Dear Adobe Fireworks, it’s not you, it’s me. Feb 03. 0910
When we first met it was love at first sight, your combination of vector and bitmap tools, your web layer and slices… I just couldn’t resist.
For years we’ve worked hand in hand, side by side… you even changed your name and to begin with everything seemed ok, but then I started to feel like you weren’t really there for me anymore.
You started spending a lot of time changing your look, diluting your true self with ‘marketing features’ and half hearted improvements, hiding your real character and charm behind ‘rapid prototyping’ and ‘improved css export’.
That’s not who I fell in love with and I just can’t live with it anymore, I need to get out there and find someone who really understands my needs. I’m sorry but it’s over.
Update: An open letter to software developers RE Adobe Fireworks
Hi,
I am using Macromedia Fireworks since its version MX. I was happy when MX2004 was released. I was happy when Fireworks 8 was released. I was worried when Adobe acquired Macromedia, but Adobe Fireworks CS3 was better, although a bit slow compared to the previous version (8).
Then CS4 was released, and I avow that this is the slowest ever version of Fireworks. It’s not only the slowest, but the text engine has severe bugs (Adobe ATE was introduced, but poorly implemented, and the product shipped unfinished), which may prevent anyone using it (even a Fireworks fan) enjoy the product and want to revert to CS3. Or to other graphic design software, in fact.
Still, I did not lost hope.
Adobe will release a patch for the text engine (for the current CS4 version), and I hope this will be soon.
And I didn’t find (yet) better graphic design software for the Web, which may blend so nicely bitmap+vector tools, live effects, ease of use and powerful layout possibilities.
I still have faith in Fireworks. I can’t imagine my design world without it. I hope Adobe will make improvements, both for Fw CS4 and for CS5 (whenever it is released).
And I’d advise you to have some faith, too. If you can, of course! :-)
Because I can’t imagine a world without Fireworks… I hope I am not mistaken…