1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:05,400 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Style from how 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:13,400 Speaker 1: stuff flix dot com. Hello there, everyone, and welcome to 3 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:15,280 Speaker 1: tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and I am 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:17,760 Speaker 1: an editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting across 5 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:20,479 Speaker 1: from me as usual as senior writer Jonathan's trick. Hey there, 6 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:24,119 Speaker 1: and today we're continuing the conversation we began in our 7 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: previous episode about Adobe, which if you're just tuning in, 8 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:32,920 Speaker 1: in our last episode, we ended in Adobe's well. So 9 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 1: it was when Adobe merged with a company called Aldus 10 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,440 Speaker 1: and became Adobe Systems Incorporated. Now, now, when you mix 11 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:44,400 Speaker 1: the mud with the water, you wanted to kind of Adobe, 12 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 1: that kind of Adobe. I'm gonna need some new notes. Okay, Well, 13 00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:51,440 Speaker 1: Chris is gonna go bye bye for a little while. 14 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:55,360 Speaker 1: Uh No. So yeah, Adobe, of course, at this point 15 00:00:55,400 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: in its existence, was really really focused on top publishing 16 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 1: and desktop video editing software and getting into some other 17 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:09,880 Speaker 1: arenas as well. They're starting to look into three D rendering. 18 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:14,040 Speaker 1: They were looking into developing things for web pages, which 19 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:16,520 Speaker 1: you know, in the early nineties, the web is in 20 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:21,720 Speaker 1: its infancy, it's it's hasn't really taken off yet. Uh 21 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:26,039 Speaker 1: and and also into other venues as well. So Adobe 22 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: starting to branch out beyond the traditional font management software 23 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:35,160 Speaker 1: that it had kind of cut its teeth on. Well, 24 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:38,880 Speaker 1: we're looking at a time when there was still a 25 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:42,520 Speaker 1: lot of fragmentation out there. Sure, you know, we we 26 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:45,520 Speaker 1: talk on on tech stuff a lot about older technologies, 27 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: just because I think it kind of puts what we 28 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,480 Speaker 1: have now into a lot of context. UM. We've talked 29 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 1: in the past about the main frames that they used 30 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:58,240 Speaker 1: to use before the Internet really hooked everything up, and 31 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:01,640 Speaker 1: all these different machines used different operating systems, they use 32 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 1: different programming languages. UM and UH. One of the one 33 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:08,880 Speaker 1: of the things one of the reasons if you especially 34 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: if you haven't listened to UH to the first episode 35 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:14,760 Speaker 1: of the Adobe UH two parter um, one of the 36 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:19,760 Speaker 1: reasons that the founders of Adobe decided to branch out 37 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:23,680 Speaker 1: from their work at Xerox Park was they wanted to 38 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:29,560 Speaker 1: create technologies that would enable people to standardize UM specifically 39 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 1: in this case for publishing the purposes of print publishing. 40 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:38,920 Speaker 1: But UM, they you you will find that as we're talking, 41 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:42,360 Speaker 1: especially in this second part of the podcast, that the 42 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: the technologies and formats that Adobe has created have really 43 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:50,120 Speaker 1: done that. UM. And this is a time in the 44 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:53,920 Speaker 1: in the mid es when we're moving from UH. You know, 45 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:59,040 Speaker 1: the Macintosh operating system is moving forward, UM the UH 46 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:02,080 Speaker 1: you know, some of the other different competitors have fallen out, 47 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:05,240 Speaker 1: a tar st has gone by this point for the 48 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:09,839 Speaker 1: most part, UM Amigas has long since UH foundered and 49 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,320 Speaker 1: been saved and founder again, etcetera. UM. So it's really 50 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,480 Speaker 1: sort of a a two part race for the most part. 51 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: The people who are using uh PCs based on IBM 52 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:25,400 Speaker 1: S technologies and UM and people who are using the 53 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:28,880 Speaker 1: Mac and and as Jonathan alluded to in the previous episode, 54 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:32,800 Speaker 1: the Mac people right now are still sort of designers. 55 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:35,240 Speaker 1: You know. That's if you're going to be doing desktop publishing, 56 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 1: you need to Mac. But Adobe was smart and hedging 57 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: its bets. They started producing software for the Windows operating System. 