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Adobe, what an outfit

In 1997, Adobe Acrobat was turned into bloatware
that crashed or slowed down your computer.		 pdf version
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In 1997 I went to Fry's to buy Adobe Acrobat writer. I was astonished that Fry's did not have any on hand.

This was before we all realized that Adobe was incompetent, arrogant, and evil. I guess it was around Acrobat release 5.0 when it became bloatware, 6.0 when it started crashing your computer and 7.0 when it became 		spyware that had to update itself every single week. And all that bloat just to make a program that simply displayed a printer file on a screen.

My disillusionment with Adobe was only beginning, as I wrote them this letter:
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Dear Folks:
As an engineer, I am downloading PDF files all the time. I have seen other consultants use PDF writer to reduce file size and publish/distribute things on the web. So I'm sold.

So I go to Fry's Sunnyvale store. And I ask the young girl for Adobe PDF writer. She shows me Pagemill. I see "No HTML" and I have to confess I have no idea what this product is. I know it's not a pdf file generator.

So she sends me to see the supervisor. Nice guy. Without looking anything up he says:  "Oh yeah, Adobe- they're between releases and can't tell us when it will get here. The last time they did this it took 4 weeks to get product."

Now I know that selling vapor is a time honored tradition, but I thought Adobe already had it's IPO so it's not like you gotta run the stock up so the founders can get extra-rich instead of just plain-ordinary rich.

So I'm kinda wondering. Are you clowns in business or what? 'Cause ya know, alotta times a business has like ya' know products for sale ya' know? If you decide to actually sell a product on a timely basis, please let me know.

[Update 2018: In 2005 I installed a legal copy of PhotoShop 4 on my computer at work. The IT guys took it down. Adobe's contract with them only allowed company-purchased Adobe products on work computers. I realized I was giving Adobe more money as a consultant that even Microsoft. Then the Acrobat writer started nagging to update every single week. I vowed to take Adobe out of my life. I now use FoxIt for pdf, Vegas instead of Premiere, LibreOffice instead of Framemaker, and GIMP plus IrfanView instead of Photoshop. I could not be happier. I did try Dreamweaver last year-- what bloatware crap.]
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