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As a design instructor I am stymied by Adobe's decision to discontinue Muse. What was released as an immature and 'bad' application has grown into a solid and functional web design tool, especially in the past year. Finally get it right then discontinue?
I have no where to go with my design students. Dreamweaver has become an ugly beast that takes too long to learn (although I suffer it myself), and other programs such as Wordpress, Wix, and others are great for non-designers, but too template-driven for budding designers.
Muse leverages InDesign knowledge beautifully, and serves many purposes in a world where complicated web sites are best left to programmers.
Perhaps too many people tried and discarded Muse when it was first released (before it was ready). Give the thing a chance—just the value in educational spheres can enhance the long-term viability of the Creative Cloud design solutions.
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Hey Quxl,
That was very touching, on one hand, we are proud to hear good things that Muse has left and on another hand the same make us regret to end the life of such a beautiful application.
We are collecting all the user sentiments and sharing with our higher level management so they can see the anguish among the community regarding their decision.
Regards,
Ankush
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I just spoke on Live Chat with Adobe and they said there is a bit of hope that Adobe may revert their decision
"We are going to announce something really very good." + "There are some new updates we are going to announce soon for our Muse customers"
Adobe Muse: Ideas: New (310 ideas) – Adobe Muse CC: Feature Ideas
https://www.change.org/p/adobe-systems-adobe-do-not-discontinue-muse
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That won't happen. Adobe NEVER reverted their decision to kill an application before, and why would they start doing that now? The best you can hope for is that Adobe is preparing some kind of marketing message, or that existing Muse renters won't have to pay the remainder of their rent period.
And even if they did revert their decision now, chances are they will bin Muse in a couple of years down the road. Muse isn't maintainable for Adobe. Not from a software development point of view, but most certainly not from their business point of view.
Nah, reverting this would be a bad move for Adobe.
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[abuse removed]
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No, just being realistic - Adobe never reverted these type of decisions so far. And students of mine use Muse for prototyping, btw, so we do use Muse in class at times.
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I think it is not maintainable in software development point of view it is mostly java script and it uses node behind. The responsive feature was stupid and the cancellation reason is the responsive feature. Google will index mobile and desktop pages differently in near future responsive feature is already a stupid thing not in Muse only in everywhere.
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Hi @Quxl,
Based upon you comments:
Quxl wrote
- As a design instructor
- I have no where to go with my design students.
- functional web design tool
- Dreamweaver has become an ugly beast that takes too long to learn (although I suffer it myself)
- non-designers, budding designers
I would suggest:
Pinegrow:
https://forums.adobe.com/message/10278927#10278927
With Pinegrow you can satisfy both Designers and Developers, and it provides many tools for learning and growing for your students.
You could also add Blocs if you are Mac based, which is for designers, it uses Bootstrap currently.
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Funny you mention this: this term I introduced Pinegrow to the students. They seem to like it so far.
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I was looking at Pinegrow as a possibility. Problem is that the students do a very small section on Muse right after InDesign, so it leverages that knowledge and is very simple—in one short assignment (1 class) they have a multi-page site we can discuss design issues with. But, I will look at Pinegrow more. Thanks!
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You're welcome
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Pinegrow is NOTHING like Muse. For people who have perfected their use of Muse, Pinegrow is starting all over again from scratch, as are virtually all of the other alternatives that are being suggested. None of them are intuitive for visual designers who come from an InDesign-type background. I actually began, long ago, with WordPress and Dreamweaver. But when Muse came along, it was a liberating breath of fresh air! I jumped ship and never looked back, and never want to return. I was able to do things with web design I had never been able to do before. I started building websites for other people -- something I never would have dreamed of attempting before. And they were unique, custom-built sites without templates. There was, and is, nothing else like it.
When Muse went to responsive, I found it overwhelming in the beginning. But the software kept improving, and I invested hours and hours perfecting my use of it, and reading and watching tutorials. I'm sure I've seen every Dani Beaumont video on YouTube. Just recently I came to a point where I not only really know what I am doing in Muse, but I grew to love it. I was just putting the finishing touches on a fully responsive, slick new site with scroll effects that I am actually quite proud of. I currently only do volunteer web work and small sites for myself -- thank God I am not like some of my designer friends who built their businesses on Muse -- but I really felt I was developing a skill I could branch out with.
This announcement this week has been absolutely devastating to me. There is no other way to put it. I literally almost fainted when I read the announcement -- that is how tied up in Muse I am. Even though I do not have a business based on it, I still have important work that I do with it. It is the one app that is always open on my desktop.
I have been trying to remain positive, but the more I check out the other options available, the more I realize what a nightmare this is. Not all of us are young folks who have the time and energy to spare jumping into an entirely new program and an entirely new way of doing things. The thought of starting all over again is enough to make me physically sick.
What burns me the most is that Adobe sold this as the future of web design. They actively encouraged a whole community to form around this product, and actively encouraged people to build their businesses around it. They encouraged us to spend our money on widgets and extras (I've spent hundreds on widgets and subscriptions, thinking I was making an investment into a program that was going to be around for the long haul). Adobe's arrogant advice that if we want complicated sites, we should hire a developer, or else use a crappy DIY online tool is enraging. The whole point of Muse was that it was the alternative to those things. It's as if Adobe doesn't even understand their own product and who uses it.
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@CuriousChip You are correct: nothing is like Muse, including Pinegrow. And I would be willing to bet that it will take a long time, if ever, that a similar product will appear again. The problem with Muse's approach was always that it needed a translation layer between the design view in Muse and the code layer that had to be generated in order for it to work in a browser.
Other software vendors in the past have tried the same approach, and each and every one was killed by the developer or bled to death because it was left behind by the web.
That is the reason why products like Pinegrow rely on browser tech and render the layouts directly to code, instead of a secondary layer wedged in-between. Remember when Muse users were screaming for responsive layouts to become possible? It took the Muse team years to create that translation layer.
And since a few years web front-end developers have switched to Flexbox and CSS Grid to create layouts - CSS Grid finally allows us to create web layouts WITHOUT workarounds and other silly patches.
Muse's responsive design translation layer was outdated even when the Muse team began work on it.
It just isn't a flexible or realistic methodology as a developer. That is also why a product such as Pinegrow supports the latest CSS grid tech to build layouts, because it doesn't need that translation. The developer can implement those features by merely providing interface elements. Not so in Muse.
Muse never stood a chance. Harsh, but true - too much effort had to be put into that translation layer. And that is also why Pinegrow and other web-tech and/or browser based layout editors are NOTHING like Muse - because they don't have to rely on that translation layer wedged in-between.