58 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,760 Speaker 1: More people have used I mean OS two. The IBM 59 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:48,640 Speaker 1: UM operating system is kind of fallen off by this 60 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: period too, so UM that that was the right horse 61 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:54,960 Speaker 1: to back was the Windows Operating System. And with Windows 62 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:57,600 Speaker 1: three point x and then Windows ninety five around the 63 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:00,720 Speaker 1: time we're starting to talk about it's really becoming a 64 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: situation where that the technologies are are getting more similar 65 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 1: than dissimilar. And of course, uh, you know, already we 66 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:14,560 Speaker 1: had the whole model of the enterprise leaning toward Windows 67 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:18,559 Speaker 1: based machines as opposed to Mac machines. So with entire 68 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:23,919 Speaker 1: companies uh investing in Windows PCs, it meant that, you know, 69 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 1: you wanted to make sure you you catered to that 70 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:28,479 Speaker 1: particular market as well. There were going to be a 71 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:31,560 Speaker 1: lot of Windows PC machines out there, and a lot 72 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:35,600 Speaker 1: of businesses do some form of publishing, whether it's for 73 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,760 Speaker 1: internal documents or it's an actual company that produces stuff 74 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:43,920 Speaker 1: that will go to external clients or customers. So yeah, 75 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:45,919 Speaker 1: it was very important for Adobe to look into that, 76 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:49,279 Speaker 1: and in they went on something of a bit of 77 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:53,799 Speaker 1: an acquisition spree. They acquired a company called Visual where 78 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:58,160 Speaker 1: uh they acquired a Seneca Communications which made website creation 79 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:01,080 Speaker 1: tools like I said, you know, early days of the web, 80 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 1: and Adobe saying we need to get into this. They 81 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:07,080 Speaker 1: acquired hyphen which was a printer software company. Uh. And 82 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 1: they they acquired frame Technology, which created a software called 83 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:16,560 Speaker 1: FrameMaker UM which was all about producing and manipulating large 84 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:20,840 Speaker 1: structured documents. Now, if you aren't a technical writer. This 85 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:23,359 Speaker 1: might not sound terribly interesting, but if you are a 86 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: technical writer and you have to create long, complicated technical documents, 87 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,080 Speaker 1: something like FrameMaker which would allow you to produce those 88 00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:38,640 Speaker 1: and and uh switch things around, uh relatively painlessly, that's 89 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: a big deal. You know, you're talking about very complex documents. 90 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:46,920 Speaker 1: I know people who have used FrameMaker. Yeah, they would. 91 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:53,039 Speaker 1: They would probably take exception to your your painless painlessly. Yeah, 92 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:56,680 Speaker 1: I realized that painless is again your mileage may very 93 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:00,320 Speaker 1: tight term, just like open was in our last episode. 94 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:05,039 Speaker 1: But the goal of FrameMaker at any rate was to 95 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: make this easier for large complex documents, to manipulate those. Uh. 96 00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:15,880 Speaker 1: Whether or not it succeeded was probably more of a 97 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:18,920 Speaker 1: case by case basis. Well, when you put it, when 98 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 1: you put it in terms of what people had to 99 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:25,320 Speaker 1: do to create those same kinds of documents before computers 100 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: were on everyone's desktop, Uh, it's considerably painlessly. Yeah, much 101 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:34,760 Speaker 1: much easier. At that same time, they began to license 102 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:39,960 Speaker 1: a programming language created by Sun Microsystems called Java, and 103 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,160 Speaker 1: they were licensing it with the intent on integrating it 104 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: with their Adobe Acrobat product. So, uh, Java is not 105 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:52,320 Speaker 1: an Adobe product. It came from Sun Microsystems, but Adobe 106 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: did license it for some of its own products. They 107 00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:59,880 Speaker 1: also ended a licensing agreement that year they ended the 108 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:03,560 Speaker 1: agreement with Photoshop. They decided to cut that license because 109 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:07,960 Speaker 1: they decided to buy Photoshop outright for thirty five and 110 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:12,360 Speaker 1: a half million dollars. So that pet project of Thomas Knowles, 111 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: