Creative Suite 3 Bundle Bungle
Mar 28th, 07 |Adobe announced yesterday its release of Creative Suite 3, and despite my initial excitement about the Photoshop CS3 beta testing I did, I’m disappointed. While the feature-set and interoperability of this release are obvious enhancements, the way Adobe decided to bundle the software together seems to me like they’re trying to force you into paying more, for more than what you need.
To start with, you’re presented with a selection of six editions:
- Design Standard or Premium
- Web Standard or Premium
- Production Premium
- Master Collection
Aside from the last two (since I’m not into producing music or movies, and I don’t have a fortune to spend for the whole enchilada on the Master version), Adobe has made disappointing choices in the bundling of CS3.
First of all, on the Web Standard bundle, you get Dreamweaver but not Photoshop. Instead, they throw in Fireworks. Grr. You do however, get Contribute. Um, who cares about Contribute when there’s Wordpress? ;) Next we have the Web Premium bundle. Now we see Photoshop, but it’s the extended version. Ok, so why not offer the standard version of Photoshop in the Web Standard bundle. Hellooo? They really need to quite pushing Fireworks and just let it go.
Moving on to the Design Standard edition, we see only slightly more logic. Photoshop (basic) is there, and Illustrator makes an appearance too but Dreamweaver is missing. You only get it with the Premium bundle.
So, if you prefer Dreamweaver/Photoshop as your creative combo tool-set, regardless of whether you need the extra software or not, then you’re roped into paying for a Premium bundle (or should I say bungle?).
