AT&T Tech Support 360
May 16, 2007 11:55 AM PDT
Adobe writes FreeHand obituary
- Related Stories
-
Adobe to take wraps off Creative Suite 3
March 26, 2007 -
Adobe to take Photoshop online
February 28, 2007 -
As Flash turns 10, Adobe looks ahead
August 8, 2006 -
Macromedia, Adobe make peace for bigger fight
April 18, 2005
"After a long and storied career, Adobe (nee Altsys, Aldus and Macromedia) FreeHand has reached the end of its development road," John Nack, senior product manager of Adobe's Photoshop software, said on his blog on Wednesday. "Adobe does not plan to develop and deliver any new feature-based releases of FreeHand, or to deliver patches or updates for new operating systems or hardware."
That means, among other things, that there will be no version for Windows Vista or for Intel-based Apple computers, according to an Adobe frequently asked questions document (PDF) on the move.
Macromedia released the last version of the software, FreeHand MX, in 2003. The writing was on the wall for the product after Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, given Adobe's preference for its own Illustrator product and Illustrator's integration with other software in Adobe's Creative Suite.
Adobe is trying to encourage upgrades to the CS3 version of Illustrator; registered users can pay $199, about a third of its regular $599 price tag.
Freehand has a long history, at least in personal computing terms. The first version was released in 1988, according to Ian Kelleigh's FreeHand Source Web site. It was a 429KB application that required 750KB of memory to run. The 11th version, MX, was a 10.3MB application that needed 131MB of memory.
Adobe is working to make the switch easier for FreeHand users. According to the FAQ, "Illustrator CS3 includes the new ability to import FreeHand 10 and MX files directly and with higher fidelity than in previous releases."
Adobe hasn't been racing to support Vista even for its latest products. However, the company on Monday announced work on a new driver to use PostScript printers with Microsoft's latest operating system. Adobe expects to ship the driver in July to printer manufacturers that can offer the software to customers.
Windows Vista includes a PostScript driver, but Adobe's "delivers higher quality print output for Office files with transparency and gradients than printing the same files using the standard PostScript driver bundled with Windows," Adobe said.
See more CNET content tagged:
Adobe Systems Inc.,
PostScript,
Macromedia Inc.,
Microsoft Windows Vista,
printer
released in 1998. In fact it was 1988.
"It can't be happening, CNET is hardly a reliable source."
2. Anger :
"How dare you do this to me Adobe?! I'll never use your stupid products again, I'll tell every one to do the same, I'll kill everyone who did this to Freehand" (perceived, rightly or wrongly, as "responsible")
3. Bargaining :
"Just make it on OSX 10.5 or Vista call it Hand CS3, or import it's functionality into illustrator, or make it open source, I'LL PAY YOU twice as much as CS3"
4. Depression :
"I'm so sad, why bother designing anything?"
5. Acceptance :
"Well it's not like I have to use Microsoft Expression Studio. Adobe canned Atmosphere I guess they can encase Freehand as well; Adobe were still cool right, I didn't mean that whole killing thing... OK... Adobe... ?..."