When I got up Monday morning , turn on my computer , and experience the headline in my inbox “ Adobe buys Macromedia , ” I just think , “ Is n’t April Fools behind us ? ” But a flying balk of theNew York Times , Adobe and Macromedia Web sites confirmed the $ 3.4 billion deal . If all goes concord to plan , come this autumn , Macromedia will be no more and Adobe will own not only its own horse barn of graphic design practical app , but also a barrel full of complementary and competitive programs . Adobe Flash , anyone ?

What this skill means for the time to come of the two companies is , of course , up in the air . Theofficial linefrom Adobe is suitably undefined and fill with the common corporate , feeling - goodness , mind tranquilizing verbiage : “ greater synergy , ” “ better workflow , ” “ broader root , ” and , as Yul Brynner as the King of Siam would say , “ etcetera , etcetera , etcetera . ”

From a strategic , corporate , stat mi - high perspective , the acquisition is n’t about capturing the competition or crush compete political program ; it ’s a move by Adobe to gain earth in the growing market of cyberspace applications and the delivery of information over the entanglement . Adobe is a formidable front in the vivid artistry world — there ’s probably not a undivided pattern section in a Fortune 500 company that does n’t use it ’s products . And the defacto criterion for electronic documents , Portable Document Format , is as ubiquitous as 1040 forms ( which , of grade , you may download in PDF data formatting from the IRS ) .

But aside from Adobe ’s video products , most of their engineering are stuck in “ former media ” and the electrostatic world of mark . They ’ve captured that market ; it ’s time to move on .

Macromedia , on the other deal , has put most of their resource into dynamic media : vane design applications ( Dreamweaver / Fireworks ) , online Web conferencing and presentations ( Breeze ) , server - establish Web solutions ( Cold Fusion , JRun , Flex ) , and , the precious stone of the pate , Flash .

Without Flash , Adobe plausibly would n’t be concerned in purchasing Macromedia . But a engineering that get down out as nothing more than an spiritedness programme has morphed into a powerful real - time information delivery creature that can get at data across the WWW , read from and update databases , act as the front end for complex Web applications , and even execute as a screen background program liberal from the constraints of a Web web browser app . Most of Macromedia ’s maturation and marketing energy over the past few twelvemonth has been directed toward promoting Flash ( in suited industry jargon ) as a “ Rich Internet program program , ” spawning related ( and less well - sleep together ) applied science likeFlex — an uber - geek computer programing surroundings for Flash — andCentral — a Flash - base screen background tool that has similarity to OS X 10.4’sDashboard .

If Adobe is the favorite of art departments , Macromedia is the up - and - coming wiz of the IT bent . This is the kind of “ synergy ” Adobe is advert to — left and right incline of the brain taking over the cosmos ( or at least trying to adjudge its own against Microsoft . )

But , this high - layer corporate strategy stuff is n’t much consolation to us user of Photoshop , Fireworks , Director , and the other applications of the Adobe / Macromedia pantheon — the ragtag and bobtail who practice these programs Clarence Day to Clarence Day to get our study done . Newsgroups are buzzing with predictions about the two companies and their merchandise . exploiter on both side of the fence are rightfully concerned , and question what will become of the products they most cherish — peculiarly products like Freehand and Illustrator , or Dreamweaver and GoLive , which compete head to head . It seems improbable that Adobe would keep two illustration and two web design political program alive for farseeing .

Adobe may set about to integrate features from competing course of study and I ’ve already seen some nominate new names — GoDream , PhotoWorks , or , my favourite name for a intercrossed World Wide Web / print design super - program : Sortaworks . or else , Adobe may just scrap programme that vie with theirs — bye - bye , Freehand .

Despite all of the hand wringing , day of reckoning - expression and prognostication , it ’s obviously too former to forecast the future . Anyone who state you what the time to come holds for these two companies and their mathematical product does n’t really know what he ’s talking about . So , with that said , here ’s what the time to come hold for these two companies and their products :

• All of Macromedia ’s outlive products will have a facelift . Adobe ’s polished user interface will become the standard , and Flash will finally be freed from itslegal restraints .

• Freehand is quit . Illustrator is already top - wienerwurst , and integrating the code from two dissimilar program is just too much work .

• Dreamweaver reigns supreme , GoLive is no more . Dreamweaver has dominant market portion and ( justly or wrongly ) is insure as the more “ professional ” of the two curriculum . However , seamlessly integrating Dreamweaver into the Adobe Creative Suite will be tricky .

• Fireworks will slowly disappear . Photoshop is Adobe ’s star , and the transmitter - orientation of Fireworks just does n’t engage with Photoshop ’s workflow .

• Acrobat Reader will incorporate the Flash participant and vice - versa .

• Director ? Who knows ?

• InDesign will be sold to Quark . No , just josh about that one .

A lot of paperwork and effectual stuff and nonsense needs to happen before Adobe takes over , so the concluding merged corporation wo n’t be around until this fall . For the time being it ’s business as usual — the two companies will remain separate entities , and the product lines will continue as is . Creative Suite 2 will be market with full vehemence , I ’m sure , and according to Adobe , the waiver of a new version of Macromedia ’s Studio MX scheduled for later on this class will be unaffected .

[ David Sawyer McFarlandis the writer of Dreamweaver MX 2004 : The Missing Manual(O’Reilly , 2004 ) . ]