P: Doesn't constrain proportions when resizing from side handle while holding Shift key

"The fact is that I too had to do a quick search to figure out what was going on after the update ... it was a bit surprising, but not earth shattering."But it wasn't a "quick search" for all of us. I did several searches before I hit the answer, and so did a number of other people posting here. 

Ben ... I don't disagree with the "notification" or "announcement" part. But I'm imaging how that would play out. I can imagine an effort by Adobe to inform their customer base of new changes ... and for whatever reason, the communication isn't delivered well enough, it never is, to truly inform and prepare the masses. The fact is that I too had to do a quick search to figure out what was going on after the update ... it was a bit surprising, but not earth shattering. Actually, I agree with several of your observations ... I work with corporations that have 90K+ employees ... if Adobe adopted their type of "robust and thorough" change management process for Photoshop, it would never be the product it is today. I'm not saying be reckless ... but, as a daily user of Photoshop, this, and all of the other recent enhancements, aren't making me hate Adobe.
It's interesting to see the fervor behind this particular change. I'm guessing Adobe is noting the activity : )

BTW ... thanks for the respectful reply ... it's always disappointing to find myself in an unproductive discussion and wondering how I got there.

What Ben said--there isn't consistency. For example, resizing vector shapes still requires you to hold the shift key to constrain proportions. Would a new user intuitively understand this? 

Personally, I found the change especially annoying because I wasted a lot of time searching for bugs in my app--deleting preference files and the like--since it didn't occur to me that such a standard thing would suddenly be changed. I searched the Adobe forums to see what was causing the problem, and got nothing useful, until I encountered the separate "Photoshop Family" forum (I can't say I understand why Adobe hosts two community forums for Photoshop). Is there some place Adobe announced this that I missed? 

The way the "Quality Engineer" (who I guess works for Adobe?) described it wasn't very helpful to me, either: "Photoshop 20.0 proportional transform is now the default behavior of transform in Photoshop (except with regard to vector graphics)." Saying "proportional transform is now the default behavior of transform" makes sense in hindsight, but seeing it in the middle of the confusion didn't make it clear to me that we were supposed to stop holding down the shift key. 

Donnie, I have no issue with a change like this in principle but this change isn't consistent within Photoshop itself.

Why not do it right? Identify how fundamental the change is (very), identify how it impacts tools within the app (many), identify how it impacts apps in the suite (all apps). Then change everything and announce it properly. Is that really so hard?

The 'passionate animosity' is not just because of the change, the sloppy implementation, and the lazy announcement, it sums up a growing annoyance with inconsistencies, and the way new features are prioritised: design by committee, or corporate priorities. 

Show some design leadership and do it right. Our clients would nail us to the wall if did the same to them because we're in a relationship with them, and that's how relationships work (think FCPX, Aperture or Quark Express - fortunes can change quickly).

No one's going to be signing up for a subscription because they don't need to occasionally hold down shift. And catering to the market segment who may only use Ps a few times per year is really shooting yourself in the foot.

Ps is a professional tool used by hundreds of thousands of professionals and needs to be treated as such. Having a lock to constrain is fine, but this was poorly implemented. 

I'm a little surprised there's so much passionate animosity over this usability change. I've used Photoshop since the early 90's ... and yes, I like consistency in vendor products (so I'm waiting for the illustrator change), but this "constrain proportions" should really be the default. In 5 years, we'll be saying "remember when you had to train people to hold down the shift key first". I'm just glad the "keep-it-like-it-is-because-I-don't-want-change" groups didn't rule the auto industry ... otherwise I'd still be pulling down the license plate to fill-up. Make it easier for people (new users, new revenue) to enjoy and learn more quickly ... smart.

This is adobe's attempt to be more user friendly for those who aren't trained professionals and appeal to a few more people who aren't in their customer base. Unfortunately in an effort to grab a few more customers they ignored their loyal, trained, established customer base that they were originally creating the product for. Adobe lost focus. Bad move. Please stick to supporting your products for the trained professionals in which they were intended. Thanks.

They should've released 20.0 on April 1st.

OH MY!!!!!! I WANT TO HUG YOU!!!!!

This ill-thought through change and jaw-dropping inconsistencies is a constant frustration. Not only is it typical bone-headed corporate nonsense, it was a calculated decision - we all know these kinds of meetings right? Make the change but do it right, so embarrassing.