Adobe == annoying

[mdlbear]

In the course of putting together the graphics for my upcoming CD, I've discovered that essentially the only way to exchange files with both my artist collaborators and my duplicator is to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I've even gone so far as to contemplate getting a Mac mini to run them on -- it would be a useful addition to the local computer collection in any case, and runs Ubuntu just fine.

Imagine my disgust, then, on discovering that Adobe doesn't support the Intel Macs yet. This means that there is no Mac that I can go out and buy that will run their stupid software. And neither of my Windows boxes will support their software, either -- not enough RAM, and wimpy CPUs.

At one point,years ago, Adobe ported all their software to Linux and made it available for beta testing, and all of it ran on Solaris as well. Then they stopped. They're nearly as evil and disgusting a monopoly as Microsoft, and if I could avoid both of their product lines and stick to my OS of choice I'd be a happy hacker indeed.

update It seems that the hang-up is caused by yet another piece of proprietary software: all of Adobe's products were developed on MetroWorks' C++ compiler, which doesn't support the Intel macs either. Apple switched over to GCC, which apparently cuts some corners that Adobe was counting on. It's still disgusting -- it doesn't matter which proprietary software you're relying on, you're still going to get screwed. All I can say to the poor drudges putting in their overtime at Adobe is: you should have known this was coming.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I've said for quite a while now - since the summer of 2001 - that Adobe is the only company more evil than Microsoft. Microsoft never had anyone thrown in the federal pen. In July 2001 the Fibbies, acting on Adboe's behalf, busted Dmitry Sklyarov and threw him in the Oklahoma City fed-pokey. The EFF and several independent organizations, one of which for whom I was deputy webmaster, protested in front of Federal courthouses and Adobe-owned buildings. Our efforts were successful; Sklyarov was released on bail in August, and finally allowed to return to Mother Russia in time for Christmas.

I will never pay for an Adobe product. The only reason I use them at all is it makes my dealings with an even more evil entity - the Federal Infernal Revenooer Service - considerably easier. (If all goes well, doing my taxes next year will involve zero paper until the final printout - both incoming and outgoing forms will be electronic. I'd skip the paper altogether if I trusted the bastards... but I digress.)

It would be tempting to come up with a CD that could figure out which OS you were on and launch the appropriate version of The GIMP...

I don't know if Adobe is in outright cahoots with MSFT or merely lazy, but, yeah, their support for anything other than the Redmond Raptor for anything other than reading PDF's is... abysmal.

[mdlbear]

I strongly suspect that Adobe is in cahoots with M$ and Apple; they've been doing their best to screw over Linux for years.

I know about Dmitry, and even sang my protest song at a march/rally in San Jose. That was fun.

Unfortunately, PDF is downright ubiquitous. Tools to support it are free, fortunately, but they keep adding features that aren't supported yet.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

PNG and EPS files ought to work.

[mdlbear]

Not as well, it seems.

[mdlbear]

In fact, I don't think Oasis (the CD duplicator) supports either of those. They want to be able to edit your images and text if necessary, and have no interest in switching software. PNG and EPS aren't editable to the degree they need. They will reluctantly take Windows .bmp files, but in that case they can't print your text with better resolution.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Hunh. Their website says they support TIFF, but GIMP's TIFF exporter has problems, so that might not work. Illustrator can read EPS but, again, there might be compatibility issues, and fonts might be a problem.

Tell you what. I have Adobe programs that they'll accept. Unless your heart is set on doing this all yourself on your own systems, I'll be happy to convert files for you, or at least check formats.

[mdlbear]

Thanks -- I'll keep that in mind. I have some more-local folks that I'm working with, so I'll probably stick with them for the moment.

[mdlbear]

TIFF works for images, but it really isn't an option for anything with text in it.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Nod-nod-nod.

This really underscores a weakness in FOSS development, and even teaching methods; we don't have many people who can devise good UIs for 2-D or 3-D geometric input, nor many open tools for the problem, and therefore few FOSS apps that address problems requiring it. "It's too hard to write programs that work, and the other that it's too hard to use computers" (Brian Kernighan). And it's even harder when you aren't exposed to prior art.

[mdlbear]

I don't think this is a weakness in FOSS so much as the massive first-mover advantage for companies like Adobe and Autocad that have been doing it for years and gotten their proprietary formats built into everybody's workflow.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Also, the Adobe and Autodesk products are very good. Unlike MS Windows, Adobe and Autodesk products incorporate original design work, which would have to be duplicated in FOSS implementations--in some cases there would probably be patent issues. For vector graphics, nothing works as well as AutoCAD. AutoCAD is very fluid and very fast; its performance enormously outstrips Adobe Illustrator, which could never, ever handle so many lines. But AutoCAD is so damn expensive that most graphic designers can't afford it, and it lacks some of specific abilities for general graphic design. In a similar way, Photoshop, Postscript, Illustrator, and the various page-layout programs do some unique things very well, though for most purposes I prefer cranky old AutoCAD to Illustrator. As software design gets more and more like other commercial arts, and funding to develop applications becomes ever harder to find, there are fewer and fewer people willing to give away work of that level.

I've also got a series of notes on the pedagogical and software engineering issues that might make it possible to bring these applications into the domain of common development practice. I think I'll edit it and run it standalone in my blog.

[quentin-long.livejournal.com]

Hold it. You say Adobe's stuff can't run on a MacTel? As in, not at all? Um... isn't that what Rosetta was supposed to do -- let non-MacTel-friendly apps run on a MacTel? Yeah, Rosetta might be forcing you to jump through an undesired hoop or three before you can do what you want... but at least you can do what you want. And face it, there's more than a little irony in a Linux geek (see also: "Sure, it'll work -- all you have to do is recompile the kernel!") complaining about jumping thru undesired hoops...

[mdlbear]

I found out later that it runs unusably slowly under emulation, but even the fact that it might run at all is not mentioned on Adobe's system requirements page.

I haven't had to recompile a Linux kernel in at least a decade. In fact the only thing I've compiled in several years was a development version of Audacity, because I had to be compatible with the only version that would run at all on my Mactel laptop.

[mdlbear]

For that matter, what exactly is Rosetta and is it documented someplace where somebody who's not up on the latest Mac arcana can find it?

I've never had any trouble finding documentation for any of the 12000 applications that run on Debian; the documentation that ships with the Mac is minimal and the rest seems to be scattered all over the Web.