Did you watch the Adobe CS4 Live Launch last week?
If not, check out tv.adobe.com
While nothing completely blew my socks off, the new lineup is pretty robust, and, reportedly, marks the first CS that has completely integrated Macromedia and Adobe technologies, so the look and feel of the programs is universal and they integrate and share files better. In addition, all the apps completely support AIR development now, which is also huge.
Time will tell whether or not I make the upgrade. I am a little gun-shy after jumping at the upgrade to CS3 from my old Studio MX. I use Fireworks a lot in my web design work. I much prefer it to Photoshop for web work. However, I was VERY underwhelmed by the CS3 package, and I moved entirely away from Dreamweaver once Panic launched Coda, which might just be the best piece of software ever written.
So, I’ll wait a while for the reviews to come in, and try another round of beta testing, before jumping on the upgrade bandwagon. I love Fireworks, but at a $599 price tag just for an upgrade to CS4 Web Premium ($399 for Standard), I could easily find an alternative that goes well with the $99 Coda. (See Aviary, Acorn, Pixelmator)
What’s your take?
I tried the Dreamweaver CS4 beta, and it was pretty nice I guess, especially the improved CSS previewing.
I switched to Dreamweaver from Adobe GoLive back in 2002 when I realized tables were bad (thanks, Zeldman). I’ve been happily using Dreamweaver ever since, until recently: Now that I’m doing more server-side programming (ASP.Net, PHP), I’m finding Dreamweaver too limiting or flat-out confusing (Dreamweaver’s handling of ASP.Net is nasty). I use Visual Web Developer for ASP stuff now, and I’ll probably wind up going to something like Coda for everything else, too.
CS4 is much better than any previous version, but it’s still bloated, which is the main problem I have with Adobe, especially since I switched to the Mac.
There are so many great small apps for OS X, like Coda, that when you open up a large program like any of the Adobe products, it’s an underwhelming experience.
I’m a simple man. Do one thing, do it very well, and I’m sold. Do 50 things, only 8 of which I need, charge me ridiculous amounts of money, and I’ll pass.