[Framers] Final note about Adobe Licensing

[Ken Poshedly]

I may be a little off-topic, but here goes anyway . . . I've been using FrameMaker since 1998 when my company got version 5.5.6 and, as the saying goes, "I never looked back". We had been using WordPerfect for Windows (version 7?) and I personally found it "clunky" to work with, especially in doing two-column layouts (text on left with one-column graphics on the right; yes, it can be done, but it was never as easy as with FM). While the rest of the tech pubs world is now up to FM2017, my current employer won't upgrade past FM 11.0 (due to the "I-know-it-all" attitude of the guy who makes decisions about my group; another story for another day). 

Anyway . . . I recall in the early 2000's the fairly numerous posts that Adobe (which had purchased Frame Technology Corp.), was not really interested in upgrading it, but had gotten what it wanted (money from new sales and a huge fan-base) and was really trying to slowly let it "die on the vine" because Adobe really wanted to sell that fan-base on Adobe's own homegrown product, InDesign. There was always a periodic hue-and-cry about this and Adobe did wind up issuing updates over the years (although many still say the last good, solid version was FM 7.0). Adobe did actually drop the Macintoch version of FM.
Some folks compare Adobe tech support with "customer service" by Comcast (the cable TV company). Solely based in India and sort of nonexistant and super-deficient even if/when can get someone on the phone line.

So, nothing is forever and Adobe will someday probably deep-six FM for no good reason (just like NBC just cancelled the great TV show "Timeless", resulting in a HUGE online backlash about that. Lower-than-desired ratings don't seem to matter for other shows that still remain, however.).

I'm old enough to remember when competitors compared their "word processing software" to WordStar by MicroPro. I loved that program and all its keyboard shortcuts (oh, wait a minute, that's all we had because mouse-pointers hadn't yet made the scene). Though it has a rockier history than FM, it is still used, but just barely. There's a great write-up about it on Wikipedia. (The FM Wikipedia write-up is not nearly as extensive.) And let's not forget the late, great Ventura Publisher which was distributed by Xerox but is owned by Corel since 1993 and is a mere shadow of its once glorious self before the Corel purchase.

I wonder how Corel supports Corel Ventura (still available but supposedly last updated in 2002).



      From: "Harding, Dan" <dharding at illinois.edu>
 To: An email list for people using Adobe FrameMaker software. <framers at lists.frameusers.com> 
 Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2018 7:20 AM
 Subject: Re: [Framers] Final note about Adobe Licensing
   
Program software, yes. Customer support and licensing, no.

At times it feels like FrameMaker is "abandonware", at least with respect to the attitudes coming from within Adobe... a begrudged necessary evil that no one there really wants the hassles of dealing with, hoping that it will just die and go away.

-Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: Framers <framers-bounces+dharding=illinois.edu at lists.frameusers.com> On Behalf Of Shmuel Wolfson
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2018 3:55 AM
To: Peter Gold <peter at petergold.photography>; Framers - frameusers.com <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
Subject: Re: [Framers] Final note about Adobe Licensing

Why does everyone feel that Adobe is abandoning FrameMaker? In the latest version they redid the menus and added a shortcut to finding menu items. They also claim to have fixed some long-standing bugs.

My only gripe is the high price for upgrades. But they do seem to be working on the program.

--
Shmuel Wolfson
Technical Writer
058-763-7133


On 26-Jun-18 3:25 AM, Peter Gold wrote:
> These recent threads about licensing and related Adobe corporate-level 
> failings, and the associated sense of abandonment that's been voiced 
> by long-long-long-time FrameMaker users who represent a community of 
> talented technical authors and publishers prompt me to think "Is there 
> any next step that Adobe might take?" Well, if anyone at Adobe with 
> any power to communicate with the higher Adobe Powers That Be reads 
> this list (or if any members have contacts with folks who have the 
> ability to communicate with those APTBs,) how about floating the idea 
> that if Adobe's no longer interested in supporting FM and its 
> community of users, perhaps it's time to think about finding a company 
> that would like to buy it. FM might be only a mere fragment of a niche 
> in Adobe's spectrum of products and services and income streams, but 
> to a smaller enterprise, it could be a substantial business.
>
> Just another wild idea. Anyone out there? Bueller?
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