[eddiecatflap]

Originally posted by Emotionally Fragile Luke:
brainchild2b, why do you own a Mac and why are you here then?

..my thoughts exactly.

[suhail]

MS thinks that the next OS will be something based on the Internet. That is one of the main reasons they wanted IE to win so badly, they thought that it will somehow become the next OS, and I agree. However, HTML is the wrost Web Language out there, it does not allow your computer to do anything else other than display and submit. If you want to do a simple calculation like 1+1 you would have to send that to the server where it would get calculated and a new HTML page will be submitted back to you with the number 2!! There is Java but I hardly see any sites using it intelligently, besides it is not convenient enough, and many browsers don't like it.

Flash and Cold Fusion:
Flash runs circles around HTML, it does XML, it does calculations on the fly, it generates vector and bitmap graphics, you can create complete apps on it, and it does not even need a browser to run. If somehow MS could integrate Flash into Windows, you would have a breakthrough. An Internet OS. Something SUN wanted to do for a longtime, but they claim (as per DOJ documents) that MS purposly ruined their plans.

The 'tight' integration of ColdFusion with Macromedia products makes complex things a lot easier and has the potential to break the barrier between pro programmers and beginners. But MS would probably not break the barrier and would prefer to charge for more Certifications.

DreamWeaver:
MS does not have a good Web development tool� Do I need say more?

As MacWorld once put it, Adobe just doesn't get the Web, but Macromedia does. And I think Apple should beat MS to it, just like they did with FinalCut.

I do not have any insider info, but the next logical step in OS technology is the internet, there is Sherlock and iPhoto for the Mac, but these are just peanut apps.

[mac fan]

Interesting that Microsoft is looking to purchase Macromedia. Clearly, the most valuable property that the company has is Flash, but a close second may be ColdFusion. Not that losing this to 'the dark side' would be a big issue, since there currently is no Mac version anyway.

In any event, many have been contemplating Apple purchasing Macromedia. Now this would be an interesting idea. With $4.3 billion in cash and short term securities, Apple could afford an all cash deal to acquire the entire company. However, any deal would be likely to include stock, possibly in a 75% stock, 25% cash deal. Actually, any offer that Apple made for Macromedia would likely be an all stock deal. I don't think that Apple is going to give up much cash in the current economic environment.

Now, if one were to look at Macromedia, they currently have a market cap of around $690 million. Apple currently has 359 million shares of stock outstanding, and Macromedia about 60 million. Apple's stock is trading at $14.36 per share and Macromedia at $11.54. If Apple offered a 1 for 1 stock swap, that would be a 24.4% premium on the stock. That would also push Apple's outstanding shares to 419 million, and dilute the value of the stock. Probably too much for Apple to swallow... not that they could not, but that they likely would not in order to not dilute ownership in the company.

This does not even take into consideration the value of the properties that Apple would be acquiring. If you look at Macromedia's product portfolio, I personally could see only three products that Apple would be interested in: Flash, Dreamweaver and Director. I am sure that there are some people that like Fireworks, but personally I have never used it and don't know anyone that has. I don't see that as being a very valuable asset. Freehand would need to be sold in order to not directly compete with Adobe Illustrator. Since Adobe is without a doubt Apple's most important developer, this would need to happen in order to keep Adobe happy so that they would not feel more threated by the platform that they helped create.

Other products from Macromedia include ColdFusion, Authorware, HomeSite, Fontographer, SoundEdit 16, JRun4 and Flash servers. The Flash server components could be of value, but HomeSite, Authorware, and JRun4 could all be dumped along with Freehand. ColdFusion could be brought over to Mac OS X, but my guess is that a better approach to take could be to integrate it with Web Objects. Fontographer and SoundEdit have not been updated in years, and could also be sold off. If Apple were able to get enough for these additional applications, and keep Flash, DreamWeaver, ColdFusion and Director, the deal could make sense, provided that they could get enough money for these other applications. Freehand may be able to fetch $60 to $100 million or so, depending on what the annual sales figures look like. However, I don't know if the rest of the stable of applications could fetch more than about $50 to $75 million in total. But if Apple was able to sell off these assets to the tune of about $150 million to help offset the deal, it may slide into the realm of possibility.

