Comments on: What’s the future of GoLive and FreeHand?

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By: Charles brooks

Charles brooks — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:04:12 +0000

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:09:31 +0000

(concerning the reaction of John Nack to PaulS – Comment)
“I’m a graphic designer and to simply put it freehand is for professionals, illustrator is for wannabes”
[Obviously the market disagrees. --J.]
> obviously we in this Blog mainly disagree about your opinion, but you of course intentionally ignore this.
“an adobe equivalent of a microsoft product. Its only benefit is that it will open almost anything. I tend to use it to open difficult eps files and then copy them into freehand.”
[Wait--I thought FreeHand was perfect. --J.]
> very arrogant and again overlooking the major bugs of illustrator – we all wished the Adobe Support would be half as active as your comments. The closed-minded ‘more money is better’ thinking of adobe reflects once again the ‘quality’ of their software.
“Hopefully Freehand will go OS or adobe will sell the code on.”
[That's obviously, *obviously* not going to happen. --J.]
> well, let’s see, there are more than enough Designers out there to force you soon!

By: Bez Palmer

Bez Palmer — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:06:56 +0000

Greetings,
I write today as part of an effort to solicit advice in a matter of great concern to many who rely upon computer software for their livelihoods and the implications of Adobe’s (legal adjective removed) behavior upon those individuals. As the matter is outlined quite clearly on our organization’s web site, I will refer you there for further explanation.
http://www.freefreehand.org
Though our site has been live for just over a week, we now claim membership numbers approaching 2,000. If we can only raise awareness and reach the full extent of our potential audience, our belief is that our numbers will rise into the tens of thousand or perhaps greater.
Once it’s clear that we represent a substantial community, we believe we may have more sway in the issue at hand. Efforts are currently focused on the question: how can we reach our audience in order to build the community? At this point we are an organization of minimal financial resources, but we hope to change that through donations in the near future.
A number of online media outlets have reported the founding of our organization, but in Europe only. Oddly, the U.S. media seems intent on ignoring us.
So far we have contacted the following organizations:
EFF
Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation Europe
The Federal Trade Commission
The European Commission’s antitrust enforcement agency
The California Attorneys General
Consumer Union
Public Interest Research Group
Graphic Artists Guild
We appreciate any advice you have to offer as we build our grassroots campaign. In part this is fueled by the fact that Adobe’s business practices have caused real harm to individuals and small businesses, and in part by the fact that, in principal if not in actual legal fact, Adobe has crossed the line in establishing a monopoly in vector editing software.
regards,
FreeFreehand.org

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:44:44 +0000

Paramvir Singh is completely right! Something about the ‘professional use’ with Illustrator:
Multipage Support in Illustrator? still a joke because the Artboard numbers cannot be changed afterwards, still no ‘soft separation’ within a text, extremly slow, heavy files, the mask instead of pasting inside feature is complete crap, embedded pictures cannot be taken out of the file, the text editing is slow like stumbling through slag, a complete joke, you can’t click through the layers, oh man, the list of Illustrator Bugs is endless.
Freehand will be no longer supported & won’t run on Snow Leopard, CS5 won’t support PPC Macs that often are necessary to work properly with Freehand, it’s a shame, because Freehand was ten times better and is really needed for heavy, multipage vector jobs, especially for quick but extensive layouts that cannot be done with indesign (complex vectors..).
Photoshop and Indesign are great software, but because they aren’t able to replace Freehand, it’s a desaster that Illustrator is a big step into the past. I’m working hard in the Design Business for 10 years and really feel fooled by Adobe, and with me every Designer i talked to that used Freehand for some years.
John, it’s not about ‘don’t wanna leave an old program’, i’m sure Adobe still does not understand or ignore what basic features are still missing in Illustrator CS4.
This software may be good to make an Illustration, but otherwise it’s pretty bad, even the Path-Tool is still worse than in in FH.
Now, before i finish, let me explain shortly why “pasting inside” is another feature that is really needed in Illustrator, too (i explain it
because some people try to claim the opposite although objectively not true):
in Freehand, you just had to select the Object to paste inside and then select “paste inside” – done.
In Illustrator you have to create a form, fill it (to use it as a mask), and put it over the object to trim first.
what, if the object under the mask is only slightly bigger then the mask itself. It can become almost impossible to select both objects then.
Also, the undo function often destroys it’s content (i had sent Adobe several files in the past, first, some mails back after months to solve the Bugs, then, no answer and no solution.
Same with the Central European/Greek/Cyrillic Font Desaster.
WHY the hell did you implement an import Feature with the ability to select
“convert to outlines” (of what you claim to keep the original Artwork when importing Freehand Files).
It does not. it completely fails, the Artwork with such fonts is completely destroyed afterwards, nearly no character is the same when using this feature.
I also sent you files months ago, still no solution.
You need more examples of terrible handling`? i could fill a book and sell it for big bucks like Adobe does.
I’m really pissed of!

