Adobe is Dead
The official start of the death of Adobe was announced today.
Jeff Bezos is leading the B round of investors into Aviary.com - which is exactly what Adobe’s on-line offerings SHOULD be. Aviary has been gradually bulding vector based, bitmap based, recently audio and soon video editing tools - entirely on-line and based inside of a browser.
Exactly what Adobe said could never be done. If you look at Photoshop.com you’ll see a pathetic stand-in for the most valuable brand in computer graphics.
This is what happens when bureaucrats take over a tools company. AIR is coolio and what? 5 years late? The combination of Silverlight and HTML 5 will soon obsficate the need for Flash - and all that Flash video will get converted over to - what? It won’t even matter - its something that will go on behind the scenes and no user will see it.
What users DO see - is the content - which is getting tired of being locked up inside of closed proprietary standards. And they’ll see tools.
Aviary tools.
Its been years in the making, but I predict that within 5 years Aviary will be as big as Adobe, and Adobe - well you have heard of Word Perfect - right?
Aviary makes a good variety of software. For online photoshop alternatives, http://sumopaint.com is better featured (includes layer effects like stroke and outer glow).
Paul
Wow. Cool.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Aviary’s tools are built with Flex / Flash which is… an Adobe product.
Would not be surprised to hear Adobe buying Aviary in the near future.
So CS5 will be delivered in tombstone themed packaging then?
Somehow people think that HTML5 is the solution to the chaos that web is. People heard similar things when they said that combination of XHTML, Sematic Web and RDF will end HTML. Now that project is abandoned.
Talking about what you want to see in future is so easy. According to WHATWG the HTML5 specs will end on 2012. So, when will we see HTML6? 2025? Compare that to how quickly Adobe innovates Flash and Flex. By 2012, Flash will be a new completely new tech. Sorry, but if you want to keep your RIAs cutting edge “today”, you need Flash.
To be fair to Flash, it is currently much better from HTML+JS combination - at least Flash works the same way in all browsers. If you are “hoping” to see all browsers rendering HTML5 the same way, then forget about it. I don’t even want to comment on how JS will behave in different browsers even in 2012. Contrast that to Adobe’s Flash, it works precisely the same in all given browsers “today” and will work the same way and in much faster way than JS of 2012.
Also, remember Microsoft will be releasing or pre-releasing its next OS by 2012-2013, and if HTML5 is half cooked it won’t be included with IE 9. Rembered they didn’t included CSS3 support because it was not completed. I won’t be surprised if its not included just because it will hurt Silverlight. By 2012 some thousands of intranet will be running Silverlight, but HTML5 will remain just what it is today: “ever changing specs”. And who develops with “ever changing specs”?
W3C has vested interest in doing HTML5 and proving to mllions of developers that somehow this new way of doing things is better than your time-tested ways - however, whatever road you take, output will be an interactive “webpage”. Its possible today with Flash. HTML5 is going two steps backward. W3C should have chosen Flash or Silverlight as the standard, but NO, they are out there to prove that we “too” can come up with similar alternatives - and you thought HTML5 is out there to handle chaos.
BTW, Adobe has more than 30 patents related to Photoshop itself. That has come from their ability to innovate and create advance features for designers. I never see anybody taking on Photoshop. It will take many years if not decades. May be by 2020.
Stop preaching to the world that we need HTML5. Web is “open” today as it will be tomorrow with Flash and Silverlight included.
I had to write an essay here, because your article suggest that you hate Adobe and give them no credit for making Photoshop and Flash.
You said “The combination of Silverlight and HTML 5 will soon obsficate the need for Flash ….. What users DO see - is the content - which is getting tired of being locked up inside of closed proprietary standards.”
However Microsoft Silverlight is a closed proprietary standard!
The solution is HTML5 that is supported by key web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera. If Microsoft IE doesn’t support HTML5, then the Google IE to Chrome converter will also solve that problem!
Marc: I think you are going to love this piece of software!
#ClickToFlash: because “any crash is probably Flash” - gains in battery power to boot http://bit.ly/DT0Az — Very useful free app
Here’s how they position it:
“Ever wanted to get rid of the scourge of the web that is Adobe Flash, but still retain the ability to view Flash whenever you want?”
“One of ClickToFlash’s primary goals is to eliminate as much Flash from the web as possible”
I think we can get behind this one.
Hi Marc, sorry I’m late to the party, but what Jason said… it sounds like you’re thinking Aviary’s in-browser tools are built with The Wonder and Glory of CANVAS or something. Can you refactor, to more closely match the real world?
(If the crux of your argument is less the “proprietary” boogeyman, and more towards “The interfaces to Adobe’s desktop tools are more closely imitated by non-Adobe in-browser tools than by Adobe’s in-browser tools,” then I’d agree, because it’s intentional… the working assumption here is that when you’re actually in a browser (or on mobile, or on a wall screen) your goals and processes would not be identical to when you’re intensive at a workstation, and so the interfaces would be different.)
(And btw, thanks for the writeup on MusicWorks, I think I still have a copy in a storage box somewhere… it’s good to have your account on today’s edition of the World Wide Web. Wasn’t there a ComicWorks too at one point, or am I confusing this with a project someone else had for the Amiga…?)
jd/adobe