Adobe upgrades offer diminishing returns
Today I had cause to reinstall Adobe Creative Suite 2 (CS2). In the absence of a convenient uninstaller I had to read the PDF file to do the job manually. As I got grumpier by the minute from failed attempts to reinstall CS2, I had time to reflect on Adobe products in general. I thought to myself “what was the last really compelling version of Photoshop?”
Having started using Photoshop extensively at version 4, I would say that Photoshop 7 is the most important release so far. I could quite happily use it even today in place of CS2 (which is Photoshop 9 in all but name).
Some of the great stuff we got between versions 4 and 7:
- The History palette (multiple undos woohoo!)
- The Actions palette (sooooo much time saved on repetitive tasks)
- Improved type controls (although it still isn’t all that great)
- Layer effects
- Layer sets (grouping layers together for easy manipulation)
- The Healing brush (brilliant, so much better than the clone tool for removing imperfections from images)
- Imageready integration (I was finally able to dump Fireworks for web graphics output)
Between 7 and CS2 we were treated to:
- A horrible nagging three disc installer
- A horrible nagging updater (“…the updater must update itself before it can check for updates…”)
- That Adobe Bridge bullshit that noone ever uses
- Annoying changes to the layer selection system
- A poorly conceived rebrand of the applications in the collection, that sacrifices easy recognition for brand uniformity - putting Adobe’s corporate vanity ahead of user’s needs
Photoshop CS3 promises an even worse icon design and universal binary versions of the applications. It’ll be a worthwhile upgrade for the performance boost on Intel Macs alone, but you could have ignored CS and CS2 entirely.
It seems to me that the Adobe of recent years is more busy pushing the perception that its products are great than working on the reality. As the second largest software company after Microsoft though, it appears that there’s almost noone left with the nerve to challenge them.
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January 22nd, 2007 at 7:35 pm
absence of a convenient uninstaller
add/remove programs -> Photoshop
of course, I know this so well because of the amount of fsking times I’ve had to re-install CS/CS2 after they’ve somehow ended up corrupted.
The 400-500 font limit is also a pain in the ass.
January 22nd, 2007 at 8:20 pm
In most cases under Mac OS X, dragging the app or its folder to the trash is sufficient (gotta love those bundles - Microsoft Office is remarkably tidy), but applications like Photoshop are rather messier.
There are tools like AppZapper (which claims to be “the uninstaller Apple forgot”), but I’ve not given them a whirl yet.
The 400-500 font limit is also a pain in the ass.
I’ve only ever used it for the Mac, but try Suitcase for Windows.
January 23rd, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I’ve been using Fireworks over Photoshop for several years now.
Photoshop will always be the mothership for digital photo work and print. Fireworks rules when it comes to web design and 72dpi work.
January 23rd, 2007 at 6:07 pm
I’m usually pretty open to re-evaluating the tools that I use, although I have to confess Photoshop goes unchallenged. Other than web stuff I quite often need to prepare artwork for Final Cut Express or create icons with Iconbuilder. I’ve not given Fireworks due consideration for a long time. Maybe it’s high time I took another look at it
Is there any news yet on Fireworks’ long term future now that Adobe and Macromedia have merged? I kinda expected it to be on the death list…