New Adobe Pricing and Software Bundles
No, I do not have an inside scoop on prices, rather I am trying to build up a drum beat for a few new software bundles from Adobe targeted to us programmer types. As a programmer I never touch any of Adobe's design software. I would not know what to do with it. And as a programmer I'd like to have the same type bundled software deals that designers have with the various Creative Suite versions.
Last night one hundred plus ColdFusion and Flex programmers showed up in St. Paul, MN to listen to Ben Forta talk about ColdFusion 9 (Centaur) and ColdFusion Bolt (Builder) and Flash (formerly Flex) Builder 4. At one point someone asked about pricing. After much laughing Ben said he can't talk about such things. That's fine, but to me this means the community of programmers still has a chance to offer input on the subject. So here's mine.
My Suggestion:
Adobe has put a lot of effort into creating various software "Suites" for designers. Each offers a different set of applications based of various types of designers. Now with Adobe offering multiple IDE's for programming, I think it would be a good idea to offer bundled "Suites" for us programmers.
Personally I'd like to see a Builder series. It would have Flash (formerly Flex) Builder and ColdFusion Builder bundled together. A few variations can be offered based on the CS4 theme I see in the Adobe lineup; Builder, Professional Builder and Master Builder that also includes ColdFusion Server Standard Edition. In addition the Pro and Master version (at least) should have Adobe Device Central so we can test our apps on mobile devices. My goal is that I could buy a Builder suite and have everything I need to code and test CFML, Flex, Action Script and AIR applications. And if I bought Master Builder then I could even deploy my applications on my own server.
So the Builder Series lineup might look this:
| Builder | Professional Builder | Master Builder |
| ColdFusion Builder | ColdFusion Builder (pro?) | ColdFusion Builder(pro?) |
| Flash Builder Standard | Flash Builder Professional | Flash Builder Professional |
| Adobe Device Central | Adobe Device Central | Adobe Device Central |
| ColdFusion Server Standard Edition |
I sent my suggestion to Adobe via email, but I figured I should start a community wild fire so we can show our support for this. (Unless I'm way off base here and no one wants this.) So please if your in support of such an idea let me know and more importantly let Adobe know.
Thank You,
Wil Genovese
Sr. Web Application Developer
on 6/14/09 8:03 AM
I have a master collection license, and it always bothered me that Flex Builder isn't included. I could even see paying a tad more for the suite...
on 6/26/09 10:15 PM
@jon I hear ya. This is why I emailed Adam Lehman about this. That and the fact that I won the $2100 raffle for Adobe software at the local CFUG (http://www.colderfusion.com) this month. After digging in deep to the various CS4 suites I found NOTHING I could use. Nothing but designer tools. As my page footer notes, I am not a designer!
So, instead of getting something for me I made my wife happy with CS4 Production Premium. Shes a photographer and at times gets into video editing.
These days with all of us programmers that Adobe acquired with the acquisition of ColdFusion I really hope Adobe does do a Builder series.
Cheers