Adobe Flash technology is now coupled with CS5.5, or Creative Suite 5.5. This is comparable to Photoshop Suite including the original application, Adobe Illustrator. While it may come as a surprise to younger users, Adobe products were designed initially for the Apple computers, as they had a reputation for being the best for graphics. Originally, Illustrator was designed to touch up photographs by manipulating pixels in bitmap images. There have been many releases of photo editing software by Adobe, as such as Adobe Creative Suite Web Premium and Adobe Creative Suite Production Studio Premium. Since the early 1990s, comparable software has been created by Corel and Microsoft.
Adobe did not stand still, however, and we see that the latest CS5.5 bundles and enhances the Adobe Photoshop capabilities. The principle development relevant to us today was the merging or incorporation of Adobe Photoshop in the Creative Suite, version 5, of CS5.0. Yet, as with Adobe Photoshop Album and similar image creation and editing applications, we see a merging into the CS5.5.
So what where does CS5.5 stand. Although the mainstream reference is to “Flash”, it appears that Adobe is talking more and more of CS5.5, as the successor. Right from the “horse’s moth” we have Adobe on its website, http://www.betanews.com/article/Adobe-launches-CS55-the-first-subscriptionbased-Creative-Suite/1304432419 , saying, “CS5.5 introduces new versions of InDesign, Dreamweaver, Audition, Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst, Flex Builder and Device Central.” It would appear that this is comparable to Microsoft Office with its subsets of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs. On can talk about each unit, but to preserve an appropriate context, one perhaps should be discussing the whole suite in order to fully appreciate the development capabilities of each module.
CS5.5 seems to be something for everybody, including the latest HTML 5 development, mobile applications (such as BlackBerry Tablet OS), and a sound creation and the sound creation and editing part called “Audition”. Dreamweaver, of course, has been modified over the years, but it stands in technical writer’s toolbox as a necessary web development tool. If you don’t have Dreamweaver experience, forget about applying for many tech writing jobs.
It is interesting to not how recent the CSS5.5 development have been, with the 3 May 2011 one introducing two essential features: a two year release cycle and subscription-based licensing. Adobe says that the 3 May release is not “milestone” in character, at least referring to the content of the suite, but it wants to let the public know that there is built in a mandated update in accordance with recent technological developments. In essence, it is keeping up with the technology.
The second is a bit more controversial. While ostensibly designed for what Adobe says is for “those with smaller budgets or those who may only need it on a temporary or per-project basis”, the controversy enters in the word “renting” (http://prodesigntools.com/how-adobe-cs5-5-subscriptions-work.html ). This is similar with what Microsoft has been trying. You download a “core”, but, in order to maintain usability, you have to pay what Adobe claims is a 5-7% of the regular cost of the whole package every month. Adobe admits that if you stop paying, the software is not usable. So, if you are in the middle of a heavy duty project and simply can’t pony up the cash that month, you are stuck. Subscriptions can be month-to-month or on a yearly basis.
Another downside to the new release is that earlier versions cannot be used to get an upgrade version of VCS5.5. The “up” side to all this is that Adobe will give a buyer the “out” of getting a “full purchase license”, but there no way of doing what they call a “rent to own” option. To give a sense of pricing, Adobe’s Master Collection is $2599 as of 10 May 2011.