who created his display software program a few years before, 112 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:19,720 Speaker 1: turned out to be quite a windfall for him. The 113 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 1: thirty half thirty five and a half million dollar deal 114 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:28,360 Speaker 1: with Adobe after after a fairly lucrative licensing agreement. So uh, 115 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 1: it was. It was. It was one of those right 116 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: place to be during the right time kind of situations, 117 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:39,520 Speaker 1: you know. And then also that year, Acrobat becomes integrated 118 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:46,840 Speaker 1: with a browser called Netscape. New listeners, young listeners might 119 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:50,880 Speaker 1: not be familiar with the name Netscape, but Netscape at 120 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:55,680 Speaker 1: one time was a dominant web browser. Um you had 121 00:07:55,760 --> 00:07:59,440 Speaker 1: essentially you had two web browsers battling it out for supremacy. 122 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:04,320 Speaker 1: There was Netscape and there was Internet Explorer, and then 123 00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: Internet Explorer kind of one for a while, and then 124 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:11,400 Speaker 1: other browsers rose up to a challenge Internet Explorer. But 125 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:14,600 Speaker 1: Netscape was a big name back in the day, there 126 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:17,680 Speaker 1: were there were there were other browsers, quite a few 127 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:21,320 Speaker 1: of the UM, most of which you really will never 128 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:24,120 Speaker 1: hear of. Right, the market share for those was tiny 129 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,400 Speaker 1: in comparison, and and that's really thanks in large part 130 00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: to Microsoft because um Netscape was a paid product back then. 131 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:34,520 Speaker 1: If you wanted the Netscape web browser, you forked over 132 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:37,800 Speaker 1: money because I know this because I did that. And 133 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:43,319 Speaker 1: then Microsoft released Internet Explorer for free. Yeah. Also, this 134 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,320 Speaker 1: was the same era when Internet Explorer and Windows were 135 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:50,760 Speaker 1: so tightly integrated that it caused problems for Microsoft in 136 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:54,080 Speaker 1: the court systems where they were talking about Microsoft kind 137 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:59,640 Speaker 1: of unfairly biasing everything toward Internet Explorer so that you 138 00:08:59,679 --> 00:09:03,080 Speaker 1: would effectively not have a choice trying to become a 139 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:07,000 Speaker 1: monopoly in the browser world. That's a totally different story though, 140 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 1: so we don't really need to go into that, but 141 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:11,720 Speaker 1: it's just interesting background with what's going on during the 142 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:16,119 Speaker 1: time that Adobe is making all these acquisitions and licensing agreements. Uh, 143 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:20,120 Speaker 1: they release more updates to their product line. I'm not 144 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:22,439 Speaker 1: going to go into all of them because frankly, it 145 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:25,440 Speaker 1: would take several episodes and I'm not sure that it 146 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:28,440 Speaker 1: would be that interesting. I will say that they did 147 00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:33,439 Speaker 1: release the first edition of page Mill, which was, according 148 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:37,000 Speaker 1: to the box, the easiest way to create pages for 149 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:39,880 Speaker 1: the World Wide Web, because that's what we used to 150 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:44,360 Speaker 1: call it, and I and to that, I would just say, well, 151 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:47,720 Speaker 1: maybe back then it was the easiest. I mean, do 152 00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:50,800 Speaker 1: you you remember having to create a web page by 153 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:57,240 Speaker 1: coding it in in HTML and then saving the htmail document, 154 00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:00,760 Speaker 1: then opening up a browser, opening the h Gmail document, 155 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:03,600 Speaker 1: looking at it, say that's not the way I wanted 156 00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:07,240 Speaker 1: to be. Close out the browser, reopened the HTML editor, 157 00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 1: go back into it and change another line of HTML. 158 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:13,280 Speaker 1: I say, code, but it's really a mark up language. 159 00:10:13,679 --> 00:10:17,640 Speaker 1: Um yeah, they that was a pain. Yeah, well, well 160 00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:20,600 Speaker 1: this this if you wanted to get into the Web, 161 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:22,760 Speaker 1: and lots and lots of people did. At this point. 