Adobe kills Fireworks, stops selling software (subscription only)

This has been coming for a while. Did they finally start it?

well 99% of the comments on the forums out there disagree, most of us in the world do Not like this... see hundreds of comments on the sites out there, most don't like this forced-subscription no longer owning software biz model. security issues, as well as cost issues, and other points, well made by thousand of comments on the articles out there:

https://www.google.com/search?q=adob...ient=firefox-a

subscription rates will of course increase over time most likely, to far beyond the current $840/year cost they are currently priced at. And security/connectivity issues in addition to the cost ones.

At least it'll be interesting to see ADBE stock price during the months ahead.

There's no way I will pay that for a software I only use sparingly. I think there's nothing to worry, though. Other marketers will also feel abused, which will result in adobe changing things back to how they are (or disappearing) or some other company developing software pretty much like that of adobe and beat them out.

Makes perfect sense to me.

good points Marty, and Brian -- and I agree re the ease-of-use; for example I much prefer to buying mp3s and games and whatever else "in the cloud" from Amazon/etc, so that makes sense; I don't want to worry about losing a physical disc or other media, cloud-based content makes a lot more sense... if I lose something or the hard drive or physical playback 'whatever' gets lost or damaged, I still can instantly download the software/mp3/game again. And yes I've spent $1,000s on legit copies of Master Collection 6 and prior versions, though I often skip a release, eg CS4 to CS6.

I suppose it's just the "passing of an era", hard for us old-timers to let go of old habits, as I've used and bought software on disc for my whole life. The comments from many out there are around issues like, what if the 'cloud' goes offline, as it does from time to time, during a critical productivity deadline, what then? and security issues... but I suppose they'll fix all that.

at least Adobe's stock price has been skyrocketing, lol:

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/qui...e=&freq=&show=

I was a big fan of having a disc in hand for all my software, until my QuarkXPress install DVD delaminated and was unusable. Have you ever tried to getting a replacement disk? Not pretty.

At that point, I wish I could just re-download an installation copy.

That got me thinking "in the cloud" for apps. CS subscriptions are a clever idea, and a reasonable business expense considering the "hard copy" cost of ownership of a few disks.

I will miss Fireworks, but more from nostalgia than any real use I have for it today.

zack

Right, though it does require you to let it "phone home" every 30 days:

Adobe Creative Cloud
...If you have an annual membership, you'll be asked to connect to the web to validate your software licenses every 30 days.


So basically we can no longer "own" our software, from now on you can just "rent it by the month". That's the "mother of all continuity programs", with adobe having a hand in your wallet for $50+ bucks a month, forever. Used to be, you could buy say one program like Dreamweaver CS4 and use it for 2-3 years. Now you've got to pay every month to keep on using it.

And I'm sure the windows crowd will do the same, making you pay annual/monthly fees for windows. No more buying software, it's rental-only continuity from now on. That's a big major shift in all our productivity software. This is extremely major (imho negative) news, like the internet tax. You can't buy your software, you've got to rent it by the month, for all new versions. Really?

There may be a run on remaining buyout/regular software versions; since it's the end of an era. Glad I own my productivity software, I'll use it for years ahead without paying monthly fees. Though on that FAQ page they do say "We plan to sell Creative Suite 6 for use on supported platforms indefinitely." so that's good news, though I've seen adobe discontinue software (like the recent fireworks announcement, and earlier with ultrakey and other programs) often.

It's a shame, Fireworks is a far superior tool than Photoshop for web design...

If you are a Mac user you are already phased out of using Fireworks if you plan on upgrading your machine to a newer model with Retina display - Fireworks (and all other Adobe products except Photoshop for now) do not render properly. The only solution is to use a display like a Thunderbolt... so really if you plan on using Fireworks for years to come you best be buying up a non retina display Mac before they are no more.

I see there is an open source version of Fireworks being worked on which you can sign up for (Google for it).

I personally hated at first as well. But if you think about it, you can get the enitre Adobe collection for $49.99/M, thats pretty good! I use dreamweaver DAILY, so I wont "not" do the adobe CC thing. I will adapt, and im sure, if you use adobe product enough, you will too.

