If I had to sum up CS3 in one word it would be "Tired." Very, very tired. And I'd trace it with the tip of my finger into the thick filth layering their tired windows if it were possible. If it weren't for the Intel upgrade I'd sit out Adobe CS upgrades for a decade or more. And during those 10 years I'd be crossing my fingers that alternatives developed by a company with vision would become available. Photoshop is the industry standard simply because no one seems to have the unique combination of gusto, innovation and understanding of the problem domain. Like Microsoft, Adobe seems to be satisfied operating 3-5 years behind the curve. Of course their complacency would be short lived if customers would actually demand the high level of quality reflected by the prices but not by the product.

I'm not sure when it happened but at some point Adobe's mission evolved to encompass product overextension (my god how many bloated apps can you break your base apps into!?), feature creep ,and a narcissism that demands that all of their solutions be large and in your face, that their means should supplant the users goal as the end.

I can't stand using Dreamweaver any more, it feels so bulky, cluttered, slow and above all ugly. Even with Intel Macs, loaded to the hilt, workflow consistently reveals that apps like Maya, Motion, Logic Pro, modo, Poser, C4D, etc., absolutely trump all the CS3 applications in overall performance. It has become customary around here to start Illustrator or InDesign right before going to lunch or going home in the hopes that they'll be finished booting upon returning. I wish I was joking, but I'm not. In five minutes Dreamweaver will toss more beachballs around the screen than Daytona Beach would see during all of Spring Break. All Adobe products (and unfortunately now Macromedia to) have come to feel like Windows apps. I suppose that can be attributed to the bottom-line undertow that has made Adobe the dancing monkey to the market shares meow, which happens to be the Ford Tempo drivers of the PC World: the WIndows base. In other words, as focus determines reality, it's not hard to see why CS3 feels like Win95.

What's fun is that independent Mac developers are continuously pumping out very powerful, sleek and attractive developer tools that outclass the likes of DW almost across the board! While Adobe has crucified themselves to the cross of convention, the little guys are thinking outside the box and streamlining digitial workflows in new ways that make much more sense now that the need for 100% metaphor has past.

Adobe, once possibly a shining star, has begun to expose it's event horizon, a telltale sign of the current quality collapse which is greatly underway. While the droves of expectation impoverished will fiscally keep Adobe alive, product quality has much more than one foot in the grave.