Well... @creative explorer Let's take a pragmatic view on things 😉 Dreamweaver (once king in the lands of code editing) is discontinued and no longer actively developed and struggles onward in a zombie state, endlessy roaming the wide lands they once ruled, and despised and ridiculed by the one who stabbed him in the back with an accursed dagger: Visual Studio Code. Animate (once Queen of the realms of animation) --as far as Adobe's silence can tell us-- is no longer actively developed and, in the likeness of Ophelia, drowned in the rivers of 2d animation she once commanded. Still barely alive, those who still serve her and her younger selves keep her memory alive. To no avail: ToonBoom, the Conquerer, rules supreme in 2D animation land now, yet allows those who wish to keep Animate's memory alive to serve her in her death. Adobe XD (once a promising upstart prince in prototyping lands) is discontinued and lies in a shallow grave, with some followers feeding him tears - hoping for a ressurection that will never arrive. Hope is a sweet worded yet deceitful friend indeed. Muse (a beautiful princess once pacifying the courts of visual web page development) is discontinued and left the world bereft of dreams and filling it with sorrow in her stead. Fireworks (once ruling over the vale of web graphics): dead and long forgotten, its dried corpse hidden in the Caves of Perpetual Licenses, with aging apostles clinging on, and chanting to their demi-goddess in sorrowful and melancholic voices. "If only...." "if only..." Air... Gone with the winds... And lest we forget those other rulers of old that went before: Authorware, Director, Freehand, GoLive, ImageReady, Dimensions, and others. Their visages engraved on the pillars supporting the Adobe Halls of Termination, filled with the apoplectic whispers of betrayed acolytes. But! I hear you plead: What of those still ruling the courts of Adobe? Photoshop, cold ruler over image editing, lost the battles to maintain dominance in the Southern lands of Digital Painting and in the North had to withdraw from webgraphics and web mockups. Photoshop's rule is besieged from all sides by a number of rebellious upstart lordlings who are quickly maturing. In the midst of this war of attrition, Photoshop hopes to appeace the masses with magical AI spells, yet their fair looking countenance is betrayed again and again by their aging and decrepit soul. Age catches us all in the end. Illustrator in the wild isles kingdom of Vector maintains a strong hold on dominance. Yet here too a small crowd of younger rebels vie for attention and leech users away. Princess VectorStyler is very close to feature parity, while prince Designer sports fine looks... InDesign's supremacy over the Mountain Kingdoms of Desktop Publishing remains in place. Those few contenders for the throne are still too young to threaten it. The old emperor's (Quark) acted as a tyrant and made too many enemies. Too old to matter and despised by the populous, he is holding on to old memories of greatness, yet lives a solitary live with a few who continue to serve him: banned to the Isle of Mist. But Lo: the latest youngling's affinity may be closing the gap to InDesign... Premiere always had to share ruling the Kingdom of Video Editing with all its brothers and sisters: Avid for the editorial regions and DaVinci Resolve in colour and finishing lands. The provinces of marketing, web media, advertising - those Premiere still commands. The lure of DaVinci's no-taxes rule attracts many new followers though... After Effects remains the only Night Queen of Layered Motion Graphics and her FX domains range far and wide. An uncertain and fragile truce holds between her and the Dark Lord of Noodles, the undisputed ruler over the dark swamps of Nodal Visual Effects . Quite a few youngling attempted to breach this truce, yet none have survived the ruthless smiting of any potential rival by either. It is rumored that the Night Queen and Dark Lord of Noodles are lovers in secret and it is foretold that their heir shall replace them both... The Adobe court is alive with younger siblings and cousins: Adobe Express, Dimension, Rush, Fresco, Firefly, to name but a few. None of those hold their own lands yet, because too many compete with them. And those outside of the courts are fairer and more powerful. Their future is uncertain and for most death is what awaits them outside the court. 'Tis a sad and sorrowful yet all the more intriguing story: but for Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, the hegemony of Adobe's software agents is a shallow existence, and time will lift the final telling's veils.
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