Frame's future

[Sean Pollock]

Mike,

At least you have a real OS. Most of us in the business world use PCs
because they're the corporate norm, but they still suck (for those of you
who think I'm a MacAddict, I've never owned one, I just know anything based
on unix must be better than the bloated goat Microsoft has built on DOS,
which was never a real OS).

--Sean Pollock
UGS Corp.

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces+spolloc1=hotmail.com at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+spolloc1=hotmail.com at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf
Of Paul Findon
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 4:41 PM
To: Mike Wickham
Cc: Frame Users; Free Framers List
Subject: Re: Frame's future

On 1 Mar 2007, at 14:00, Mike Wickham wrote:

>>> When someone stabs you in the back after you've been a very  loyal
>>> customer for nearly 20 years, you don't normally go running  back  
>>> for
>>> more.
>>
>> So what action are you going to take against Apple for dropping  
>> Classic
>> support from their Mactel machines? They stabbed you in the back,  
>> too,
>> didn't they? Had Apple not made such a drastic change in its  
>> operating system, I'll bet Adobe would have made the last two  
>> FrameMaker point-upgrades available for Macs, too.

> Apple gave us something better. Adobe gave us nothing.

> Paul

Sorry, Mike. I think your comment deserves a better response.

Mac OS 9 was a fine OS in its day, but its time had come. We wanted a  
modern OS with pre-emptive multitasking, memory protection, and so  
on, especially those of us that had had first-hand experience of  
these things with NeXTSTEP in the early '90s. We started with Macs  
because that was the only show in town for DTP and WYSIWYG manual  
making, and the tools then were FrameMaker, PageMaker, or Quark.  
Believe it or not, Apple had 15.5% of the Japanese PC market in 1994,  
which had fallen to 6% by 1999. In the mid-'90s, with the success of  
Windows 95, Apple's failure to deliver a next-generation OS, and  
falling market share, I drew up contingency plans as to what we'd do  
if Apple disappeared. In a nutshell, the plan consisted of switching  
to Windows. Then, in late 1997, NeXT and Steve Jobs executed what I  
believe was a reverse takeover, and I knew then that we'd be getting  
NeXTSTEP or something even better on our Macs. Mac OS X was released  
in 2001. Adobe said it was porting its apps to Mac OS X, so we  
waited. But Adobe never delivered, discontinued Mac FrameMaker, and  
suggested that we switch to Windows. But having used NeXTSTEP and Mac  
OS X, we don't want to switch to Windows just to run FrameMaker  
(cost, training, security, viruses, etc). My contingency plans ended  
up in the dustbin.

As for the Classic environment, this was a transition tool to allow  
developers time to port their apps over to Mac OS X. Most did,  
including Adobe for most of its apps. Anyway, running Classic apps on  
an Intel Mac would require emulation and in my experience that means  
slow. This is a technical obstacle. Producing FrameMaker for Mac OS X  
on an Intel Mac would require a little effort by Adobe. At the  
moment, they don't have the will.

Of course, you have to remember that Apple today is not the Apple we  
used to know. When Steve Jobs returned in 1997, a new Apple was born.  
Pretty much like what happened at Adobe when the co-founders stepped  
aside in 2000 and a new CEO was appointed. Both companies continue  
with the same name, but their DNA, culture, and direction changed big  
time.

I'm passionate about my work and the tools I use to do it, and I want  
the best tools for the job, which is why I use FrameMaker and Mac.  
That's my opinion and others will no doubt disagree, but that's for  
them to decide. I'm not an evangelist and am perfectly happy buying  
computers from a company that sells a couple of million a month.  
Market share is moot. Of course, many members of this list probably  
have no control whatsoever over what hardware or software they use.  
Like all those Nortel employees that now use PTC Arbortext.

Let's not forget that this is not just an OS issue. Apple makes some  
of the best hardware in town, and I want to work with it.

Funny how it's some of the Windows users that are kicking off about  
fellow FrameMaker users and resorting to cliched stereotypes. What  
have they got to complain about? They've still got FrameMaker, and  
version 8.0 just around the corner.

Incidentally, we still use FrameMaker 6.0. There's been nothing  
compelling enough for us to change since. In hindsight, if I'd know  
Adobe would sight lack of Mac sales as a reason for no FrameMaker for  
Mac OS X, I would have bought every upgrade going.

Paul
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