On Monday the 26th March, Adobe announced they are dropping the very popular Muse software that us designers use to build websites. Along with that they are ditching Business Catalyst – the website hosting side of the business.
Maybe this seems a bit melodramatic and an insignificant issue to many people, but for the hundreds of thousands of us who have invested time and money in learning, using and buying add-ons for Muse, we are devastated.
The first thing I did was contact my clients who I’ve built websites for using Muse. The doom and gloom of all of this shutting down for good is a couple of years off, but without the support of Adobe and further development of the product, there is little point considering that Muse can be a viable option for much longer.
I was left in quite a quandary – it’s a case of all those sites having to be re-built on another platform, but as a designer and not a coder, there really is no other platform that does what Muse allows me to do. There’s not another piece of software out there that I can simply switch over too. Yes there are options, but none that ticked all the boxes that us designers loved about Muse.
I will endeavour to offer my clients a solution to this problem, once I’ve done the research and found a platform that suits me as a designer and doesn’t require having to learn code – too old for that and really not an option for me. (If one more person suggests this to me I may be heard screaming, rather loudly and using lots of rude words!) This may in due course, mean that I lose some business. I can’t expect all those clients who I built websites for to pay up for me to build another site for them but I’m hoping they will. I will then work out a way to do this at a discount for them, it’s not their choice to have to have a new site. This was thrust upon us by Adobe – thanks for that!
Trying to stay positive about my own situation, I’m in a fortunate position in that I don’t have a huge portfolio of websites, it’s not the main area of my business. Some people bought into Muse as a way of starting a whole new business. This news will have totally ruined them and their business. Adobe lead us to believe this software was to become a main feature of their Creative Suite. What Adobe have done, without warning, without reason and without a viable alternative, is highly unethical and downright arrogant.
I’ve decided that a company that no longer has their customers as their core reason for existing, but instead favours their share-holders, doesn’t deserve my business. I’m out!
The next few months are going to be on a huge learning curve as I attempt to move all my Adobe software to other companies. I’ve already re-bought Quark to replace InDesign and am trialling Affinity Photo and Designer to replace Photoshop and Illustrator. Finding alternatives to Bridge and Acrobat might prove to be tricky and I will miss all these familiar software applications, but on principal, and sheer determination, I’m not going to support a business that no longer supports me. My monthly subscription for Adobe just keeps going up and up and I’m getting less and less for it.
Bye Bye Adobe – I’m not even going to wish you good luck. It’s not luck you need, it’s a conscience. Find your human side – in the end, money doesn’t make you happy.
Recent Comments