Still no real competition for Fireworks Aug 26. 0914
With the recent announcement that Adobe will not be providing support for Creative Suite 3 (CS3) in Snow Leopard and my waning belief in Adobe’s ability to resurrect Fireworks my interest in alternatives has again be piqued. Back when I wrote my open letter to developers asking for someone to step forward and provide us web designers with a current and solid alternative to Fireworks I looked at Pixelmator, Acorn and Gimp (DrawIt is also worth checking out).
Unfortunately right now none of these packages offer the blend of bitmap and vector tools which Fireworks has always excelled at but a little extra time spent with Pixelmator in particular has me confident that someone, somewhere is not far from providing us with a usable alternative. With the addition of some basic vector tools and the ability to draw and export web slices we’d be pretty much there.
The most recent blog post on the Pixelmator website relating to the upcoming 1.5 release inspires further confidence, the ‘Spider’ codename can only be a reference to web features right? However Saulius from Pixelmator is quick to point out that 1.5 will not include vector tools…
…please don’t expect vector tools in Spider…
Here’s hoping the Pixelmator team keep up the excellent work, if they maintain the development pace they’ve set thus far (4 full point releases in two years) then we might see a release with Vector tools before Fireworks CS5 rears it’s head.
An open letter to software developers RE Adobe Fireworks Feb 16. 0968
Dear software developer.
This is an open letter which I am writing as a one time advocate of Adobe Fireworks. Fireworks is still, some 10 years after it’s conception, the only package out there which provides web designers with the tools they need to design for the web. At it’s core, a balanced blend of vector and bitmap tools, live effects and slicing with optimized export.
However over the years Adobe have lost their way with this product and it’s become bloated by marketing driven features.
Designers carry on using Fireworks only because there is no decent alternative. The latest release – Fireworks CS4 includes a poorly implemented version of the Adobe Type Engine which has brought with it a bug that quite literally effects all users. The bug is as of today (some 5 months after initial release) still not fixed yet it manifests itself in just about every layout a designer works on.
Personally I have lost faith in Adobe to deliver on the promise that Fireworks has as a product. They have been distracted by ‘rapid prototyping’ and integration with development tools like ‘Flex’ – nice to have features that have drawn focus away from the now neglected core function of the software.
We don’t want another new UI, XHTML and CSS export, a JavaScript pop-up menu generator or a new type engine. We just want a product that is 100% focused on allowing us to put down on the canvas what we are imagining in our heads and then slice up and export that for use in a hand coded layout. That’s it.
Right now there seems to be a huge void in the marketplace which developers are not filling. It’s my belief that if someone takes up the gauntlet and comes out with a product that fulfills the basic requirements of a web designer, they will steal a huge slice of business from Adobe.
If not then I’m resigned to hoping that Adobe wakes up and takes notice, puts the effort where it’s needed and waits until the software is really finished before unleashing it on it’s customers.
Kind regards
Nathan Pitman
Update: It seems Adobe are working on an updater for Fireworks CS4 to rectify the text shifting bug.
Update: Adobe have released an updater, however there’s still a glaring hole in the market for some competition in this space. Come on app devs, someone step up and take on the challenge – I and many others want to give you our hard earned cash.
Dear Adobe Fireworks, it’s not you, it’s me. Feb 03. 098
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
Goodbye Macromedia.com Dec 05. 050
Looks like they ‘just’ made the switch, swapping the old macromedia logo out for an adobe one and making some subtle design changes to the site.
Very strange to finally see things starting to happen, but kinda exciting at the same time.
Update: Even more interesting is some discussion of plans to integrate the PDF and SWF formats.
When upgrades turn bad Nov 28. 057
Maybe I’ve been doing something wrong, maybe I’m just thick but this morning I’ve had a total nightmare completing what should have been a simple task. Activating Studio 8.
I already own a fully licensed copy of Fireworks 8, but after my beta copies of Dreamweaver and Flash decided to time out I bit the bullet and purchased a Studio 8 upgrade from DABS. I have 2 boxed copies of ‘Studio MX 2004 Pro’, plus the boxed copy of ‘Fireworks 8’ so I assumed that I had more than was required to qualify for the upgrade as opposed to the full product version.
Studio 8 turned up on Saturday and this morning I got busy with uninstalling all previous versions of Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks etc.
With this done I ran the Studio 8 installer and then launched Flash first, studio serial number in hand, ready to get activation completed.
First I’m asked to enter my Flash 8 Serial Number, so obviously I just enter the Studio 8 serial, that’s all good. Then I get another dialog which asks me to provide my previous Flash version serial number from which I’m upgrading. 10 minutes later I re-emerge from the loft with my Studio MX 2004 Pro box, I enter the serial number as instructed… nothing. No green ‘tick’, nothing, nada, zip. So I try again but without the hyphens, again nothing.
Another 10 minutes later I’m back at the computer with my other Studio MX 2004 Pro box, I try this serial… again nothing.
Right, ok… time to give Macromedia Activation Support a call I think, so off I pop to Macromedia.com in search of a number… …there isn’t one. All support seems to be email based these days. Great, Fantastic. Just what I needed. That means that no doubt I’ll have to wait at least a day before I get a response to my query.
Right, I really need to get on and do some work now. I’ve paid for my software, whay can’t this be simple, I’ve checked, double and triple checked the numbers. They’re right.
Last resort, I do a quick search on google for ‘“PFD700”:http://www.google.com/search?q=PFD700’. It’s asking me for a Flash MX 2004 serial number, so I’ll give it one.
Success.
Not exactly the correct route, but in absence of any proper telephone support, it seemed the only logical option.
Update: Drew is indeed right, seems I was using serials from a NFR (Not for Resale) copy of Studio MX. However there are a bunch of other products you can upgrade from.