My heart sank a bit yesterday when the news came out that Adobe, the biggest fish in the graphic arts software pond, would be merging with Macromedia, the second-biggest fish. Mergers may be good for stakeholders, but rarely do they benefit users. I used to think of having Adobe and Macromedia around the same way I loved living in a two newspaper town. When towns had two newspapers, competition for audience readership was intense and forced everyone involved to be more engaged in the process. If you live in a one-horse or one-newspaper town you have to get used to having only what that horse or newspaper can give you. It's the same way in the world of software design.
Although both Macromedia and Adobe created some products that were targeted toward similar audiences, such as Dreamweaver or GoLive, Freehand or Illustrator, they both controlled different segments of the same market with distinct products like Adobe's PhotoShop and Macromedia's Flash. With the acquisition of Macromedia by Abode some of my favorite software applications, particularly Dreamweaver, might dissappear and I'll be forced to work with products that I am less fond of.
In the world of technology battles over control of markets are not always fought in corporate boardrooms. In the geek world, below the surface of corporate domination of the free world as we know it, there are two distinct sets of thinkers -- developers and designers.
Developers and designers often have conflicting agendas when it comes to new and innovative software. Developers and designers are very different animals. Developers seem more inclined to get excited about the structural underpinnings of how a software operates, while designers appear more interested in applying and adapting the software to solving particular creative needs.
However, the business side of this left brain v. right brain struggle seems to temper what gets developed and designed. Abode's strength, I am inclined to guess, has pretty much leaned toward the design and creative end of software development. At the same, Macromedia's strength has been more the domain of the developer. I think that is why Flash and Director, Macromedia's top guns, were offered even though they basically did similar things. Even though both products had overlapping attributes, one appealed to designers and the other to developers. Adobe has never really allowed such an identity crisis in software application design to surface, although I think it sure came close when it released PDF version 6.0 a while back to the dismay of its users who became impatient with waiting for it to load on their machines.
It takes time to adjust to a one-horse or one-newspaper town. Jobs will be lost, software applications cast aside, and egos will be bruised. In the end, I imagine, some spirits may be dampened and some options will be lost.