I find myself a little wary of this merger… in which Adobe comes out topes, but at the same time I agree with Mike that these companies still seem to have a creative ‘mission’ and for that the design industry can be truly gratefully. Hopefully something good will come out of it, but I think the biggest plus may not be the current improvement of stock products but a future killer app that genuinely combines the forces of print and web. Now that would be a program worth merging for.

AFAIK, Director and Authorware are still the standards in the computer-based training field, just as FrameMaker is in the technical writing and publishing field. FrameMaker hasn’t had much attention paid to it since Frame was acquired by Adobe. I’ll believe that the Adobe/MM merger is “good for consumers” when we get FrameMaker upgraded and ported to OS X.

Until then, I suspect Macromedia’s products that aren’t at the core of what Adobe wants (Flash and maybe Dreamweaver) will be dropped.

Until the Next Big Thing comes along that Adobe wants, Flash & Dreamweaver will be milked for all they’re worth moneywise with little innovation or competition.

This is Aldus PageMaker all over again. Where are SuperPaint and Persuasion today?

So as one site mentioned this is what may happen as Heads - Nod (no mention about a Roll) in San Jose / San Fransisco:

> Freehand is discontinued. Illustrator integartion with the code would be just too much work.
> Dreamweaver reigns supreme, GoLive is Go-ne Dead. However, integrating Dreamweaver into the Adobe Creative Suite will be tricky/uphill task.
> Fireworks will slowly vaporise. Photoshop reigns, but at the stake of vector-orientation of Fireworks which just doesn’t mesh with Photoshop’s workflow.
> Director — Who needs it anyway ?

At the expense of Flash, we loose choices of 4 products, and a uneasy messed up workflow called Suite, without mentioning the host of Engrs/Technicians left hight and dry either at SJ or SF.

But I guess there’s hope with Quark’s steady & rhobust technology (splashed all across in the latest XRay magazine).

I’m afraid, though, that I don’t understand what you mean by: “I google-newsed this and didn’t find one mention of InDesign in about 6 different publications. Check it out. ” Do you mean there was no mention of InDesign regarding the Adobe-Macromedia merger?

I would think there would be; Macromedia doesn’t make products that print.

Adobe paid 44x earnings and 7x sales, a high ratio. The bid was also at a 25% premium, although Abode stock immediately dropped 20% or so.

Adobe’s focus will now be North as they gird for battle. Adobe won’t even be looking at this (i.e. layout tool) marketspace.

Integrating two completely different code bases is a daunting task. It will take at least 180 days to have any good degree of integration and at least three times that for the current level of integration Adobe has in the Creative Suite.

I google-newsed this and didn’t find one mention of InDesign in about 6 different publications. Check it out.

Full disclosure: I am a Quarkian, but my comments have nothing to do with the main subject of this website. They only concern this subject.

Moreover, with both Microsoft and Apple growing into larger threats against both Adobe and Macromedia, a combined Adobe-MM will able to mount a much stronger defense than either could do alone or even as a strategic alliance.

I imagine there were quite a few expletetives being shouted in both Redmond and Cupertino yesterday morning .

I’ll try to get a story up with my predictions soon… In between reviewing postcard competition entries, my book,… :-)