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Founder of Adobe Dies at Age 81 (gizmodo.com) 98

Posted by EditorDavid from the adding-a-PostScript dept.
Long-time Slashdot reader sandbagger brings the news that Charles 'Chuck' Geschke, the co-founder of Adobe, had died at the age of 81.

The company started in co-founder John Warnock's garage in 1982, and was named after the Adobe Creek which ran behind Warnock's home, offering pioneering capabilities in "What you see is what you get" (or WYSIWYG) desktop publishing.

Gizmodo reports: "This is a huge loss for the entire Adobe community and the technology industry, for whom he has been a guide and hero for decades," Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen wrote in an email to staff.

"As co-founders of Adobe, Chuck and John Warnock developed groundbreaking software that has revolutionized how people create and communicate, " he continued. "Chuck instilled a relentless drive for innovation in the company, resulting in some of the most transformative software inventions, including the ubiquitous PDF, Acrobat, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and Photoshop."

After earning a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, Geschke met Warnock while working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, according to the Mercury News. The two left the company in 1982 and founded Adobe to develop software. Their first product was Adobe PostScript, which Narayen lauded as "an innovative technology that provided a radical new way to print text and images on paper and sparked the desktop publishing revolution."
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Founder of Adobe Dies at Age 81 More

Founder of Adobe Dies at Age 81

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  • I guess that must've vanished about the time this guy retired, then - because I've never noticed it.

    • Re:"Relentless drive for innovation" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by imidan ( 559239 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @04:04PM (#61287520)
      They've developed innovative new ways of charging people for the rest of time for buying a piece of software.

      • They've developed innovative new ways of charging people for the rest of time for buying a piece of software.

        Yes, they have and people are not happy about it [newsweek.com]. Especially when they signed up for a trial and were magically charged, or when they thought they signed up for a monthly plan but were instead charged for a yearly plan.

    • Oh I'm sure everyone fondly remembers Flash.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luthair ( 847766 )
        They bought it, and lets be real Flash was a pretty significant for pushing stuff to the web for a long time. Without it we wouldn't have video sites or many time wasting games.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AvitarX ( 172628 )

      I don't know about innovative, but they are by far the best software for desktop publishing.

      There really isn't any software that can replace photoshop or illustrator.

      InDesign has some competition (maybe).

      I look at alternatives every now and again and improvement on them has slowed down and they aren't only not as good, they're not even passable.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by jwhyche ( 6192 )

        Not to mention the grand daddy of publishing software, Framemaker. You want to write a book you go to Word. You want to write a library you use Framemaker.

        • As is the case with many important Adobe products... Adobe didn't create Framemaker - they purchased the company which created Framemaker.

          And there generally isn't any competition because whenever a competitor reared its head, Adobe bought them out.

  • Adobe, Thanks for bringing serfdom to us all! (Score:3)

    by ikhider ( 2837593 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @04:10PM (#61287544)
    Adobe, the industry standard to multimedia production where you are compelled to 'subscribe' to their products if you wish to be in the industry. If you go to school to learn multimedia, you are compelled to use Adobe products. If you are unable to pay the monthly Adobe rent, your material will be locked and you cannot modify/submit your work until rent is paid. Your license is limited to the next rental installment. If you are moneyed, the adobe rental fee is a non-issue. If you have a precarious income, like most do, you are SOL. If you are fortunate enough to use other tools where you can get a permanent license, some producers work with the same software for several years. Even better, if you use (Free Libre Opensource Software) FLOSS tools you are less a serf. So let us thank Adobe and the schools for forcing serfdom on us all!

    • Re:Adobe, Thanks for bringing serfdom to us all! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @04:16PM (#61287564) Journal

      Commercial art and design software is difficult to build. OSS Gimp, for example, limits the color depth to 256 levels, and Blender has one of the worse UI's I've ever seen. Maybe someday they will catch up, but it's not an easy road. Good tools are rarely cheap. And Adobe's suite is mostly cross-compatible with each app. That's also worth a premium.

      • Re:Adobe, Thanks for bringing serfdom to us all! (Score:5, Informative)

        by BitterOak ( 537666 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @04:32PM (#61287608)
        I don't think it was the high cost that the poster was complaining about, but rather that the software is now available only in a subscription model, without even the option to buy the software outright. This means you could be paying for the rest of your life in order to retain simple ability to edit/revise projects you've already worked on. It used to be possible to buy the Creative Suite or any of its components, albeit not cheaply. This is no longer the case.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          They can do that because there's insufficient competition, and there's insufficient competition largely because it's an expensive business to compete in. Corel seems to be the only one trying.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by exomondo ( 1725132 )

          This means you could be paying for the rest of your life in order to retain simple ability to edit/revise projects you've already worked on.

