Posted on Dec 10, 2008

Ok. So I updated to CS4. I really didn't want to - well kind of. With Vista non compatible with Flash 8 and Sony Vegas 6, productivity was going down. Was still using AfterEffects 4 from 1999 so I guess it was time to update that too. Don't like using Premiere, but it came in the package. Sony Vegas is better. Against my wish, having worked a year on Dreamweaver, I've joined the dark side and must use it at the studio too, not just with clients. Darn! I don't mind not using Architect and Sound Forge for Adobe's stand in products, although I know Encore 2 was quite buggy and unstable. So this upgrade made sense on several levels. Never have been one to upgrade quickly and I was quite happy with Flash 8. The Master collection was the best deal for me, considering all that's included in the package. The real problem is installing all of that one one computer. Wonder if it's possible to install the programs on two computer at once. I'd split the video stuff on the older system and keep Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Indesign on the most recent computer. Who knows with Adobe. Gotta say that I'm not enjoying the "improvements" to Photoshop's interface. Haven't had a chance to play with the other programs too much. Flash look ok. Ditto Dreamweaver. I hate the tab interface for Photoshop. Makes no sense and it's counter productive. I need several images opened at once for dragging and dropping layers and selection ans what not. I also hate the little feather effect under documents. I cropped a few images and wasn't sure at first if I had cropped correctly. Fortunately, after looking around in the preferences, I disabled all that Adobe "improvement" crap and stuck with the simple and tested interface. Well, they've kind of changed all of them. No more Window Blue bar on top. Kind of annoying. I'm not using a Mac, I don't want my stuff to look like Leopard. The open GL on Photoshop is bad and leaves lines across the interface at any moments. Adobe suggest that people update their drivers. I'm saying why break something that wasn't broken? Why force users to upgrade graphic cards and drivers if it wasn't an issue before? Bad thinking on Adobe's part. I don't like Adobe.