Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) Only a Minor Update?

Dreamweaver CS4

I can't speak about the other products in the CS line, but I've been using the Dreamweaver CS4 beta for a couple of months, and I have to agree that it only can described as a maintenance upgrade. What bothers me is Adobe's severe ethics problem. CS3 is very buggy, CS4 does manage to squash some (although not all) of these. So it lookslike Adobe has been aware of these problems and has (after eighteen months) taken steps to fix them. As an end user, I assume that the cost of maintenance upgrades is rolled into the purchase price of the software I purchase, so that I have a right to expect the manufacturer to exercise "due diligence" in squashing bugs promptly with one or more maintenance upgrades. But Adobe has never -- repeat, never -- issued any maintenance upgrade for Dreamweaver CS3, essentially they are using the addition of a small number of features of questionable value as a pretext for charging a hefty sum of money for an incredibly belated one. I hope their customer base can collectively let them know that this is an unacceptable business practice.
 
At least in Beta form it is MUCH faster. UI changes and app flow are drastically improved. I wouldn't call this a minor update, yet I not a radical one either.
 
dfs said:
I can't speak about the other products in the CS line, but I've been using the Dreamweaver CS4 beta for a couple of months, and I have to agree that it only can described as a maintenance upgrade. What bothers me is Adobe's severe ethics problem. CS3 is very buggy, CS4 does manage to squash some (although not all) of these. So it lookslike Adobe has been aware of these problems and has (after eighteen months) taken steps to fix them. As an end user, I assume that the cost of maintenance upgrades is rolled into the purchase price of the software I purchase, so that I have a right to expect the manufacturer to exercise "due diligence" in squashing bugs promptly with one or more maintenance upgrades. But Adobe has never -- repeat, never -- issued any maintenance upgrade for Dreamweaver CS3, essentially they are using the addition of a small number of features of questionable value as a pretext for charging a hefty sum of money for an incredibly belated one. I hope their customer base can collectively let them know that this is an unacceptable business practice.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I would have expected more patches and fixes in 18 months from Adobe for CS3.

I don't NEED new features, however, I feel I need some bug fixes. Is the only way I'm going to get these is to PAY to upgrade?

-Kevin
 
Gee, hasn't this been the last several updates? I've been using the same features since the late 90s to make all my designs for web and video games. Syd Mead uses Photoshop 7!
 
I'll take the word of those who've actually used beta versions of CS4.

But, it wouldn't surprise me if Adobe tried to pass off CS4 as a major upgrade when it's mostly bug fixes and some new interface doo-dads. They've tried that in the past a few times.
 
dfs said:
I can't speak about the other products in the CS line, but I've been using the Dreamweaver CS4 beta for a couple of months, and I have to agree that it only can described as a maintenance upgrade. What bothers me is Adobe's severe ethics problem. CS3 is very buggy, CS4 does manage to squash some (although not all) of these. So it lookslike Adobe has been aware of these problems and has (after eighteen months) taken steps to fix them. As an end user, I assume that the cost of maintenance upgrades is rolled into the purchase price of the software I purchase, so that I have a right to expect the manufacturer to exercise "due diligence" in squashing bugs promptly with one or more maintenance upgrades. But Adobe has never -- repeat, never -- issued any maintenance upgrade for Dreamweaver CS3, essentially they are using the addition of a small number of features of questionable value as a pretext for charging a hefty sum of money for an incredibly belated one. I hope their customer base can collectively let them know that this is an unacceptable business practice.
Click to expand...
It seems different from team to team. A few years after the acquisition there's still a lot of Macromedia culture baked into Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks, and those guys just never cared about fixing bugs, particularly the Flash and Dreamweaver guys. The Flash guys just keep going from version to version without looking back, as the bugs keep piling up. After each major upgrade, at most you'll get one maintenance update, but only if the initial release is borderline unusable.
 
I'd just like to see Acrobat stop bouncing in the dock when it gets lonely.:D

Also, enough web stuff already!:eek: more prepress & Freehand integration in Illustrator please. How about some better support for spot channel DCS 2 files within Illustrator as well.

Oh and release my base object when I set an offset path please, oh & let me choose the default pdf format please, Oh and...... :D
 
Regardless of the update being minor or major, I just got back from a big meeting at my University... the overall feeling was that we are tried of the year to year releases and are now going to skip every other release. The decision was also based on a survey of several studios whom all reported that economically it wasn't smart for them to be doing the year to year either. I am somewhat sad by this since we have managed to be current with everything since the beginning of the program, which is long before my entrance. Adobe needs to slow down.
 
Forget about another bloatware release. Adobe needs to let features grow naturally from code optimization and UI homogenization. Below are just a few examples.

  1. Can the Snapshots feature (in Photoshop) be incorporated into ID and AI?
  2. InDesign performs automatic backups of open windows (thankfully) so when it crashes (as is often the case), most changes are restored. Why can't AI do the same? Fortunately, PS is more stable.
  3. Layer options within AI and ID are similar but don't need to differ.
  4. Can New Document dialogs of AI and ID be made more alike?
  5. Why do we have Object Styles in ID but Graphic Styles in AI?
  6. Why are Paragraph Styles MIA from AI?
  7. Adobe dropped the development ball on AI charts long ago. Why can't we control the size of markers? Why must we fight with so many dialog boxes without even a preview to make adjustments?
  8. Shouldn't we be able to make charts within ID or at least edit Illustrator charts w/o Smart Objects?
  9. Why do CS3 applications handle transparency within TIFFs differently?
  10. How come AI swatches are so lame in comparison with ID?
  11. Why didn't AI adopt the superior FH text on a path code, where the actual baseline and serifs follow the path?
  12. Where is the ability to save gradient angles within styles?
Adobe has far too much to do without releasing a token version upgrade with a few features while overlooking the glaring omissions.
 