Other than a scenario similar to this, Apple would not shell out $760 million to purchase Macromedia, dispite the potential loss of Flash and Dreamweaver application on the Mac platform. Afterall, these are really the assets that Apple would be after, and in all honestly, they really are not worth that much. Apple can always work more closely with Adobe to enhance their products to fill in the gaps.

Besides, Apple still needs to figure out how they are going to purchase Alias|Wavefront....

bc

[Emotionally Fragile Luke]

I have to say though that Dreamweaver is one of the most buggy apps I have ever used. I spend so much time just trying to figure out ways to get around all the mistakes it makes.

[hugo rental]

i agree, dreamweaver (though the best WYSIWYG editor out there) is not a very good HTML/PHP/etc editor. By far the best is BBEdit. I just upgraded to BBEdit 7, and I didn't bother to upgrade my copy of Dremweaver.

What will all those HTML/PHP/etc coders be looking for if Dreamweaver goes bye-bye? They'll just keep using BBEdit, if they know what's good for them.

I'll miss Fireworks though. Nothing really comperable to that.

[brainchild2b]

First of the Golive clean code vs. Dreamweaver clean code and flash argument.

I think I'm qualified to argue both as I am a full time web developer and own a very profitable web house for the last 5 years.


I switched from 3 years of Macromedia Dreamweaver to GoLive 6. After the adjustment Golive blows dreamweaver away. Especially when it comes to tables (nearly everything in design involves nesled tables!) Golive has an easy way to select tables on any part of the page.

As far as Golive's code not being clean, somebody was smoking crack. Golive code is much much cleaner that Macromedia for rollovers. and I'd be happy to prove it. Not only that you can adjust the way that Golive handles the code and almost every single setting through XML. Not to meantion the powerful plugins that anybody can make with HTML. Golive supports many advanced features that Dreamweaver barely touches. Besides Dreamweaver hasn't had a true feature upgrade in almost two version. I'm very happy with my switch over.

And anybody who "claims" to do flash design and doesn't know that there is a HUGE speed playback difference on Mac and PC shouldn't be voicing his opinion on flash.

[ApeInTheShell]

Remember, this is a rumor. Take it with an open mind. In my opinion it is not very likely to happen. Macromedia is more prominant on the macintosh platform than the windows one. Director is the gold pot for this company and guess which computer it depends on more?

They say computers are just tools and many pc users are in agreement with this.
You can have a graphics card, higher speed and the ability to upgrade but this doesn't mean you can design better.

If there was no mac support from macromedia it is doubtful their mothership products would be as fullfilling or useful.
Like it was said earlier it is about control of the computer market. Macromedia is a company that wants to make profits.
Microsoft wants to control this company.
Macromedia is similar to Apple.
They both don't want to take a leap they'll regret later.

[iChristopher]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
I hate flash anyway.

Flash is poised to be the defacto GUI on the Internet. No longer just for flashing, spinning, and beeping interfaces - Flash is a far superior alternative to Java applets when advanced GUI functionality is required.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't lash out until you go to the Macromedia site and read up on Flash remoting, etc.. Then go try the demos and if you still don't "get" it, you never will.

Microsoft recognizes this and no doubt wants to own this technology before it takes off. Apple could buy Macromedia, and they should buy Macromedia.

[Liquid Engineer]

Hypthetically speaking:

Imagine Apple still has that 4 billion in the bank.

If Apple wanted to pull a massive and brilliant blitz, they would buy: Adobe (or just Photoshop), Macromedia (or Dreamweaver/Flash), and Id Software.

By "pulling a Microsoft", they have given themselves an edge in the industry by forcing the consumer to come towards Apple for the "better version" of these products.

Eh, it's late. Seemed liked a good idea at the time.

[illume]

Well one thing I've overlooked which is more important, is the progress with online television. Apple has QuickTime, MicroSoft has Window Player, and Macromedia has Flash and then there is Real with RealPlayer.

Flash works with all of these codecs, which I think makes it valuble for the future of online TV. I beleive these other companies know that too, and they want that control.

I don't have any insider info either, but if there would be a dream to come true, Apple owning Macromedia would be fair to us all. Microsoft would again try to rule the world with too much control and power over others. And Real, well they're doing just fine with their own thing..they already get ithe power of online TV anyway..)

Dreams do come TRUE,

James Herring

[undotwa]

I think Apple should acquire Adobe and then start rewriting PhotoShop/GoLive/Illustrator in Cocoa.