          Why are you constantly editing and revising projects you've already worked on? There's no reason you need to maintain a subscription just for the chance that one day you might have to edit an old project. Every so often I'll pay for a month or 2 of Photoshop usage for some project but there's no reason to keep paying if I'm not using it.

      • Previously, users had the option for outright purchase. But with the serfdom model, there is no way out. You are stuck in a vicious cycle. So, Adobe worker, I know you are less concerned about users (because of the programs' frequent bugs/crashes and horrid UI) to name a few issues, but front line serfs take issue. By know who is on the side of the Czars,

      • Blender has one of the worse UI's I've ever seen.

        Blender's UI is not Maya or 3DS Max's interface. Unfamiliar != bad.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          Nor is it sane. If there's a rhyme or reason behind it, I'm clueless as to spotting it.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by jwhyche ( 6192 )

          The old blender interface, 2.79, was painful to use. The new Blender interface to 2.8 is very well done. A new learning curve but a real improvement over the older hot mess. Give it a try.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Blender has a bad UI? It must be bad if it's worse than Adobe's. Ok, I really only know about Acrobat, but with ugly large gray icons to do things that I really want to do with a menu item, and panels of mostly useless (to me) tools that take up a huge amount of screen room but which can't be modified, etc.; it makes Microsoft's Ribbons look good, which takes some doing. On my home computer I use the free version of PDF-XChange, which does what I need (the paid version does more) and is easy to use.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by 4im ( 181450 )

        OSS Gimp, for example, limits the color depth to 256 levels

        When did you last check? 2.10 has been out for a while now, and if you cared to try the development 2.9, that particular issue was solved quite a long time ago.

        It's been years that I've been using GIMP 2.9 and 2.10 to process my astro photos, which absolutely requires better than 8-bit-per-channel color depth.

        I prefer free and open source software on principle. I'll consider buying proprietary software if it's really necessary. Paying a rental, especially if it locks the user data into proprietary formats,

      • GIMP supports 8/16/32 bit colour depth setting. "GIMP all internal processing is done at 32-bit floating point precision".

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Interesting choice to use 32 bit floats. Why not 64 bit? They are cheap on all modern hardware and the recommended default for floating point ops now. 32 bit can have some issues in certain cases.

          Legacy perhaps?

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • It's a free market. If there is a sea of people screaming out for an alternative then create a competitor and make yourself a fortune.

        Problem is that sea of people don't actually want to pay for the competitor. There already is a reasonably viable Free Software competitor in GIMP, it needs a few more features to get it to parity but nobody wants to pay developers to do the work.

        There's really not many Adobe users that baulk at the cost of the subscription and those that do certainly aren't contributing much to the GIMP project via the GNOME Foundation.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • It's a free market. If there is a sea of people screaming out for an alternative then create a competitor and make yourself a fortune.

          Problem is that sea of people don't actually want to pay for the competitor. There already is a reasonably viable Free Software competitor in GIMP, it needs a few more features to get it to parity but nobody wants to pay developers to do the work.

          There's really not many Adobe users that baulk at the cost of the subscription and those that do certainly aren't contributing much to the GIMP project via the GNOME Foundation.

          I prefer to pay for a competitor. I use affinity products, final cut pro and acorn. The free stuff comes into its own for format conversion. These meet my needs and entail a single purchase. I cut the adobe ties and removing acrobat from my machine was an unnecessarily difficult process. I don't know what the definition of "in the business" is, but our use is for graphical and video stuff for a business, so it's in the spectrum.

          • I prefer to pay for a competitor. I use affinity products, final cut pro and acorn.

            Which means you're not in that "sea of people screaming out for a competitor" then are you.

            • I prefer to pay for a competitor. I use affinity products, final cut pro and acorn.

              Which means you're not in that "sea of people screaming out for a competitor" then are you.

              Neither is any other individual. No need to scream out either - the serious competitors are out there with good programs.

              • So you’re saying there’s no problem then?

                I’m not overly well-versed with Affinity Photo, I’ve only used the iPad Pro version but I was pretty staggered about how good it is. In my limited experience with it I’d have no trouble believing you if you told me it’s a viable alternative to Photoshop virtually across the board.

                • The problem that exists as far as I can see is the effective vendor lock in that Adobe has over its customers through file formats and abusive subscription schemes.

                  I doubt Affinity products meet the needs of some segment of hardcore doers of graphicy stuff but it certainly can meet the needs of anyone who isn't stuck in an Adobe based codependent file format relationship with customers and suppliers and who needs a photoshop or illustrator replacement.

                  Although it pains me to write it - for technical diagram

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AvitarX ( 172628 )

          GIMP isn't lacking a few features for parity, it's lacking a few for usability.

          There are some people that will need CMYK and Pantone color management which GIMP will never have (licensing). This is a minor ish for a lot of uses, but can be significant for some work flows.