By: Paramvir Singh

Paramvir Singh — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:37:56 +0000

this comment may have come too late, but I was really disappointed to hear about Freehand’s plight. I had learnt Illustrator BEFORE learning Freehand, in about 1995 or so, THEN i picked up Freehand and never looked back. Even today, I find Illustrator a pain to work with, though I am grappling with it, because I have little choice. I think developers at Illustrator should work in Graphic Design shops on Freehand for some time, THEN go back and recode Illustrator all over again. Its slow, it requires many more clicks to work the basic, some things it just cant do at all, and its basically a work flow irritant.
PLUS it makes very very heavy files.
cant adobe SEE all of this? all of its bloated software? InDesign is heavy and slow, so is the new versions of Flash and all Adobe apps? Why is Adobe READER a 210MB application? its just supposed to read, right? Preview does that as well, and its lighter and faster…
Adobe, please, either revive Freehand or sell it to someone who is more sensible…

By: FrankG

FrankG — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:38:52 +0000

I just stumbled on this information today. I read quite a few posts that were listed and even though the decision on GoLive has already been made, I couldn’t help adding my half-dollars worth. : )
I just received a book (Dec. 19, 2008) that I purchased on Amazon called “Adobe GoLive CS2 – Official JavaScript Reference”. It talks about the “SDK” – Software Development Kit that is part of the GoLive program.
Our company is getting back into doing more websites for our customers along with the Custom Printed Business Promotional items that we do for our customers to promote their businesses. (Business cards, letterhead, key chains, apparel, pens, websites, banners, over 700,000 + items)
Our motto is “from Business Cards to Websites”. That being said, we use a combination of Adobe Products to meet our customers needs/requirements. (CREATIVE SUITE 2, includes GoLive 8.0.1)
We have been exposed to DreamWeaver and can appreciate its features. We have both, the GoLive CS 2 & DreamWeaver 8.0 Software titles.
I, as a member of our Graphics and Technical Dept. (lead) will continue to learn and use GoLive CS2 as well as well as learn DW 8. We have tons of training materials both in print (Classroom in a Book Series) as well as on CD & DVD for the various products/ software that our Company has.
Why are so many afraid of the lack of support for these programs, GoLive specifically? Adobe can decide not to support these programs (that goes for any programs by any company for that matter), but the fact remains that the Internet, in GoLive’s case, still uses PHP, JavaScript, SQL, CSS, XML, .jpg, etc. and as long as the Internet supports those things, GoLive, even in its last unsupported, unrevised, un-updated state can & will continue to create Great websites.
Tables in HTML may be on their way out, but is that because of Adobe? No! The Internet drives what will remain in the content of web pages today and in the future. So I know I can still use GoLive CS2 today & 5 Years from now with our Creative Suite 2 Applications to create websites for our customers using Smart Objects, the grid and the CS2 Integration capability of the CS 2 Suite. How did we ever live without all the added tools and menus and . . . before? Just fine I’m sure.
We do not plan to upgrade our applications for a few years! Even then, we can still use GoLive CS2 to Create Websites. Most revisions give you basically the same previous version with a few over-priced additions anyway.
Look at CS3 & CS4! The Icons (now letters, AI, Dw, Fl, Ps?), even the program layout has been changed and we would have to re-learn where all the pallets and tools are! I don’t mind learning, but in this case it’s not necessary and does not make practical business sense. A few nice added features in CS 3, but . . .
We’ll stay with CS 2 for awhile thanks. (I recently completed a Photoshop CS3 course (Dec. 15th, 2008 @ a community college) Even the college did not have any of the latest Versions of the Adobe Products that are being taught! What does that tell you? My Instructor who is one of the heads of the CIS Dept. there stated that the college would be skipping the latest version of Adobe products and would not be upgrading. The added features do not justify the cost. I would agree! Even if we did decide to upgrade in the future, we would wait for the CS7 Version! CS 4 would then be priced very attractively for the added features then. : )
We have yet to tap all the features of our CS2 software and I’ve read every “CS 2 Classroom in a book” training manual in print! I still don’t know how to do everything the software Suite is capable of! (Don’t need most if anyway unless the customer wants something special and is Paying for it)
Unnecessary! We always wait until everyone else has helped Microsoft fix all the BUGS & Incompatibilities in their software and operating systems before we get a later version of any software. How many people had problems with Windows Vista messing up their computers when it came out? We still have Windows XP on our machines. Our computers & network work just fine! No need to keep up with the Jones’s!
We look at Adobe Software or any other Software the same way. As long as we can still create great work and make a living with the software we have, who cares who supports it!
You can still hand draw a logo, scan it in and manipulate it with “Paint” if you had too! The World still supports that program!
Our strength is in our knowledge of the software we have and the work process that is built around that software, supported & revised or not.
Back to my GoLive CS2 Official JavaScript Reference Book! (just received Dec. 19th, 2008)
: )
Frank

