Why is Adobe killing it's software?

[mohab]

1) A while back I read that Adobe has stopped developing flash for mobile phones, the author of the article commented that Adobe's next step will be stopping development of Flash for PCs which will spell the death of Flash.

2) I use Photoshop, it's a powerful software which requires good hardware spec to opperate well. Adobe has produced Photoshop for tablets, which I'm sure is a watered down version of PC Photoshop because Tablets don't have the hardware oomph to cope with a full version of Photoshop. As far as I know companies like Adobe should be improving their software, especially flagship software like Photoshop, and not producing simplified waterd down versions?

 

[Berton]

1. I've never seen anything about that so it is important to have a link to the article referred to for full reading.

2. The last sentence is not a question but a statement of suggestion/opinion.

My opinion: it's costly to keep paying programmers to develop upgrades for programs that are showing their age. Part of the issue with Flash Player and other programs is security, keep out those who like to cause problems for users.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Many websites that used to use Flash Player for videos are now using something else that is more secure (I forget what; stupid old age!). As many security updates as Adobe comes out with every year, it must have been costing them a fortune. Flash Player is simply going the route of other programs that have outlived their usefulness.

What bites me is Adobe's push to subscription programs only. They have already done that with their Create Suite. I depend heavily on Adobe Acrobat Standard (not the reader) for creating and editing PDFs (the freebies just don't cut the mustard) plus my ADF scanner uses part of Adobe Acrobat Standard to scan directly to PDF. I contacted Adobe a few months ago in an attempt to find out if Acrobat was going to become subscription only with the next upgrade when the current version (XI) reached EOL 10/15/2017 and all got from them were either lies or evasion, not to mention the frustration of dealing with some serious customer service deficiencies. The company has really gone downhill the last few years. Even if the next version of Acrobat Standard isn't subscription only, I may replace my current ADF scanner with one that is TWAIN compliant so I can use any other of the paid PDF creation programs with it.

 

[lafnsu]

They just started Flash Professional CC which is including webGL and Html5 I believe, since everyone is turning away from flash for security reasons, it just makes sense.

I used to think the subscription was a bad idea, until their competitor (who I've supported for 20 years) was going to charge almost $1,000 for upgrades of all my programs this past year. I pulled their plug and moved to Adobe for everything besides the painting program and have never been happier. I can do soooooo very much more, and I'm sorry I couldn't make the move sooner. I can afford the full subscription for about 2/3 the price, if that, making it affordable for we the "little guys."

Cheers, LafnSu

 

[mohab]

Informative replies, Thanks.
It will be interesting to see what comes next in terms of software from Adobe

 

[logicearth]

I don't understand people, that think a company as big as Adobe, some how only has like one small team working on the software. Some how you believe that since Adobe has a version of Photoshop for mobile devices, that it is cutting into development time for Photoshop on the PC. Afraid to break it to you, but Adobe hires a lot of developers. They are divided into projects. The people building the mobile applications are not interfering with the main development of Photoshop.

Besides, Adobe has had a water downed version of Photoshop for years already. It is called Photoshop Elements.

 

[Alejandro85]

I don't think that Adobe intends to kill anything, not at least by now.

For Photoshop, having a tablet version most likely needs to be dumbed down, just for the reasons you mentioned yourself, tablets are much more limited devices than computers, both in term of computing power and input capabilities. It don't makes sense to have just a simple port, as much of it will be either too difficult to use or make it so slow to be usable. Instead they adapted the whole thing to the device's capabilities.
That don't means abandoning the PC/Mac version at all. Both can be developed at the same time and coexist. I have no idea or read anything pointing to Adobe stop producing Photoshop for computers, and it doesn't makes sense for the to do so.

For Flash, the history is a bit different.Adobe has publicly declared its intentions to discontinue Flash in the long term, and they've in fact started with Linux and Android versions. At some time, there will be no more Flash for PCs either, maybe in a couple of years. Basically they're just following the world general trends for an alternative, HTML5, but this as of now is far from happening.
While HTML5 could have all the capabilities of Flash, the would-be new standard will eventually replace it so that Browsers no longer need a plugin for many websites, which also come with some security implications.
Currently, this is far from happening. HTML5 is still in draft phase, not yet a standard. Browsers are each implementing whatever they like of it in whatever way they like, and most websites using Flash are still using Flash (just try disabling it and see how much of the web breaks). Some day HTML5 will be standardized and hopefully the web will slowly migrate to it, thus leaving Flash without many uses. Adobe said already that in the long term it will be discontinued. But not for now.