          GIMP doesn't have adjustment layers.

          I'd bey GIMP doesn't really have vector objects.

          I'd also bet that GIMP can't do spot colors.

          These aren't features to bring it to parity, they're the bare minimum to make it usable in a desktop publishing

    • I use Postscript and PDF without subscribing to Adobe products and do so perfectly legally. There are oodles of PDF readers available from other sources, many of them free both as in beer and as in freedom. Similarly, there is plenty of software that can generate PDF directly or convert from other formats to PDF. Ditto for Postscript. You only need to use Adobe products if you need certain special capabilities.

    • If you are fortunate enough to use other tools where you can get a permanent license, some producers work with the same software for several years.

      The good news is that viable alternatives are starting to emerge.

      Affinity Photo is the up-and-coming competitor to Photoshop that serves the purpose for many, and Design and Publisher are quickly catching up to Illustrator and InDesign, respectively.

      Corel Aftershot Pro and ACDSee are solid contenders for the Lightroom crown.

      Premiere Pro is getting heat from DaVinci Resolve; its free edition is quickly becoming a favorite of Youtube content producers.

      Magix is finally doing something useful with the Sonic Fou

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        How about open source apps?

        There is Darkroom as an alternative to Lightroom, don't know if it is any good.

        Blender has video editing but I heard Kdenlive was better.

    • If you are moneyed, the adobe rental fee is a non-issue. If you have a precarious income, like most do, you are SOL. If you are fortunate enough to use other tools where you can get a permanent license, some producers work with the same software for several years.

      Oh give me a break. Producer is demanding you use Adobe products? Then your getting paid by the producer at least $20 an hour. A creative cloud subscription can be had for $40 a month. That's $40/mo for every single tool an animator, video editor or graphic designer needs. If your business model can't afford $40/mo in overhead you have no business running a business.

      You're making this sound like you need to be a Trump Son to afford an Adobe subscription. For students it's $20/mo. Which again is nothing. Yo

  • Fuck off with this shit, every big company that "started in a garage" neglects to mention the one at the head is a trust fund baby, already rich, or has years upon years of experience in the industry.

    • Steve Jobs was a "trust fund baby"?

      • are you that pathetic that you dont appreciate the original statement is mostly true. 90% is good enuff to prove his point.

        • None of the three apply, and your degree in statistics sucks.

          • > None of the three apply, and your degree in statistics sucks.
            None of the three apply what ? How about writing complete sentences and while your at it, write why you are correct reasons, proofs etc.

            • Why don't you read his biography for yourself? You'll make less mistakes that way.

              • > Why don't you read his biography for yourself?
                > Why dont you learn to write a sentence that actually shares one point or example like a proper adult instead of writing worse than a 5 yo.
                > You'll make less mistakes that way.
                Good too see you have time to write two worthless sentences with childish crap but you dont have time to actually share an example to prove your point.
                I pity your children if you have any, having a parent who calls them names and never shares or shows them something bet
      • Strange how you mention the bullshitter who had no actual computer skills and you neglect the real brains that made it happen (woz)

      • Steve funded his Apple opperation by running everything on credit, buy the chips/boards/components all on 90 day credit.

        Sell sell sell machines at 100% profit, pay Woz a tiny amount, pay suppliers on day 90. Repeat.

      • He was a rancid-smelling asshole I can tell you that at least.

  • ...offers their plots with an overpriced, un-cancellable yearly subscription.

  • i came for a Flash joke (Score:3)

    by parker9 ( 60593 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @05:27PM (#61287746) Homepage

    i'm disappointed.

  • Which has more followers the ceo or christainity in america ?

  • "Founder.exe has stopped working" (Score:4, Funny)

    by Chris Mattern ( 191822 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @06:28PM (#61288002)

    "Click here to check online for a solution and close the program."

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • If I remember correctly, Flash was made by Macromedia. A company that Adobe later acquired. So no we can't thank Adobe for bringing that massive gaping security hole to the web, but we can thank them for keeping it alive as long as they did.

    • >I believe Sony's NeWS used it too.)

      Yep. We has NeWS on Sun workstations in college in 1990 and it used display postscript. It was obviously better than the other crappy window systems available at the time, although if it had succeeded, it would have turned into a security disaster of epic proportions, pushing executable code around for displaying stuff. It's a good thing we didn't go down that road with the web protocols.
       

  • Do we insert burn ward jokes before or after cremation?
  • I knew about him, Postscript PDF certainly were and are great innovative enablers for the publishing world; but I did not know he was kidnapped once earlier in his career.
  • It amazes me how many things we rely on, had it's roots in Palo Alto.
  • But I think of adobe a different way. From Wikipedia: "The word adobe has existed for around 4000 years with relatively little change in either pronunciation or meaning."

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