What happened to Adobe Illustrator? It is absolute crap now.

Your post is about 4 years old now, but I'm reporting from 2025 that Illustrator is still really bad. Updates are pushed way before they are ready. I've had to downgrade three times in the past year to avoid the frequent crashes the newest versions bring. Adobe is filling the app with features for casual users rather than for production professionals. The result is that I have to suffer through the horrible performance just to do my job. I would jump at the chance to use another application for my work, but unfortunately, for packaging production work at our company, it's my only option at the moment. Poor me.

i agree.. I think its buggy and buggy. for example currently cannot use illustrator due to black screen on every file i open. And yes I have a beta version as well but cannot run both photoshop beta and illustrator (or even have them both installed. I primarily use illustrator and the ability to not use it and having to pay for it now for years just doesnt seem all that worthy at times and i really do it because i have utilized the maximum on portfolio for a few sites and the ability to not back those up and to keep them up is also a concern.. The resource thing is also a major thing. whoa

I agree. Why do I keep getting errors every new update every year when I take my subscription fee every month? Please, I hope the New Year's version will only be released in January after the maintenance is done properly

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been using Adobe products since the late ’80s, and it’s frustrating to see the decline in quality over the years. Adobe, please stop focusing on adding flashy new features that most users don’t need or want. Instead, dedicate your resources to refining and fixing what’s already there. Many of your product redesigns have sacrificed reliability and usability, leaving us longing for the functionality and stability of older versions that simply worked better.

Absolutely agree.  Every feature now seems to work in reverse of the legacy version and I'm afraid to click anything because it will try to install new software in my computer every time.  The whole Adobe suite now feels like a crappy webpage designed to entrap you into subscribing for a service you don't want.

i5 and iris pro is pretty low end these days, I suspect. I'm on an i5, 2015 model, with a 2gb amg radeon, and that one struggles. The radeon is an upgrade from the integrated iris. Iris is not for professionals, unless you are making very simple and light things. Some other programs do perform better on the same machine, but usually those are much lighter on features.

Otherwise I wouldn't really quibble with your complaints, but I do agree that you should go through the issues one by one to see if they can be sorted out.

I don't have those issues so it is difficult to agree.

Perhaps if you were to go into more detail about them (or about one of them at a time), solutions could be forthcoming.