Sigh, the end of an era is at hand. Adobe has released the Windows version of GoLive, the premiere WYSIWYG web development environment that has, up until now, been a Mac only application. Adobe bought the application when they acquired the original developers, GoLive. According to Adobe:
Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced the immediate availability of Adobe(R) GoLive(TM) 4.0 for Windows(R), the first version of the award-winning professional Web design and publishing tool for the Windows platform. Until now, only Macintosh users were able to take advantage of the innovative GoLive visual Web authoring environment that combines ease of use with precision and control-providing professional designers with the flexibility and power they need to design, produce and maintain unique world-class Web sites.
"Shipping GoLive for Windows represents an important step in Adobe's charter to become the leading provider of Web design tools for the desktop," said Hank Skorny, senior director of Adobe Internet Products. "GoLive has quickly become a major force in Adobe's professional Web publishing arsenal. By bringing this key product cross-platform, we are satisfying a crucial need for customers who want to extend the benefits of the powerful visual Web design capabilities of GoLive software throughout their organizations."
"GoLive clearly provides the most attractive interface along with a powerful set of features of crucial importance to professional Web site developers," says Bill Doerrfeld, president and CEO of Blue World Communications, a leading vendor of database to Web connectivity software. "GoLive for Windows now brings one of the hottest Web site authoring tools to the huge installed base of Windows customers, further strengthening Adobe GoLive as a leading Web site authoring program for Web professionals."
"The drag-and-drop metaphor of Adobe GoLive for Windows lets me focus on design, because I can automate tasks such as inserting JavaScript actions with a few mouse clicks," says Keith Ahlstrom, Le Blanc Noir Studios, a multimedia and Web design firm located in San Diego, Calif. "GoLive gives me the precision and control I need, while greatly simplifying redundant tasks-all in an easy to use package."
The Mac Observer Spin: This is actually a remarkable feat for Adobe and the GoLive team to have produced a Windows version of GoLive in such a short time. GoLive was acquired in January, and although it is likely that some work had been done on the Windows port, a less than 4 month port on an application as complex and ties to the Finder as GoLive is simply incredible.
Though it is sad to see this bastion of Mac elitism go to the Dark Side (the GoLive company used to say "We don't do Windows."), it is actually a very good thing for the long term health of the Mac market.
It is easier for companies doing web work, both design houses and companies doing their own web sites, to be multi-platform. Designers will be able to keep their Macs and in many cases, Mac designers might be able to bring a Mac into a Windows company because the tools are all cross-platform, thanks to Adobe.
Let's take that one step further. Adobe now has an entire line of products that are cross platform that can handle almost every aspect of designing a web site. Once InDesign comes out, Adobe will have near Microsoft-like power in the graphics, publishing, and web design.
Now, the real question is whether they were able to achieve full feature parity in the Windows version. That was the stated goal of the company when working on the port, but the press release says nothing of it. Not that this is necessarily telling. We are awaiting word back from an Adobe public relations person for the final verdict.
<Poke At Windows Users> The quote included in the last paragraph that goes:
"The drag-and-drop metaphor of Adobe GoLive for Windows lets me focus on design, because I can automate tasks such as inserting JavaScript actions with a few mouse clicks," says Keith Ahlstrom, Le Blanc Noir Studios, a multimedia and Web design firm located in San Diego, Calif.
Hello? Welcome to the world of using a Mac app. It is very telling that a Windows user would think that a drag-and drop oriented application is so spiffy. Something that most Mac users take completely for granted, especially in the design world, is new and marvelous, even a real time saver for this guy.
Mind you , we are sure that he and his company are very talented and very successful, or they would not have been quoted. We are not finding fault with him, we are finding fault with a world where Windows is the dominant GUI on the planet. </Poke At Windows Users>
Adobe
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