> Plus adopt all 150+ items on Judy's list of things we all wish Illustrator
> could do. Not too much to ask.

hehe.

What makes all this dreaming futile is that Adobe is the market leader. They
OWN the vector illustration market. You really can't convince the market
leader to improve their product. There's simply no business reason to do so
(see: Quark, Intuit, Microsoft, Autodesk, etc.)

If people really want to see a better product, we need to support the
runner-up, whatever that may be. Perhaps Corel, perhaps an open source
project, etc.

For instance, perhaps every FH user could donate $10 to the inkscape
project:

http://www.inkscape.org/

Or commit to buying product X if they added features a b and c to it.

I understand the wishful thinking. I think the same, too. As long as we all
realize it's just that...wishful thinking ;o)

-Darrel

> If people really want to see a better product, we need to support the
> runner-up, whatever that may be. Perhaps Corel, perhaps an open source
> project, etc.

I supported Corel long enough but switched to FreeHand. I still think Corel is better in many ways, for example outline editing is far better. But unfortunately Corel was not reliable in production. It may be now but I rather use Illustrator.

The problem with open source projects is that the developers seem to be interested in the software itself not what you can do with it. So usability isn't always too good.

I do support the idea of open source but frankly I do not want to use programs like Inkspace in prodution.

Jukka

> The problem with open source projects is that the developers seem to be
> interested in the software itself not what you can do with it. So
> usability isn't always too good.

It's a bit of a catch-22...people shy away from Open Source software because
they don't thnk it's quite as usable, but it can't become more usable unless
more people use it and contribute their opinion to the project. ;o)

> I do support the idea of open source but frankly I do not want to use
> programs like Inkspace in prodution.

I really do want to use open source software in production. Alas, you are
correct, in that it's not there yet. Hence my thought that putting some
money/suggestions in to the open source movement might give it some
momentum.

-Darrel

>> I do support the idea of open source but frankly I do not want to use
>> programs like Inkspace in prodution.
>
> I really do want to use open source software in production. Alas, you are
> correct, in that it's not there yet. Hence my thought that putting some
> money/suggestions in to the open source movement might give it some
> momentum.

This is drifting way off the subject I know.

As memory serves I (we) have discussed about this before. Anyway, one thing that bothers me in open source projects is projet management. Linux is succesful because of strong management by Linus Torvalds. Unfortunately there are not too many people who have chance for that kind of commitment.

The old joke "A camel is as horse designed by a commitee." can easly be revived as "A camel is a open source horse." ;-)

Jukka

> As memory serves I (we) have discussed about this before. Anyway, one
> thing that bothers me in open source projects is projet management. Linux
> is succesful because of strong management by Linus Torvalds. Unfortunately
> there are not too many people who have chance for that kind of commitment.
>
> The old joke "A camel is as horse designed by a commitee." can easly be
> revived as "A camel is a open source horse." ;-)

To be fair, I've dealt with lots of very expensive commercial software that
suffered the same.

And, these days, there are a LOT of very well managed OS projects...Firefox,
Drupal, Joomla, VLC, Jquery, Apache, so I think there's hope.

At least more hope in that than Adobe ever updating Freehand. ;o)

-Darrel

Yes, I will upgrade my FreeHand MX with Adobe.

Please do it.
In my country (Portugal) 99% of the design/brand/advertising companies uses Freehand.
Tanx.

> At least more hope in that than Adobe ever updating Freehand. ;o)

Yup, but they have helluva lot of catching up to do if they want to even top Illustrator.

I just hope next Illustrator will have more FreeHand features. Anyway, my creativity has not disappeard after changing from FreeHand to Illustrator, Most often it is not the software I use but the clog between the ears.

Jukka

Yes, I will upgrade my FreeHand MX with Adobe

Yes, I will upgrade my FreeHand MX with Adobe

Dear FreeHand friends, Thank you for coming here to be a voice for FreeHand. I
think the software deserve that. Whoever the person is or a group of people who
give life to this software, have done an incredible job. It has given so many
people around the world a livelihood they would otherwise may not have.
Unfortunately now, it, FH cannot speak for itself. If it could... This is what
it might have said, "Why in the world would you want to sell me away, while
millions need me? Why put me in a Freezer? What is the all this for?."
Companies who get people into the path of learning must at least have some
responsibility in ensuring that these people do not end up being obsolete. We
welcome healthy competition, which will lead to better products and services.
But this is not healthy, putting millions out there thinking, what they are
going to do next, especially those already pass their learning years. Learning
is a process that take time. Learning to trust takes more than time. How can we
trust Adobe if Adobe would not care to think about this. Some people are born
smarter, they pick up learning real fast, this group will care less what really
happen out there. If A is good, I will stay with A. Tomorrow B come along and
if B give me better stuff, OK, I will switch to B but how many of us are born
like that. Learning to use a software well takes time. Anyway, to cut the story
short, learning curve is a painful task, mind you, so please make that a little
easier. We want to trust you, we know you do the right thing. We are still
keeping our fingers cross. Keep the numbers coming in. So far we are doing
fine. Be counted if you want to see the impossible happen. Adobe will upgrade
FreeHand!