Why did Adobe break my heart by killing FreeHand MX 11.0.2?

40 years of my life include creating art with a remarkable vector drawing program called FreeHand. At the dawn of our brave new digital world, it offered a nimble, intuitive tool for creating artwork in a way that unlocked possibilities I'd never dreamed possible.

Digital artists who are unfamiliar with FreeHand can learn more about it on this Wikipedia page.

I purchased every version of FreeHand — from version 1.0 in 1988 to the final release, version 11.0.2 in 2003. By that time, Adobe had swooped in to buy and kill FreeHand in what I now see as a cynical effort to force artists to buy Adobe's sad copycat, Adobe Illustrator.

Whatever. I'm posting this tale on The Lounge because I couldn't find anywhere else to ask for help.

I managed to keep an ancient Mac running for years, but it eventually died. I bought a newer Mac Mini capable of running the required Mac OS X 10.6.8 and tried my original Macromedia Freehand MX 11.0.2 install CD ROM. No joy.

FreeHand tries to open, but fails. It doesn't seem to like my serial number... the serial number that came with the product I bought in good faith many years ago. I can provide more details upon request.

If you're still reading, thanks. If you have any tips or ideas, thanks. If you'd like to see a retrospective of my work with FreeHand through the decades, visit Art101.com.

In digital terms, I'm a dinosaur. A tired old fossil. But as any paleontologist will tell you, we can learn useful stuff from old fossils.