Adobe Should Open Source Freehand
Adobe abandons Freehand. Lest we forget Macromedia abandon Freehand when they released Fireworks. The last really good version was 9 (MS Word 6 good!). To me Freehand always felt more approachable, ‘alive’, Mac-like than the more stoic, snooty, Illustrator. As Adobe attention has shifted to selling to the Windows market - their Mac-ness has dramatically faded and are second only to Microsoft in annoying me every time I use their software.
Head over to the Wikipedia page for Freehand and dig this back-to-the-future moment:
Adobe is now a full-on official monopoly in the creative tools space. With the only alternative being open-source projects like Inkscape and Xara.
Why did Google buy Writely and why did Sun buy StarOffice?
It’s was cheaper than paying someone else for licenses and support on tools needed to run their businesses.
All of this reinforcing the need for creative professionals to dedicate their time and talent to free, open-source project. See Darrel’s list of Open Source for Designers. We get more control, tools that work the way they want them too, and save thousands of dollars in licensing a year.
Personally, I think Adobe should open source the tools they no longer want to support…like my beloved Freehand. That would have the added benefit of making me not think Adobe is evil.
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There’s two problems with this:
a) Adobe is just like MS. They fear open source and have absolutely no interest in aiding the enemy. They’d rather bury Freehand in the back 40 than ever have it see the light of day again.
b) I have a strong hunch that the codebase of Freehand is antiquated and held to gether with duct tape and bailing twine. It’s been on live support since version 9 and never really recovered after Version 7 in terms of being a stable product.
I love Freehand. Will continue to use it until it no longer installs on my machine. That said, we all saw this coming for years.
Here’s to hoping that inkscape picks up some momentum! ;o)
Meanwhile, we’ll just watch both MS and Adobe battle it out with their competing Flash/Longsilver and PDF/whateverMScallsTheirPDF for the next few years while other products just rot away…
I have no info on this yet, but I’ll be sure to pass this link among people I work with at Adobe.
I was talking with some of the ex-Altsys staff in Adobe’s San Francisco office today, and the recurring theme was that it’s a very old codebase which would be difficult to really use today, but I’ll make sure your words here are heard.
jd/adobe
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