers to provide only XD to me for my work. And this is how we all end up using spatulas to drive nails.