By: PaulS

PaulS — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:30:32 +0000

I'm a graphic designer and to simply put it freehand is for professionals, illustrator is for wannabes [Obviously the market disagrees. --J.] an adobe equivalent of a microsoft product. Its only benefit is that it will open almost anything. I tend to use it to open difficult eps files and then copy them into freehand. [Wait--I thought FreeHand was perfect. --J.] 3 essential programs in my mac are Quark freehand and photoshop. It seems the majority of us designers use this setup. Call us dinosaurs but we won't change. [Okay. --J.] Hopefully Freehand will go OS or adobe will sell the code on. [That's obviously, *obviously* not going to happen. --J.]

By: Mattyg

Mattyg — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:02:18 +0000

Freehand is THE only multi-page layout/art/typo program I will use. Sounds like for the first time I will not upgrade to continue with this time saving software… Bring back Freehand!!!
Thanks :)

By: John McArthur

John McArthur — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:50:32 +0000

I’ve been with FreeHand since it came out. I think late 80′s. It’s a far better program for my graphic business. Over the years I guess Illustrator corrected their shortcomings but AI still has only one working page. I bought a new 17″ MacBook Pro but FreeHand MX will not open. I’m sick about the loss of this fine program.

By: Ann Shelbourne

Ann Shelbourne — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:54:13 +0000

There is nothing to stop us from continuing to use GL if we want to.
That’s what I am doing but, like you, I was bitterly disappointed by Adobe’s decision to abandon the far-superiior GL for DW

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:24:35 +0000

Yeah, it seems like there should have been some blog post specific to this decision to kill Golive. I’m currently using Dreamweaver to manage all my existing Golive sites, and I have to say how appalled I am that Adobe gave DW precedence, considering what a sloppy, clunky piece of crap this software is compared to GL. It’s barely up to Adobe GUI standards and can’t even handle smart objects or maintain relative URL paths when you use Library objects.

By: Scott G

Scott G — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:57:51 +0000

Cnet just announced that GoLive and FreeHand will be discontinued. You need to take down this webpage!

By: Miguel Monteiro

Miguel Monteiro — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:56:23 +0000

Freehand rules, I love it and don’t want to stop using it. Adobe should keep developing and improving Freehand, that wouldn’t harm illustrator. And would be a way to keep users from switching to Corel Draw, or even better making Corel Draw users switch to Freehand. Just make Freehand work well with PostScriptm, adjust the colour handling, it would be the rebirth of a great software.
Releasing a new improved version would make fans from all over the world buy it resulting in a boom in sales for adobe, and make all Freehand users love Adobe.

By: no way

no way — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:00:48 +0000

forget struggling with illustrator. freehand is the real quick deal. illustrator is by far more complicate to handle and this for the every day 100 times using commands. this makes 1 hour for sure longer work on illustrator. why should i work on hour more? for suporting a monopoly?