162 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:27,000 Speaker 1: It was it was being likened to the Great land 163 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:30,600 Speaker 1: Rush type thing where the West, yeah, the wild West, 164 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:33,800 Speaker 1: or or space. You know, it's it's wide open and 165 00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:36,520 Speaker 1: anybody can do this, and people wanted to learn how 166 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:39,640 Speaker 1: to do this, and you kind of had two choices, 167 00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:43,320 Speaker 1: which you we still really do, but uh, it was 168 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:46,840 Speaker 1: less familiar to people at that time. So you either 169 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: learned how you bought a book on how to code HTML, 170 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,040 Speaker 1: or you got software to help you with this, like 171 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:58,160 Speaker 1: for example, Page mill or um uh front page, I 172 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:01,800 Speaker 1: remember front Page. And you know, there were there were 173 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 1: there were situations where you you'd go, Okay, well I'm 174 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:08,880 Speaker 1: just gonna go ahead and uh, you know, bite the 175 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:11,080 Speaker 1: bullet and go ahead and buy a program to help 176 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:13,240 Speaker 1: me do this. And it worked some of the time. 177 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:15,280 Speaker 1: And at other times you look in the code and 178 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:18,640 Speaker 1: if you knew anything about the code, you go, what's that? 179 00:11:18,800 --> 00:11:21,000 Speaker 1: You know, why is why is it injecting all this 180 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:24,960 Speaker 1: stuff that really doesn't it's not necessary for me to 181 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,040 Speaker 1: align my text to the left. It was, you know, 182 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:32,320 Speaker 1: it was the attempt of the early software the software 183 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:34,720 Speaker 1: engineers to um, you know, make an attempt to make 184 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:38,560 Speaker 1: coding easier for HTML users, and eventually this would develop 185 00:11:38,559 --> 00:11:40,880 Speaker 1: into whizzywig editors, which of course is the what you 186 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:43,400 Speaker 1: see is what you get where you know, the all 187 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:45,600 Speaker 1: the coding part is hidden away from you, so you 188 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:48,160 Speaker 1: don't have to pay attention to it. You just see 189 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:51,240 Speaker 1: the representation of it on your screen and you move 190 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:53,520 Speaker 1: things around to where you want them. And saw a 191 00:11:53,559 --> 00:11:56,160 Speaker 1: lot of web development tools are these days now grant 192 00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:58,080 Speaker 1: most of them also allow you to go into the 193 00:11:58,200 --> 00:11:59,679 Speaker 1: H T M L if you want to do it 194 00:12:00,200 --> 00:12:02,720 Speaker 1: the old fashioned way or you want to tweak things 195 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:05,320 Speaker 1: very specifically, and you don't you know, you want to 196 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:08,600 Speaker 1: do it via code as opposed to clicking and dragging 197 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:11,040 Speaker 1: something on a screen. But yeah, this is this kind 198 00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:13,600 Speaker 1: of predates the whole wizzy Wig stuff. Yeah, well and 199 00:12:13,679 --> 00:12:18,199 Speaker 1: until Macromedia comes out with, um with dream Weaver, which 200 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:21,040 Speaker 1: is I believe you can we can make it through 201 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 1: the night. Well, dream Weaver is a is a sort 202 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:27,800 Speaker 1: of best of both worlds sort of situation where you 203 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:31,080 Speaker 1: can do wizzy Wig editing, but you can also really 204 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:33,680 Speaker 1: get into the code. Actually, there was a company called 205 00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:37,720 Speaker 1: go Live that also came out with a similar program. 206 00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:41,760 Speaker 1: So go Live and uh and Macromedia we're coming out 207 00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:45,880 Speaker 1: with these advanced HTML editors and will play a part 208 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:49,400 Speaker 1: in the story. And and dream Weaver and um, I'm sorry, 209 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:53,920 Speaker 1: and uh, page Mill, well, page Mill is now sitting 210 00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:57,880 Speaker 1: in deep in the ground where it was stomped. Yeah, 211 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 1: but that's okay because Adobe, even though perhaps its own 212 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:04,360 Speaker 1: product did not win out in that war h Adobe 213 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:07,240 Speaker 1: still stood tall. And we'll get into why. But there 214 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:09,679 Speaker 1: their revenue that year because I was doing revenue in 215 00:13:09,679 --> 00:13:12,080 Speaker 1: the previous ones, I'm not gonna do this every single year. 216 00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:14,839 Speaker 1: It was seven hundred sixty two millions. So they're creeping 217 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:16,960 Speaker 1: up on a billion dollars in revenue. They had over 218 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,920 Speaker 1: two thousand employees at this point, two thousand two. Uh. 219 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,560 Speaker 1: And then the next year in ninety, Adobe acquired a 220 00:13:24,559 --> 00:13:31,439 Speaker 1: company called Swell Software. Yeah, so they developed web server software. 