Apple should then release Apple Software Frameworks 1.0 (basically the Cocoa frameworks) which somehow they could make it all Cocoa applications will work well on Windows/Mac/Linux requiring a simple recompile.

QuickTime Player could then be rewritten in Cocoa aswell How fun.

Some cool ideas for the Windows Cocoa Frameworks:

- Have an option for Stripy Aqua GUI which feels exactly like Mac OS X or native window manager.

- Have a menubar.app which gets displayed at the top of the screen

Thats all.

[Tsilou B.]

Apple could theoretically buy Macromedia. Macromedia has a market cap of about $ 800 mio. , and Apple has about 4 billion USD in cash and cash equivalents.
Adobe, however, has a market cap of about $ 8 billion and is much too expensive for Apple.

[godzookie2k]

::sigh:: this comes up often.

Jan 97
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_618.html

Earlier this year
http://lists.evolt.org/archive/Week-...28/067185.html

March this year MM's comments on the issue
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/2785990.htm

Feb 01
http://webbuilder.netscape.com/webbu...4874826-2.html

hat tip: Direct L


Humoring this silly rumor for a second, MS would probably be after flash primarily, as a Flash interface for their PDA's would provide a low-bloat solution, as well as a Flash front end to .NET. Bringing on a 300,000 strong army of developers to dot Net. Secondly, there is Director, improved dot Net support would be a great thing to add to this program, bringing one of the most devout and loyal developer groups to the dot Net strategy. Finally, Dreamweaver has been the bane of their front page existence for some time now. I'm pretty sure coldfusion would be dead in the drop of a dime.

Oh, and that 4 billion mac loyalists are always so quick to play armchair CEO and spend, is apple's only wall street bargaining chip, its shows solidarity and a bit of 'rainy day' insurace for investors. Spending 1/4th (rounding up) of it on a 700+m dollar MM is silly. And, if they are interested in posting a profit next quarter as they swear they will, they wouldn't commit to that kind of expenditure.

[thoonkabilly]

it would be difficult for Apple to make a preemptive bid for Macromedia

cause it would push Adobe over the edge

the next OS is not going to be an internet OS


it'sgoing to be an internet via TV OS.

[godzookie2k]

Originally posted by thoonkabilly:
it'sgoing to be an internet via TV OS.

and just when I was getting used to designing for 800 x 600 thousands of colors monitors.... I have to drop back to 216 wack out NTSC colors? And then there is that whole PAL colors crap...and the slow ass refresh rate of TV's making smaller body copy impossible to place....erm...no I don't think so. OS via TV is an amusing idea, but not a probable one, and a big step backward.

[mosquito]

a couple of things on this issue.

1) It's a rumor and one that surfaces frequently (as stated).

2) Microsoft really doesn't need to purchase Macromedia. Flash, etc are all being designed to take advantage of new Microsoft technology (such as .NET etc). For people developing web based applications, having this integration is not bloatware. Grantedwithin Flash MX syntax/code completion within the Actionscript window is a bit slow (i havent' tried dreamweaver for asp or php) but it is still greatly reduced dev time. Plus the code hints are defined with an XML file so you can adjust to suit your own naming conventions better.

3) Sure Flash can do calculations on the fly without "round-tripping" the data, but any solid web developer knows that the some of the same things can be done with Javascript and the dom. cross-browser support can be tricky, but you don't have to roundtrip data. if you are unaware of this power with javascript, x/html, and css, you are probably relying too heavily on the available WYSIWYG editors and are a little behind the curve (or only deal with design).

4) FrontPage is not the only Microsoft editor (for your office/business people yes). There is also Interdev and in terms of html/asp/vb code it's blows Dreamweaver away for straight coding. switcing to the "preview mode" may compromise your code, but usually not. From what i've read about Dreamweaver MX, it's closer to Interdev now, but it's still not going to give you custom code hints based on your own apps as Interdev does.

