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Re: Rumour: FM really is dead



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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