Hmmmm.....

Posted to an e-mail list I read semi-regularly:
"I just finished ranting elsewhere about my website software. Adobe has dropped yet ANOTHER near-perfect programme that had a huge learning curve (worth it) and replaced it with Dreamweaver, which they bought from Macromedia. SO NOW, if I am going to continue making websites, I have to buy and learn a whole new HIGH-LEARNING-CURVE software PLUS buy the whole "suite" since the NEW one won't interface with the previous "Photoshop" etc. Fortunately, I get the educational price, but I could still think of a LOT of wonderful things I could have done with that wad of money I just dropped on this [expletive deleted]."

Ok. Let's think about this a wee bit. Did you *have* to change from Adobe's old program to the new Dreamweaver suite because otherwise your webpages would stop working? No. Did you have to buy the suite instead of Dreamweaver on its own? No. Will your websites quit working because you used "old" software to create them? No.

Let me explain why. HTML is HTML. If it's written to the current specification (HTML 4.01), it will run on most web browsers (including Mozilla's Firefox, Opera, Safari and the evil IE). HTML doesn't care if it's written in OpenWysiwyg, Dreamweaver, MS Frontpage (ick), or any other WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML editor or if it's coded by hand. I happen to own a copy of Dreamweaver 4. That puts me about 5 versions behind what's "current". It's on my list of things to learn. I don't use it. I hand code the websites I develop and edit. I have a core framework which is the basis of all the pages (as do most developers) and I dress it up differently for clients as requested. There is no need to continuously re-invent the wheel. And, yes, I do use CSS and PHP as well. Server-side includes make all sorts of fun things simple.

As far as editing/posting images goes, a .jpg is a .jpg and a .gif is a .gif. The web editors don't care what software you used to edit the photos with. Neither does your website. Just tell it where to find the image. You can do that in a WYSIWYG or by hand. If you need to edit photos, you can do that with a number of different products. I happen to like IrfanView. For starters it's open source and essentially free (they ask for a 10 Euro donation if you like the software). It also does everything I need it to do, including converting file types as necessary. I have yet to find any image editing need that IrfanView can't meet. That's not to say that I don't own a copy of Photoshop. I just don't use it. I like IrfanView.

So, to sum up. No you didn't *have* to drop your previous "near perfect" software to learn the new difficult Dreamweaver OR have to buy the entire Dreamweaver Suite. You chose to do that. Other alternatives do, in fact, exist. So quit yer ranting and get over it. The software company didn't make you do anything.

And please excuse me if I don't hold my breath waiting for my websites to fail since I didn't use the new software.