Glad I already have all the Adobe products that I want because I would never pay for a subscription to software.

62€/month for all the (updated/top notch) software and you folks trash Adobe for moving SAAS? Someone is crazy and surely ain't me.

People spend more then that every month on daily coffee for f#%in sake...

I'm glad I bought cs5.5 (web premium edition) from the University (for dirt cheap) before they stopped selling physical disks.



Uni life for the #win.

I've got the CS subscription but I find myself using Acorn for most of my image tasks.

It's mac only but not the bloatware of Adobe.

They've got a free trial: Acorn software

The one thing I miss from Fireworks is how easy it was to measure out pixels and position things by entering co-ordinates. Wait, that's two things actually.

But other than that, Photoshop is by far the King of the layer styles, and that continues to set it apart from other design software for me with web oriented stuff. I periodically try other tools, but nothing ever quite stacks up.

However a lot of Mac users seem to be reporting that Sketch is a pretty solid: Sketch | The designer’s toolbox

I'd love to give that a whirl if I ever switch to Mac or they release a Windows version.

However I used to be a Dreamweaver fan, but I've switched over to SublimeText which for coding honestly just leaves Dreamweaver in the dust.

For me, I don't really mind the new Creative Cloud approach. In same cases it's quite beneficial.

As an example, periodically I get time to work on some Flash game development. Sometimes that's pure code with an open source compilation process, but sometimes I would like to have the visual interface of Flash for level design.

So instead of shelling out a hefty amount on the latest Flash so I can work on a game for a few weeks, I'll be able to setup a temporary subscription, do what I want, and then end the subscription again when my time inevitably runs out to work on the game.

I don't mind it at all. Sometimes it can be better to have that flexibility rather than a big fee, plus future upgrade fees. It's probably not all that different in cost, just spread out, and you're not committed to pay it all if you don't keep using the software.

They use to have three months for $150, but no more. It is $600 for a full year now. Yeah, this really sux! I like dream weaver. However, I cannot just get one program. Well, good old Adobe wants to make my life even worse. Please tell them to charge monthly because $600 is a lot of money.

Anyone that thinks this Adobe subscription is a bad idea can't do basic math.

Good grief, you get everything for $50 a month, always the latest greatest features/tools.

If you have clients, simply roll that $50 over to the client billing.

Graphic designers and those who use more than one adobe software regularly would rejoice for sure. It's a bargain compared to the several thousands you would otherwise need to spend.

For the rest, just use the previous versions.

I love the software subscription feature for Adobe and for Microsoft Office. I use to use only 1 Adobe product because the full retail price was at $1k so I could not afford to use any more. Now with the subscription I am able to get almost $10k worth of software for a very small monthly fee. I have started to use the other programs and learn them and this has greatly helped me with my business as I am able to improve my image with the addition of these new products. Plus I can install on multiple computers so I can have them on my mac and pc for both Adobe and Microsoft products.

The cost of purchasing the entire Adobe Suite and Microsoft Office Premium would easily be over $10k. At $29.99 a month it will take me decades to spend more on the subscription that I would have spent on purchasing the software.

Another advantage of the subscription is that I get free updates to the latest version of the software. If I had purchased the software I would have to pay a reduced price just to upgrade to the latest version.

Simple Economics 101 is the subscription provides much more value to the users at a much, much discounted price. It is a no brainer decision to purchase the subscription over purchasing the software.

Can't blame em, adobe is one of the easiest programs to crack with there dlls. They need to be subscription based.

Not web based, you might get in but your not staying there. And your right any software can be cracked, Why don't you download a cracked copy of scrapebox or xrummer and let me know how that works for you.

but what if i don't have internet at the time. How am i suppose to develop anything?

PS people, this only means that the market has opened.

I don't think it's that bad a move, depending on how many of their software programs you use. Usually, you would get 2-4 years out of a purchase (at most) before really needing to upgrade, but you'd also have to sometimes shell out $2,000+.

Now, you can use EVERYTHING for $50 per month which isn't bad. When you look at the costs of running an online business versus the costs of running an offline business, $50 per month is nothing, especially for what you can do and create with their software.