Icons

SwiftLives said:
So. The most important question about whether or not CS4 will be worth it has yet to be asked...

Will we get better app icons?
 :D
Click to expand...

Heh. I've been wondering that since Adobe CS came out. I was accustomed to the Photoshop and Illustrator icons, and then they started switching the icons, which I feel could have been much better and more representative of what the application does. How does a butterfly signify a page layout application?

I'm not a big fan of the CS3 style of icons, but at least they are a little easier to figure out what they mean. How many people got confused whether Photoshop was one or two feathers, where Image Ready was the other...
 
Mac 13 said:
I'm wondering since CS4 is just for windozzzze users first, what is scott kelby going to use? A Macbook running windozzzze or a PC with vista 64 bit?:eek:
Click to expand...

I don't know about Scott Kelby, but I do know about Bert Monroy!

I was at a recent NAPP seminar, when Bert laid the bomb. He admitted to a ton of people that he was doing his newest painting - more insane than Damien - on Windows using CS4. He said that the speed improvements were too great not to switch. And he really emphasized the speed improvements. He said when CS5 comes out he hopes to switch back.

But, I wish you could have been there when he said that he has switched to Windows. Seriously, the place was leveled. He said it and just about the whole audience gasped and then everyone was talking amongst their groups about it.

Crazy!
 
Anuba said:
It seems different from team to team. A few years after the acquisition there's still a lot of Macromedia culture baked into Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks, and those guys just never cared about fixing bugs, particularly the Flash and Dreamweaver guys. The Flash guys just keep going from version to version without looking back, as the bugs keep piling up. After each major upgrade, at most you'll get one maintenance update, but only if the initial release is borderline unusable.
Click to expand...

Gotta disagree. At least in the case of Dreamweaver, Macromedia did get out maintenance upgrades. Not lots, but some. This no-upgrade thing can't be written off as a holdover from Macromedia's corporate culture, it's a new Adobe thing.
 
Best feature for the new CS4 is...

As I was talking to some devlopers in Amsterdam in the weekend and got a dome of the new Adobe Premiere Cs4, the most usefull upgrade is for me the improved Adobe Media Encoder as for now its implemented in Adobe, but in CS4 it will be used "outside" the program.
So you can still work in premiere when running media encoder...very nice Adobe
 
Yeah right

You can spot amateurs who use less than 5% of the features of the CS apps from this whining that occurs every time Adobe releases a new version of its Creative Suite. They'd actually be happy if only the UI theme was changed every time.
 
bdkennedy1 said:
I thought CS4 was going to be much faster than CS3 because it's supposed to offload most of the processing to the graphics card. This would be a major feature.
Click to expand...

Is this a good move? The graphics chip in my rev.2 Macbook can barely cope with viewing a Facebook clip without the fans blasting off!
 
From what I have heard, Flash is a major improvement (as others have mentioned) but the rest is minor updates. InDesign, Acrobat, Premier, Dreamweaver, Illustrator and Photoshop all get some additions, tweaks, speed but by and large no major reason to switch from CS3 to CS4 considering CS4 isn't 64 bit and there are questions about snow leopard.

Frankly, I'm disappointed Adobe did this update so quickly after CS3 and wonder if they are pushing it out before snow leopard JUST IN CASE there are compatibility issues which would make CS4 come out more than 24 months after CS3. This could be a cash flow move by Adobe rather than a "hey we got some great new features".

*Note* my info is based on people I know who have beta tested CS4 versions, not my own personal use.
 
From the look of things the PS CS$, I mean CS4 upgrade is going to cost $349. Thats an obscene amount of money.

Can this new version of Photoshop even save PNG files at a sensible size? Or save PNG files as indexed 8-bit colour with alpha transparency like Fireworks can?

Adobe are a disgraceful company.
 
Judging by the screencaps on this site, I'm thinking our app icons are going to be the same, just with black letters instead of white.

who effin' hoo.

App icons aside, as a graphic designer, there's not much to compel me to upgrade to CS4. Unless CS4 really catches on in the marketplace, I think I'll wait another 16-18 months for CS5.

Sigh.

I do very much wish Adobe had some competition. It almost makes me miss Quark.

Almost.
 
I'd like to see a Flash elements-a cheaper and easy to use version of Flash for home and student users-seeing as there's nothing affordable swishmax on the mac.

Also no following of interface guidelines-strange choice.
 
Features

Ok Since adobe bought MM and kill FreeHand, forced all FH user to basically switch to AI they have not implemented any of the superior features FH had compare to AI.:confused:

1. Find and replace graphics FH is 1000% better than AI
2. Text control FH better AI sucks
3. Ability to work in mix mode RGB/CMYK
4. Object control FH is aging 1000% better
5. Star and Polygon control
6. Output area printing
7. Halftone/line screen control for individual objects
8. FH Masking implantation was and still light years ahead of AI
9. The mirror tool in FH

The list goes on...I would not pay for CS4 unless it has these feature.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back