5) PC vs Mac for audio is highly subjective. sure PCs have had 5.1 for quite some time (and affordably) but when you start working with in the professional level, the hardware cost balances out. Prior to 10, i've found macs far far more reliable and enjoyable to use for professional audio and midi (I use Cubase), however 10.1 (with the AU1 spec) and 10.2 (with the AU2 spec) is frustrating and i refuse to move to it. Apple and Emagic did a huge disservice to the entire professional audio community by eliminating the PC version of Logic. Apple also has caused serious delays in product shipments of both Cubase and Digital Performer for mac by "withholding" important pieces of the Core Audio and Core Midi specs (most specifically the hardware interaction level). because of this, Logic gets an update release using Core Audio and Midi and is the first on themarket to "use this powerful new technology." Of course they were when they with-held the specs long enough to force steinberg to get Cubase SX out the door to satisfy Mac users. Because of my investment in Mac audio applications and hardware (i've got MOTU hardware) i'll be sticking with the Mac platform. However Apple has jacked the price on Logic up $200 since purchasing Emagic. If i leave Cubase i'll go to Digital Performer, but until apple sorts out their own idiocy with hardware, i'm not giving them a penny for a new machine as my b&w g3 is still highly enjoyable and powerful enough to run all my midi and audio.

6) Cost of Macs. yes it's been debated before, and like any good Maczeolet i've battled arguements for my "beloved Apple" for years. However, a little over a month ago, for multiple reasons i had to buy a pc (work, wife's freelance work, etc etc) and by the time i'd finished assembling the pieces, we came out $800 cheaper with a single AMD 1.7 processor than a dual 867 from apple. what was the most surprising thing is that the machine actually has faster system bus than all desktop macs. this is highly beneficial because it uses DDR ram. the current desktop macs do not have the system bus capable of fully "utilizing" the speed of the RAM, and considering it costs way more than sdram, i'd feel prety damn ripped off shelling out the price for dual G4 knowing i was paying more for ram that would never be fully utlilized. PCs are knows for being louder than macs but guess what? those new "wind-tunnel" G4s are some loud machines. this PC is quieter until the 52x cdrom spins up, and i've got 2 fans running in it (plus software to let me mnitor fan speeds, temperature, etc etc, something that apple still doesn't integrate in).

7) Performance of Macs as a server. they loose. recent there was an article running 10.2 on an xserve and suse 7.2 (or was it 8) on an xserve. Linux beat it. the whole point of apple is this "power and ease of use" statement, yet setting up a standard Apache, PHP, MySQL server with a few other things under 10.2 will take you the better part of the day. ok, so maybe it wasnt' done "the apple way." well now we've got apple hardware and software on the machine. this integration is going to make it top notch right? nope linux on the same machine runs it faster. that's just obscene in my book.

8) Alias|Wavefront was purchased by Microsoft years ago for a breif period. it was done solely to get Maya running on NT. Now go to a|w's website and look at the list for supported graphics cards to maya. notice that the default cards in EVERY MAC sold in the pat year has carried one of the cards not qualified to run maya. guess what? when you look at qualified cards for macs, because the GeForce cards ship with macs, they magically become "qualified." interesting. another interesting note is that given what maya does, especially when working in it with paint effects, etc, you want as much power and bandwidth as you can get. You can build a pc to smoke even the top of the line mac (533 system bus anyone?) across the board for cheaper and you don't have to run windows as there are a ton of linux distros and bsd flavors you can use. you just don't get the Aqua display (or it's huge hog on the processor for rendering a pdf baszed display. great for print, **** for everyone else).

i could keep going, but the fact of the matter is that Apple is loosing the battle. I like aspects of OS X, but i fail to see the point it shelling out that much money to apple for the hardware that does it justice when all the features i really want out of OS X are easier and cheaper implimented using linux. For now i'm sticking with 9.2.2 on my B&W. the part that frustrates me is that in terms of a desktop for my day job, etc etc, i cannot justify the cost vs performace of a new mac. (thankfuly we needed a pc, so somethings i'll do on it now). however when it comes time to upgrade my desktop, i'm afraid i'm going to be faced with one and only one option: the dreraded x86 platform. i've got a local linux development server that i can work on, i could dual boot the pc to linux f i desired it directly on the dektop. and let's face it, Macromedia is slowly but surely becoming more Windows-centric than Mac. Photoshop bake-offs are always rigged by apple and anyone else doing them to lean on functions that showcase the machines abilities when in reality they are comparible and does it really matter unless you hate Microsoft?

in the end, who cares. anyone think that if Microsoft bought Macromedia that they might ditch Front Page and Powerpoint and use Components in flash to impliment the needs of Powerpoint users?

