Re: Rumour: FM really is dead

[Chuck Hastings <cwh2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Framers,

MSWord driving out FrameMaker is simply one more
corollary to Gresham's Law, like

    Bad software drives out good.


How would Adobe feel about the Linux open-software
folks creating a free lookalike, to be ready whenever
FrameMaker support officially gets deep-sixed, to be
called maybe

    `FlameMaker?'


Chuck Hastings      cwh2@earthlink.net

Vintage Silicon Logic         San José and Seattle


=========================================


Fred Ma wrote:

> The baffling thing is that Adobe doesn't consider FM
> worthwhile.  How can that be?  We live in a capitalist
> environment.  There is no product (that I know of, not
> that I'm any final authority) that even begins to
> rival FM for technical composition.  (I distinguish
> composition from document preparation; for the latter,
> the assumption is that the content and approximate
> format has been predetermined).  How can an application
> for which there are no substitutes (not even remotely)
> be not worthwhile?  Surely, the market for the application
> is not small.  Alas, I feel the conversation drifting
> in the same direction that it has drifted before.  It is
> because Word has become so cheap that the bean counters
> (no respect intended, it is a critical role) have forced
> the propeller heads to use Word.  Maybe, despite its
> awesome functionality, elegance, and stability, the
> cost of FM is more than the market can bear.  This doesn't
> necessarily mean that Adobe is pocketing too much (it
> obviously feels that it can't get enough for FM without
> giving up market share).  It may simply be that continual
> development of such a (much better) tool requires too
> much resources.
>
> The argument put forth in the past was that FM's greater
> expense more than pays for itself before too long.  That
> may (or may not) be true.  It doesn't matter, so long as
> the bean counters don't see that.  The market has spoken,
> and rightly or wrongly, it will lumber down the path it
> has chosen (to the sadness of FM users everywhere).
>
> Former responses to this topic include the testimony that
> FM training courses are alive and well.  If so, that is a
> welcome relief, since it makes it less likely that FM will
> truly be dropped.  Whether that testimony is still accurate
> today, only the instructors can say.  And who knows how
> much of any effect that has on the decision of dropping FM.
> Who can say what goes on in the minds of the visionaries at
> Adobe.
>
> Fred
>
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