When a Graphic Designer thinks of Vector Graphics software, Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand would probably come to mind. These two products are among the most commonly used, widely referenced, vastly documented in texts and freely accessible Educational materials such as on-line Tutorials, Tips, Tricks, and even User Community Forums. And although Macromedia Freehand and Adobe Illustrator are such popular vector graphics design applications, and they do share many similarities, to lose one or the other would certainly devestate a large population of the graphic design community– no matter which one were to go. This brings me to my issue at hand– since Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia, now what once were two products which essentially competed against each other, are now owned by the same production suite software giant, Adobe, likely most popular for the PDF document format reader, Acrobat, or the industry standard in Digital Image Editing, Photoshop.
Having just searched Google for a simple Freehand Tutorial on Creating Extruded Text, i was again reminded of the Adobe Acquisition when i followed the URL to the old Macromedia learning center where so many quality, free tutorials reside, and instead of the familiar Macromedia logo as appeared for so many years, the Adobe “A” now towers over the viewport leaving no secrets about any corporate mergers. Since the Adobe logo has only recently appeard there, propagated throughout the Macromedia pages, i decided to click on the Products button of the now slightly different header-navigation menu. I was amused to see the mixture of Adobe and former Macromedia product names listed side by side; viewed expectantly as if to watch the boys and girls standing in line-up on the playground were perhaps a bit unnerved to be forced so close to each other as to be assembled together in a single, liner formation. As i looked closer, i noticed that one of the popular kids were missing from the lineup– Macromedia Freehand was not there!
I captured an image of this listing, not only to have a historical documentation of Adobe’s first incarnation of a new product list, but to aid in support of this very text. I recommend that any users of these products take a look at the lineup and see if any of your favorites are missing, Macromedia or Adobe– doubtful, but maybe there’s still time to petition that they remain in production!

I also found it remakable to consider what Adobe has chosen to include in the Products dropdown main-menu, and what is listed in this complete alphabetical product list. Will this list change over the next few weeks as Adobe gets feedback from its loyal customers, and will Macromedia customers petition for the continuance of their favorite products? Only time will tell. :)