221 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:35,160 Speaker 1: And they also acquired a company called Aries Software, which 222 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:38,160 Speaker 1: was another font scaling company. If you listen to part one, 223 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:41,199 Speaker 1: you probably heard us talk about Adobe buying every font 224 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,840 Speaker 1: scaling company that seemed to come come into existence, because 225 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:48,400 Speaker 1: again that was very uh much part of their their 226 00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:53,280 Speaker 1: focus with desktop publishing and electronic publishing in general. Then 227 00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:54,959 Speaker 1: you have two D scale the fonts if you want 228 00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:59,720 Speaker 1: to eat them. So then after that, after that, Adobe 229 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:03,920 Speaker 1: all so decided to spin off one of its divisions. 230 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:08,920 Speaker 1: They had this whole prep press application software company spinoff 231 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:14,400 Speaker 1: that they called Luminous Corporation, and Adobe Systems Incorporated relocates. 232 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,199 Speaker 1: Yet again, Now, if you listen again to the previous episode, 233 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:19,800 Speaker 1: you heard about them getting a start in Mountain View 234 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:21,720 Speaker 1: and then moving to Palo Alto, and then moving back 235 00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:24,480 Speaker 1: to Mountain View, and now they're making their move to 236 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:29,280 Speaker 1: where they where Adobe headquarters are today, which is well, 237 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:34,640 Speaker 1: you know the way, it's San Jose, do do do? Anyway, 238 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:39,880 Speaker 1: So they go to San Jose, California, and uh, moving 239 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:44,520 Speaker 1: on to nineties seven more acquisitions, which it's kind of 240 00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:47,040 Speaker 1: amazing if you look at Adobe's history and you look 241 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:50,800 Speaker 1: at all the companies that's acquired. I never realized how 242 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:53,720 Speaker 1: many companies Adobe butt. I think of companies like Google, 243 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:57,400 Speaker 1: which I think of as being pretty you know, at 244 00:14:57,440 --> 00:15:00,640 Speaker 1: least during certain eras of Google's history, they they've swept 245 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:04,040 Speaker 1: up quite a few companies. Uh. And then there are 246 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:05,880 Speaker 1: other companies that are in Microsoft has done the same 247 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,320 Speaker 1: sort of thing. It's brought up several smaller companies. But 248 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:11,920 Speaker 1: I never really thought of Adobe being one of those. 249 00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:15,600 Speaker 1: I knew about them making some major acquisitions and matures, 250 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:19,240 Speaker 1: but I didn't realize how many how many companies Adobe acquired, 251 00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:22,360 Speaker 1: I mean it was a lot. So yeah, nine seven 252 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:27,160 Speaker 1: Sandcastle which was a two way internet communication company, Digi Docs, 253 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:32,600 Speaker 1: which was a personalized PDF creation software company. Uh, fine 254 00:15:32,680 --> 00:15:35,360 Speaker 1: Point which was web graphics software company. I mean they 255 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,600 Speaker 1: every year, it seems like they're they're acquiring at least 256 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:43,960 Speaker 1: two or three companies kind of kind of uh interesting 257 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:48,160 Speaker 1: and scary. Well, um, this is around the time when 258 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:54,160 Speaker 1: Macromedia was really uh putting the hurt on Adobe because 259 00:15:54,600 --> 00:16:00,280 Speaker 1: um in h is when they introduced Flash. So you know, 260 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:04,400 Speaker 1: Adobe really had no uh, no concrete answer for how 261 00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:09,360 Speaker 1: um for software like flash, which is still today one 262 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:13,640 Speaker 1: of the most popular ways of providing rich Internet content, 263 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:18,520 Speaker 1: especially now that that broadband technology is uh is so common. 264 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,400 Speaker 1: And I would even argue that Flash in some ways 265 00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:27,160 Speaker 1: probably had an effect on broadband becoming more popular because 266 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:30,800 Speaker 1: with more interactive and interesting content with the ability to 267 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:34,840 Speaker 1: to create that using Macromedia Flash, UM, that made having 268 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:38,280 Speaker 1: faster Internet speeds more compelling because there was something to 269 00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:41,000 Speaker 1: get um and it was it was that next year 270 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:45,400 Speaker 1: in where where Macromedia came out with dream Weaver to 271 00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:49,560 Speaker 1: to create web pages. So um, you know Adobe is 272 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:52,200 Speaker 1: is even though it's a you know, the number two 273 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: software firm in the world, behind only Microsoft, in um, 274 00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:01,240 Speaker 1: it's there's still places that can improve. And they also 275 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:04,840 Speaker 1: that year launched the NOIDA Research and Development Center, So 276 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:09,920 Speaker 1: this was a division specifically to you know, they would 277 00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:13,400 Speaker 1: they would dedicate resources to the center to try and 278 