Microsoft isn't completely evil, just like Apple isn't the "patron saint" of computer companies.

[gdover_149]

Apple buys SGI (check market cap), inherites control of Maya and a few gov contracts, UNIX experts, High-end graphics patents, and entry into super computers. Next step would be a merge with Adobe.

[Kazrog]

Assuming there is ANY truth to this rumor... which I feel is unlikely...

Doesn't anyone realize that this is a bigger issue than Mac vs. PC??? This is only one aspect of a much larger issue.

The bigger issue is the freedom of the internet, and information technology in general - a freedomwhich is being eroded away every day by big business/government (is there a difference?), and MS is the most guilty party there. If MS buys Macromedia, they control the front end of the web, as well as the tools to create it, and the browser to view it. And we all know how popular the Windows server platform has become (for reasons that still escape me when any Unix variant is so far superior.) At this point, MS controls the internet completely.

Next they'll start making PCs. Just wait.

[SoftwareJuggler]

Originally posted by undotwa:
Cool.

If only Apple bought Adobe... too much competition anyway

More likely for Adobe (Market Cap $6B) to buy out Apple (Market Cap $5B)

[NeXTLoop]

One other factor to consider:

It's unlikely that any buyout would even be possible from a legal standpoint. If M$ was not a convicted monopolist... maybe. But the fact is, they are. And with that label, I would think that the government would look closely at any buyout of this magnitude.

The Court has already forced them to bundle Java, so blocking this large, and decidedly dangerous, of an acquisition certainly is not far-fetched.

[suhail]

M$ walked right on top of the government, Bill is having his way.
His lawyers said after their first victory something like: It has become clear that what M$ is doing is the right thing, which sends a clear message to the rest of the industry.

I don't remember the exact quote, but the message is the same.

M$ has always been ignoring the government, they haven't obeyed any of their rulings. M$ actually rushed their products out before the rulings become final.

[brainchild2b]

Originally posted by eddiecatflap:
..my thoughts exactly.

I own a Mac because I have a weak spot for this computer company. Call it nostaliga.

What your saying DOESN'T invalidate any of my points. People get all huffy when i start saying true things that are derogitory towards the computers they personally own. Your free to enjoy your mac. I'm just getting frustrated that we are slowly getting left behind without so much as a hint from apple as to what's going on.

[Raidiant]

Originally posted by Avon:
No you can't. Laptops is where macs still rule. PC laptops are dog slow. They do not run at their top speed when not plugged in and battery life is horrible. Il take a $1000 iBook over a $1000 PC any day.

What are you goign to get? A 1.5 ghz celleron? Use one, and you will see how slow they really are.

As far as high end PCs, A TiBook will kick their but. Much more battery life and they are truly faster. I hate using P4 1.7 ghz laptops, they are dogs when not plugged in.

OK, this is not in the US so its only for me. I live in HK where 1.5 Celerons are $750 from china, and they come with good RAM too, and macs are more expensive here. The titanium is very expensive even for a laptop, but no doubt nothing can come close to it.

Thinking about it your right...I'm sorry..I forgot PC laptops have a damn crappy battery life and burns like a nuclear device! My ibook's got better looks and OS anyways plus its thin and light

Still ( going back and forth now ) the XP Laptops have much decent specs, and you do realize that iBook does not come with airport, and the RAM that is absolutely neccesary, and alas they run the OS without struggles.

If you compare a 1.5 Celeron with a 1GHZ titanium, the titanium wins, but there is a big price difference, the titanium is something only proffesionals can afford or very very rich people, if you compare to the ibook then I'd think the 1.5 would win.

[Raidiant]

Apple might seem to be losing the battle, but they never won microsoft anyways ...talking about market share.

I don't know how to express this as english is not my first language but think of this most of us who are loyal to macs and are still using macs don't care about specs in the first place anyways, at least for the new buyers like me. We are loyal to apple because we believe in the innovation and design apple brings.

Its true pc specs outbounds macs today and there is no way of not admiting it, but think this way...WTF do you need the extra power for? I mean I have a 1ghz AMD at home and I don't feel the need to upgrade anymore as it can do everything perfectly and this goes same for my 700mhz ibook.

THIS Is the reason why the entire IT economy is falling, because people no longer need to purchase hardware & software and inject money into the market again. An average user doesn't need anything faster then 1GHZ, I who does 3D work on my windoze machine never found a need to upgrade either and yes I play games too all the newest.