 

[ThrashZone]

Good riddance I'll not miss it at all.

 

[carwiz]

Good riddance I'll not miss it at all.

Ditto.

It's been on death row long enough. It's time to execute!

I allow Flash to run on 3-4 sites out of the whole Interweb of sites wanting to "improve my browsing experience". Its been nothing but an ad factory since its conception.

 

[ThrashZone]

The bottom line seems websites just need to update which most are so out of date it's almost not worth using,
I say almost because even 7 forums rely on flash for "What are you listening too" and the other I can't remember what it's called

 

[fireberd]

Subscriptions are the new environment. My recording program, Cakewalk Sonar (who was purchased by Gibson Guitar Co last fall) has went to subscription for the new version. There are several other recording studio packages (Pro Tools is one) that have or are going the subscription route.

As far as flash, HTML5 is being used by some as a replacement for flash.

 

[Layback Bear]

Adobe does the same things other companies do.
They drop products that are no longer in demand and add products they predict will be popular and in demand in the future. They will also make adjustments to existing products to suite different hardware that becomes popular.

That as far as I know is not going out of business.
It's called adjusting your product line to fit the market place and the up coming market place.

 

[carwiz]

Many sites are already getting creative with HTM5. Some of the animations are very irritating. I hope there's a way to restrict it too in the near future. They seem to be targeting adolescents with an attention span of two seconds. If this keeps up, it will become Flash 2.0.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Subscriptions are the new environment...

I don't give the north end of a south bound furry rodent if subscriptions are the new environment. Every time I've seen software become subscription based, it would have wound up costing me more money in the long run.

 

[ThrashZone]

Just the personal usage cc6 or cc2014 or what ever Adobe calls it now is not outrageous 9.99 + tax month.
Adding say illustrator or an additional app for 20 bucks a month is completely insane imho :/
Not sure what the business class products are a month.
All about steady revenues.

 

[margrave]

I won't miss Flash. It is by far the most unreliable software I've ever used.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hopefully killing shockwave element browser add-on will clear up a lot of confusion people have with the stand alone shockwave player
https://get.adobe.com/shockwave/

This is also pretty funny,
Microsoft finally has accommodated flash player in ie11 and now Adobe is killing it off

 

[Alejandro85]

Sadly Flash has, as of now, no good 100% replacement. In the future, HTML5 will overthrow it as the multimedia way of the web, but as for now it's just Flash save for a few exceptions.

HTML5 is not yet a standard and browsers are mading disasters in their provisory implementations, with many functions not yet working in every place, or requiring many browser-specific adaptations. Flash on the other hand is firmly stabilished and is reliable at what it does.

 

[Berton]

Since HTML5 has only been a final product for a few months it will take awhile for everything/everyone to get caught up with it.

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 [update] this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.
HTML5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5

https://www.google.com/search?site=...msedr...0...1c.1.64.hp..1.5.353.0.PZ8X-r7pqPM

As for Microsoft including Flash in IE11, could be they aren't getting as much acceptance of Silverlight as they desired. Or maybe it's not fully encompassing what Flash can do.
Microsoft Silverlight

 

[lafnsu]

depnds on usage

Just the personal usage cc6 or cc2014 or what ever Adobe calls it now is not outrageous 9.99 + tax month.
Adding say illustrator or an additional app for 20 bucks a month is completely insane imho :/
Not sure what the business class products are a month.
All about steady revenues.

I pay $50 per month for the entire suite of products, which means 600 a year. The competitor's upgrade price for half of the products was $950 for me this past year, and while they aren't by subscription there was no disc it was download only with a two-year downloading time-frame, or spend more for the disc. I saved $350 this year alone. I also love the fact that I always have the latest updates. After this experience, I've started to purchase other things this way with less hesitation. Just a different outlook on it I think.

Cheers, LafnSu