Comments on: Adobe Should Open Source Freehand

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:54:20 +0000

I’m surprised that no up-and-coming software designer has decided to recreate Freehand somehow. I’d buy it.

By: » Recently Divorced Freehand users searching for romance with another Vector application… » MNteractive »

Tue, 29 May 2007 19:27:51 +0000

[...] that Freehand is officially dead I figure it’s time I start playing the field again and look for a new love. Here’s the [...]

By: John Dowdell

John Dowdell — Fri, 18 May 2007 04:13:52 +0000

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

By: Darrel

Darrel — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:21:14 +0000

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…