00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:18,840 Speaker 1: find new and innovative ways to improve either existing products 279 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:21,480 Speaker 1: or come up with brand new products. So in a way, 280 00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:25,800 Speaker 1: this is kind of Adobe's version of Park, which of 281 00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:28,720 Speaker 1: course is what the two founders of Adobe. What the 282 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:34,320 Speaker 1: world that they came out of. Uh So, now and 283 00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:40,160 Speaker 1: they have a new employee, uh a fellow who originally 284 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:42,959 Speaker 1: came from India, And so I'm going to completely butcher 285 00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:45,479 Speaker 1: the pronunciation of his name, and I apologize for that 286 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:49,960 Speaker 1: because I it's my cultural illiteracy, and that's the only reason. 287 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:56,080 Speaker 1: But Shantanu Narayan, who joins Adobe as the VP and 288 00:17:56,320 --> 00:18:00,280 Speaker 1: General Manager of Engineering Technology Group. I he was a 289 00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:03,520 Speaker 1: former executive at Apple and then after that he was 290 00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:07,480 Speaker 1: the founder of a digital photo sharing company, Pictra Incorporated. 291 00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:10,920 Speaker 1: It was actually one of the first companies to look 292 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:17,000 Speaker 1: into digital photo sharing. Anyway, this man will become very 293 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,679 Speaker 1: important to Adobe in the future. He was He also 294 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:22,600 Speaker 1: has a meteorc rise. He may have heard of us 295 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:27,080 Speaker 1: talking about chisen Um having a meteorc rise as well. 296 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:31,560 Speaker 1: Throughout these years, he is steadily climbing the executive ladder 297 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:36,600 Speaker 1: over at Adobe. Well that year Adobe Ship's image ready 298 00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:40,639 Speaker 1: one an image Styler one, along with updates to pretty 299 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:44,760 Speaker 1: much everything else in its software suite. Um. And we 300 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:47,240 Speaker 1: move on to ninety nine and we talked about go 301 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,560 Speaker 1: Live again. That was the company you were talking about earlier, Chris. Yeah, 302 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,960 Speaker 1: it was basically the competition to dream Leaver, right. So 303 00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:57,480 Speaker 1: Adobe is like, hey, I know how we can compete. 304 00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:01,560 Speaker 1: Let's buy go Live. So they did. So go Live 305 00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:06,600 Speaker 1: created this macweb authoring tool, and uh, Adobe sweeps them up. Um. 306 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:10,359 Speaker 1: They also acquired Attitude Software, which was a three D 307 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:14,280 Speaker 1: technologies company. UH, photo Merge, which was a photo stitching 308 00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:17,280 Speaker 1: software company. Photo stitching, for those who do not know, 309 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:19,840 Speaker 1: that is the software that allows you to take multiple 310 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:22,880 Speaker 1: photographs and then merge them together to make one image. 311 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:25,840 Speaker 1: There are a lot of companies that do this, but 312 00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:28,800 Speaker 1: photo Merged was one of them. In Adobe jumped on 313 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 1: that opportunity. UH. That year, they shipped a product called 314 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:37,320 Speaker 1: document Server one. This was a pretty important piece of software. 315 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:40,240 Speaker 1: It's not something that you would have purchased as just 316 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:45,080 Speaker 1: an average computer owner. But what document server one allowed 317 00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:48,720 Speaker 1: UH people to do is if you if you installed 318 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:51,760 Speaker 1: this on a server, it would allow folks to view 319 00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:55,320 Speaker 1: PDF files through a browser without first having to download 320 00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:59,320 Speaker 1: Adobe Acrobat Reader or some other clients software. That's the 321 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:02,960 Speaker 1: way it had to be done. Previously, you would you know, 322 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:07,560 Speaker 1: the browser itself was not capable of displaying PDF without 323 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,800 Speaker 1: a plug in, essentially, so you had to get Adobe 324 00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:14,919 Speaker 1: Acrobat Reader before this. Now, what this software did was 325 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:17,280 Speaker 1: on the server side, so it's not client side. You 326 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:19,280 Speaker 1: didn't have to have it on your personal machine. On 327 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:22,480 Speaker 1: the server side and installed the software that would convert 328 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:28,120 Speaker 1: PDF documents into JEFF or jpeg formats and then so on. 329 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:32,280 Speaker 1: You know, those are file formats that any browser could display. 