Slashdot Mirror


Adobe Is Killing Contribute, Director, and Shockwave (venturebeat.com)

Reader Krystalo writes: Adobe today announced Adobe Contribute and Adobe Director will no longer be for sale nor supported as of February 1, 2017. At the same time, Adobe is also stopping Shockwave for Mac updates and support on March 14, 2017 after the last release of the product. The reason Adobe gives for the death of Contribute and Director is simple: The company's customers are embracing "the new features and efficiencies offered by Creative Cloud." As for Shockwave, its content is made with Director, so the company is merely tying up loose ends. It's about time.

6 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why does Shockwave exist? by ZorinLynx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My memory is hazy, but Flash was a subset of Shockwave that was optimized for the web.

    I vaguely remember it being called "Shockwave Flash" for a brief time.

    Of course, it's been a while so I could be wrong. :)

  2. Contribute by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At the time, Contribute was a decent idea which, unsurprisingly, Adobe implemented badly. The idea, though, was to provide a way to allow non-technical people to directly maintain web pages containing information they know about, without hitting them with too much complexity and also limiting what they were allowed to edit. A payroll manager, for instance, could keep payroll policies on an intranet page up to date without having to know how Dreamweaver worked.

    With the proliferation of Content Management Systems nowadays, the need for something like Contribute is waning. The thing that CMSes don't really do very well (compared to Contribute), though, is permissions lockdown.

    It's typical of Adobe, in any case, to say "you don't need this inexpensive product anymore - just buy lots of expensive subscriptions to Creative Cloud for everyone!"

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  3. Re:That's a start by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I wish they'd offer both a CC AND stand alone license of their products.

    Seems they'd cover all their bases with that, as that there are still a lot of holdouts that do not want to rent their software.

    I'm still holding at their CS6 suite of tools...while there have been some nice additions to like Photoshop, there's nothing that radical that I can't still do in CS6 for the most part.

    I'm working a lot with the Affinity Photo, and even their Affinity Designer....both are about 98% of what Adobe offers in PS and AI...and I gotta say, AF is quite a bit faster and less of a resource hog than PS, and the updates are free, and is a stand alone license.

    I like Adobe products, but I am still not able to allow myself to go for the rental model.

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  4. Speaking of starts... by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah, Adobe. Just finished dealing with them this morning. And by "finished", I mean finished.

    I just set up a Mac with MacOS Sierra 10.12, and attempted to install my copy of Photoshop CS5. Sierra advised me to throw the installer in the trash. Seriously. That's the dialog I got. Adobe "support" told me "not compatible with 10.12", and also "there is no fix or upgrade" other than enter into a permanent wallet-sucking fest for their "subscription" based product. No. Not a chance.

    So, that's the end of a multi-hundred dollar investment. Thanks, Adobe. Also, thanks, Apple. Whoever is responsible for the idiocy. Both, perhaps.

    Well. So I'm screwed, right?

    Not necessarily.

    I know a "little bit" about image manipulation from making Windows image manipulation software. I'm retired, and previously really lacked the motivation to build an image manipulation app of my own for the Mac. Previously.

    Insofar as my own needs go, I can definitely handle this, and in fairly short order, too. Others might end up benefitting as well. We will see.

    Surely just an empty claim, amiright?

    Well, take a Look: My bonafides begin right here.

    Let's just see how many of those features I can move over from my (mostly very portable) existing image manipulation code. And how quick. Today serves as the starting line. Assuming age doesn't kick me nipples north in the short term, and no other unforeseen disaster shows its ugly face, I expect to be raising my figurative middle finger in Adobe's direction quite soon as these things go.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Speaking of starts... by m-kirkcaldie · · Score: 4, Informative

      Uh, Photoshop CS5 runs perfectly well on Sierra, I use it daily (along with Illustrator CS5) on 10.12.3. Sierra offers to trash installers after installation as a matter of routine. Feel free to write a Photoshop killer if you must, but not because you can't use perfectly functional software.

  5. Re:Why does Shockwave exist? by adolf · · Score: 3, Informative

    Close, gramps.

    Macromedia, the company who had a presentation product called Director and a browser plugin called Shockwave for Director, bought Flash (and the rest of FutureSplash) in 1996.

    Adobe then bought Macromedia in 2005 for $3.4 billion.