johnwilker.com

Is Adobe even trying?

I was watching the live feed from the DNC today, via Silverlight, and Move, and it occurred to me. Microsoft has scored the two biggest online video deals around. Who knows, the RNC too? Making three.

So I got to wondering, is Adobe even trying? Yeah there’s 5 gagillion Flash player downloads, oh wait 5.5 gagillion now, but really, do we think the Olympics and the DNC won’t boost the Silverlight numbers rather dramatically? I installed it after all.

From techCrunch:

NBCOlympics.com may have streamed 72 million videos and racked up 1.2 billion pageviews, but Yahoo Sports still edged it out with an average of 4.7 million visitors a day versus 4.3 million (source: Nieisen Online). And Yahoo didn’t even have video.

surely not unique to users, but still 4.3 million visitors a day? That’s a lot of Silverlight installs.

I don’t disagree that Flash player is still the king of the hill, but is sitting on the hill not defending your position, really the way to move forward?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m under no delusion that M$ didn’t pay a ton of money for their tech to be chosen, no doubt in my mind, but still, was Adobe in the bidding war?Simply outbid, or too proud to participate?

I’m in favor of the high road approach, Tom and I try to take that road more often than not, but at the same time, defending your position is kinda important. What’s there to say when Silverlight installs equal Flash player installs?

Tags: Adobe

Adobe!!! Stop making Acrobat useless with out Photoshop installed!

I already mentioned this type of lameness once! Thankfully this time it struck while I was at home with my CS3 disks.

I installed Photoshop before, so that I could launch Acrobat. I uninstalled Photoshop because on the MacBook Air, I don’t want to waste the space, and I don’t do any graphics stuff on this machine. All was well.

Until a day or so ago that is. Adobe Updater, my bestest friend ran. apparently something got flipped back to “false” or something, because now, I get my favorite dialog box again!

The only CS3 apps I have on the MBA, are Bridge (Don’t use it) and Device Central (Don’t use it). I tried Bridge, it ran, then I tried Acrobat, same error message. I tried Device Central and shocker, got the same error as Acrobat.

Why I need to have launched Photoshop first or (I assume) Fireworks, or Illustrator, just to manipulate PDFs is beyond me. Just turn off whatever functionality those impart, OFF. Tell me if I want those functions, I need to load Photoshop first. Why make the whole app close down? How does that make sense? It certainly makes for a crappy User Experience, since now I have to break out my 9 DVD collection, install photoshop, load it, close it, make sure Acrobat is pleased, then uninstall. WHACK!!!!

Tags: Acrobat, Adobe

Acrobat pro, I hate you and I think we’re breaking up

I never need Acrobat pro. I use preview on the Mac for my basic PDF reading, it’s lighter, so it’s a no-brainer.

HOWEVER

today I had to review 20 PDFs, and make notes on them and even put some text in them so that I could send them off for review.

After suffering through so many stupid Adobe Updater times, when it brings my machine to a screaching high temp halt, Acrobat pro is broke.

WHAT?

I click a PDF to open in Acrobat and get this…

I’ve done nothing to or in acrobat, ever.

It’s been updated plenty since I installed CS3, about every three weeks it seems, i have to go make a sandwhich while the stupid updater runs.

And after all that suffering, after giving up productive cycles…. I get this…

Weak sauce!!!!

Of course I get it while I’m in San Francisco for the week, so I don’t have my install DVDs..

Tags: Acrobat, Adobe