330 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,280 Speaker 1: So your browser would be able to show the JEFF 331 00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:38,439 Speaker 1: or jpeg version of a PDF document, so you're not 332 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:40,920 Speaker 1: looking at the true PDF version, you're looking at an 333 00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:44,639 Speaker 1: image of it. Um But that meant that you didn't 334 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:49,680 Speaker 1: have to install something additional into your browser of choice. 335 00:20:50,320 --> 00:20:53,679 Speaker 1: They also shipped a product called active Share, which was 336 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:58,800 Speaker 1: software that had sort of a simplified photo editing suite 337 00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:02,680 Speaker 1: of tools, and it was men for the average user, 338 00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:06,199 Speaker 1: because a lot of the Adobe products previous to this 339 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:09,800 Speaker 1: point were meant for people who were specialists. You know, 340 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:14,280 Speaker 1: we're talking about photography specialists or are people who you know, 341 00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:18,320 Speaker 1: it's they're living to retouch photos, that kind of thing. Well, 342 00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:21,080 Speaker 1: they needed tools that had a lot of sophistication, and 343 00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:25,960 Speaker 1: sometimes with sophistication comes complexity, which is a barrier for 344 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:28,600 Speaker 1: an average user, someone who doesn't do this for a living, 345 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,280 Speaker 1: someone who's who's interested in it, but they don't have 346 00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:34,520 Speaker 1: the expertise to you know, if you if you hand 347 00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:37,320 Speaker 1: them a tool chest that has a thousand tools in it, 348 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:42,360 Speaker 1: it's just overwhelming. So this was Adobe's attempt to kind 349 00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:46,359 Speaker 1: of address a different market. We're talking about the average 350 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:49,840 Speaker 1: consumer and say, look, this software will let you share 351 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:53,240 Speaker 1: your photos and you can even do some simple touch ups. 352 00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:57,320 Speaker 1: Most of it automated, so that way it wasn't too 353 00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:01,440 Speaker 1: intimidating for the average user. UM and they shipped a 354 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:04,040 Speaker 1: product called press Ready, which was a publishing tool for 355 00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:08,080 Speaker 1: in jet printers. And nine was the first year that 356 00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:13,840 Speaker 1: Adobe hit the one billion dollar revenue mark. M so 357 00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:19,320 Speaker 1: big year for Adobe. Yeah, and I remember in in 358 00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:25,359 Speaker 1: Design came out. UM that was you know then the 359 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:29,080 Speaker 1: basically sort of the the update, if you will, although 360 00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:33,000 Speaker 1: it wasn't an update to PageMaker, which it bought from 361 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,080 Speaker 1: all this or when it acquired all of this. UM 362 00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:39,399 Speaker 1: and uh, you know there it was still uh, it 363 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:43,439 Speaker 1: was still a little different from from PageMaker at that 364 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,760 Speaker 1: At that point, Adobe's PageMaker was going up against Cork 365 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:49,840 Speaker 1: with its Cork Express software and those two were the 366 00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:53,400 Speaker 1: big publishing uh platforms of choice. And then in design 367 00:22:54,119 --> 00:22:56,560 Speaker 1: was you know, Adobe says, you know, this is brand new, 368 00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:58,800 Speaker 1: written from the ground up. It's going to take over 369 00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:01,359 Speaker 1: the world. It's it's much better than than our old stuff. 370 00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:05,080 Speaker 1: It's much better than their stuff. And you know, right 371 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:07,800 Speaker 1: out of the gate, maybe not, but that would go 372 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,840 Speaker 1: on to uh to do very very well, and they 373 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:15,160 Speaker 1: eventually would phase out the PageMaker right yep. In two 374 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:19,360 Speaker 1: thousand they are ranked as number forty two Unfortune's Best 375 00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:22,800 Speaker 1: Companies list, which was a point of pride for them. 376 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:26,840 Speaker 1: They acquired a company called glass Book, which was they 377 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:29,920 Speaker 1: created software for reading, creating and deploying e books. So 378 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:34,119 Speaker 1: another big move we're talking about now. Again, e publishing 379 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:36,199 Speaker 1: was always something Adobe was interested in, but now we're 380 00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:38,840 Speaker 1: talking about e books in particular. This is definitely the 381 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:42,919 Speaker 1: early days of the books two thousand. Uh, it was 382 00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:47,840 Speaker 1: CD screens really a niche market, not not doing a 383 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,960 Speaker 1: lot of business in this but Adobe kind of could 384 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:54,280 Speaker 1: see the writing on the tablet and uh, sorry to 385 00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:57,640 Speaker 1: get into it. This