Tell me what do you need more then a 1GHZ computer, if you tell me design work i'd be very suprised, as a 1GHZ can run photoshop and any design application like magic, and as someone said earlier design isn't speed, the only thing that really matters is your creativity, even some creative guy with a crappy 300MHZ can make some good art.

OK OK DV and 3D they do matter, but again how many people can afford these applications and actually play a part in using them, if you ask me not many compared to the general public. Even a 1GHZ can do decent 3D work and DV work nowadays.

So are PC specs firing up like a rocket the matter ? not really... at least not to us who are loyal to are macs, but nobody would be forced to switch because of specs, for me there is no point in buying a power mac, but there is still a lot of other apple ware worth for its price out there. Using power macs as the benchmark for apple is not good, as I believe its not their best product as many of you I think will agree.

So whats the matter? software software software so let me put this way who cares if there are 100 encoding software, when you only need 1, and usually 1 appears in mac, because there are always developers realizing a market space for small profits.

See? Microsoft is smart, they know that the only move they make to ensure that they kill off some competition is that they buy off macromedia and make it entirely pc based. As there is only ONE developer who makes the software to make flash which is becoming a replacement for HTML as peopl'es bandwidth gets faster.

They KNOW that a lot of designers stay with the mac because specs are not a problem, and they always had the software to do stuff they wanted, but now if they take off FLASH it make a big big difference and it probably manage to get some people off their macs finally.

AND even with software, does it really matter anymore? do you really need that Photoshop 5 to 6 upgrade? Is there that much incentive for you to upgrade, this applies moreso for many many other software

but so what? Apple can never lose, because they have been losing all along they have never won Microsoft, so how can they lose? In the eyes of a economist Apple might already have lost.

However market share isn't everything! Apple will never really die off because there are many people who believe in Apple, and many will have to agree that apple's own software is innovative, creative, easy, appealing and that is all that matters, and that is why so many of us stay with Apple because they create innovative and amazing products and software.

PS Arguably the game industry is one that can never be stopped, and that is where the PCs truly shine with its vast collection of games. and as of now that seems to be the only reason why anyone needs a PC over a Mac

[godzookie2k]

your "no one needs anything faster than 1ghz" rant makes me quote myself, probably from another thread.

"It reminds me of the cover the PC Magazine a few (8?) years back. The headline read: 'Do we really need the power of the 386?'"

Faster and faster hardware means you can do more and more with your computer, interfaces, etc. Hell, Quartz is an example of a technology waiting for the hardware to catch up. Software outpaces hardware, thats the nature of it. I guarantee you that in under two years, your shiney ghz athlon box won't run the latest and greatest games. The mac hardware situation is so friggin pathetic its not even funny. The latest macs do not run photoshop 'like magic' they just run it faster than before, but stuff isn't instantaneus, hence, the need for better hardware.

Now that this thread is sufficiently derailed, can we get back on topic?

[Raidiant]

hmhm shiny 1ghz? I bought my 1ghz 3-4years ago , your wrong dude it's the software that never catches up the hardware. I might expect to upgrade in 1 year time but 3 years? How long has it took the game to run up to 1GHZ requirements? about 3 years. Right NOW if you'd had the best PC in the world there isn't much point of having it, as the best windows doesn't utilize that extra power, the best games can't give more.

WHY? The reason is because software is and will always be made for the average public system specs, So the software will never run over the hardware as that would be stupid...and yes this is a serious situation as I do realize that even the best macs have trouble running Mac Os X right now, and of course this includes my own ibook.

Most processes done by photoshop work instantly on a 1GHZ, the ones which actually take a few seconds are filters. You get instant feedback on opacity settings and so on. Also remember that upgraded hardware is useless unless the software utilizes it, and upgrading software to utilize it is also further costly and unneccesary

Areas which better hardware is always needed is DV and 3D as rendering these takes immense amount of proccesing and memory power.

I know I shouldn't be flaming and getting off topic..i'm sorry I only want to say that people should not give up on apple so fast.

[mqualben]

I got stomach cramps after reading about MS considering buying Macromedia.

It's fun to imagine the "improvements" MS would make....

Dreamweaver MX:
* Java and PHP support would be dropped in favor of ASP.NET. MS has always had it out for Java and anything open-source, anyway.
* Maybe drop Dreamweaver altogether in favor of the mighty FrontPage or InterDev. Or hell, drop it for Word (you can build such great web pages in that, and oh yeah, PowerPoint, too). They all make such clean, efficient, well-formed code. (insert sharp stomach pain here).
* Like most MS products, makes web pages especially for IE.
* All extensions (plug-ins written by users) source code would become closed, and MS would charge for them. Dump all Mac Dreamweaver extensions. Later on, six months after MS realizes there's a Dreamweaver 2004 plug-in security hole where hard drives could be reformatted, MS releases Dreamweaver 2004 Service Pack 2 (but must install Security Patch 13300BTTWSHJHDKIQ after it).

Flash Player:
* Flash player would be optimized only for Windows. The Mac version of Flash player would be a 10MB download, crash often, run much slower, but they would hype it as "designed exclusively for Mac."
* Flash player would have ridiculous security holes, but Microsoft would make new versions and patches every other week. And most of the time you wouldn't have to reboot.
* Microsoft introduces "features" which could be abused to invade privacy.
* Apple would discontinue embedding Flash player into QuickTime, since MS would (in their anti-QuickTime interests) close off Flash technology improvements to Apple in later versions of QuickTime.
* ColdFusion MX would be renamed IIS Plus Pack, but licensing would be $20,000 per processor. Of course, the server software would only work for Windows servers and for some odd reason would crash if any Java web server software was detected.
* FreeHand would be dropped in favor of PowerPoint and Visio. After all, PowerPoint has a freehand tool, and if you can't do color-separations from Word, then what's the point of CMYK and PostScript? Oh, and PCL is so versatile and powerful compared to PostScript (not).

This would be a nice way for Microsoft to get back at Apple on behalf of Logic Audio users (for buying e-Magic and dropping the Windows version). Of course, if MS had bought Logic, imagine the possibilities: a bouncing musical note character like Office's bouncing helping paper clip, no Mac version, wizards to walk you through everything, and lots of grey toolbars.

Seriously, though. Macromedia is undervalued. Their Flash technology could be a goldmine in this early age of wireless, PDAs, and cell phones. If this buyout happens, it would be very grim for any of the evolving non-MS OSes. If anyone tried suing to block it, the courts would just slap MS's hands. Please leave Macromedia alone, Microsoft. Go make your own "Flash-killer" without copying any of MM's code and give the market a chance to decide. Psst, Apple...just buy it if MM is actually considering selling out to MS, but *please* keep it as independent a company as possible.

[olePigeon]

Originally posted by brainchild2b:
I switched from 3 years of Macromedia Dreamweaver to GoLive 6. After the adjustment Golive blows dreamweaver away. Especially when it comes to tables (nearly everything in design involves nesled tables!) Golive has an easy way to select tables on any part of the page.

Or you could just use CSS and get rid of the tables.

[Superchicken]

a merger of adobe and apple and a buy out of Macromedia would be sweet... imagin PS Elements for free on the Mac
no no no but still... I think it'd be kinda cool if Adobe and Apple merged... but I dout it'll happen... I'd much sooner see Apple own Macromedia... but ultimately I'd preffer if Macromedia was left on it's own to continue work... unless apple's resources could help them...
Flash is incredibly awsome and I think Microsoft would love to get it's hands on it... and ruin it...
FreeHand if Apple did buy it would probably either be dropped or changed into a more expencive app or something... or just use parts of it in later apple Apps... although personally I havn't used Ilistrator... if it's vector handling is anything like Photoshop's... I say for goodness sake keep FreeHand around for something! Personally I only use FreeHand because you can do more than you can for vectors in fireworks... and then I import my ilistrations into Fireworks and add effects and edit and what not... what'd acctually be pretty cool is if Adobe bought Macromedia... casue to be perfectly honest... Fireworks handles vectors thousands of times better than Photoshop does... and Fireworks ability to use most PS Filters as effects that don't require you to rasterize the vector object before applying the affect is awsome... creating resolution independant things is incredibly easy in Fireworks.

But the thought of Macromedia being owned by M$ truely scares me... I'm almost solely a user of Dreamweaver Fireworks and Flash and FreeHand... and if I couldn't look forward to new versions on my Mac.... shudder...