was also another another monumental year 386 00:23:57,680 --> 00:23:59,440 Speaker 1: for Adobe in the sense that there was a big 387 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:03,680 Speaker 1: change at the top. Warnock and Gesh became co chairman 388 00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,800 Speaker 1: of the Board of Directors and Bruce Chisen became the 389 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:11,160 Speaker 1: CEO of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Yeah, he retired from his 390 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:14,280 Speaker 1: his typical post and went on to U you know, 391 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,080 Speaker 1: to join the board and sort of step down from 392 00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:21,720 Speaker 1: the day to day stuff. So. Um. Adobe also shipped 393 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:25,639 Speaker 1: a product called live Motion one, which was product that 394 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,480 Speaker 1: was all about web graphics and animation software, and uh, 395 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:33,280 Speaker 1: a publication management and collaboration tool called in Scope one, 396 00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:37,640 Speaker 1: and um, yeah, so they're again they're diversifying a bit. 397 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:40,800 Speaker 1: So it's not just digital publishing for static documents, but 398 00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:46,359 Speaker 1: also yet more web page publication tools. Yeah. And a 399 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,840 Speaker 1: focus on cross platform to which uh you know has 400 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:53,639 Speaker 1: has been for and from where we are now the 401 00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:57,760 Speaker 1: focus for many years, you know, building formats and and 402 00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:02,399 Speaker 1: and uh making tools to create those those formats that 403 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,879 Speaker 1: will work on Windows and Macintosh computers both. Yeah. So 404 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:10,960 Speaker 1: that way, no matter who argues ATOBEE still wins. UM 405 00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:15,040 Speaker 1: two thousand one, another huge year, a artificially intelligent computer 406 00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:18,840 Speaker 1: by the name of how started to off space explorers 407 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:23,080 Speaker 1: one by one because of the problem. Okay, now my 408 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,119 Speaker 1: notes are wrong. No, In two thousand one, they made 409 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:31,960 Speaker 1: a big deal with a a major retail establishment, Barnes 410 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:36,040 Speaker 1: and Noble. So the deal was that they would start 411 00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:40,719 Speaker 1: to sell electronic books in PDF format through Barnes and Noble. 412 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:44,399 Speaker 1: So again a little early for that, but it was, 413 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:47,639 Speaker 1: you know, that sort of seeing what the future was 414 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:50,680 Speaker 1: going to be in the publication industry, so that was 415 00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:53,560 Speaker 1: kind of an interesting They also, of course, you know, 416 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:56,600 Speaker 1: we can't go a year without them acquiring somebody, so 417 00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:59,240 Speaker 1: they acquired the company called Fativa, which was a digital 418 00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:02,840 Speaker 1: photography saw were company, and they also began to license 419 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:08,399 Speaker 1: software from Sonic Solutions Technology. Sonic Solutions Technology was a 420 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:13,480 Speaker 1: company that created DVD authoring software. So now we're getting 421 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:17,520 Speaker 1: into not just publication for the web or for the desktop, 422 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:22,040 Speaker 1: or even hard copy paper documentation with you know, the 423 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:28,320 Speaker 1: PostScript printer stuff. We're talking about creating DVDs. So they 424 00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:33,760 Speaker 1: also they also shipped special versions of Acrobat Reader for 425 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,720 Speaker 1: a couple of different formats, and this is I'm mentioning 426 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,399 Speaker 1: this just to see Chris's reaction. Uh, this was the 427 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:42,720 Speaker 1: year two tho one when they shipped Acrobat Reader for 428 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:46,040 Speaker 1: palm Os. I have a little moment of silence for 429 00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:51,920 Speaker 1: palm Os. Alright, that's enough, Um, you know you. Yeah, 430 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:53,840 Speaker 1: we've done an episode on Palm and we've done an 431 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:55,800 Speaker 1: episode on HP. So if you really want to know 432 00:26:55,880 --> 00:27:00,160 Speaker 1: the whole grizzly story about Palm, well it was. It's 433 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,920 Speaker 1: sort of again, it's sort of a foreshadowing of how 434 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:05,880 Speaker 1: important the mobile market would end up being. Yeah, this 435 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:08,840 Speaker 1: is again a very early entry into the mobile market. 436 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:11,760 Speaker 1: We're talking about back in the days of the personal 437 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:15,040 Speaker 1: digital assistant days, So we have personal digital assistance for 438 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:20,440 Speaker 1: those of you who don't remember, are smartphones without the phone, 439 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:23,399 Speaker 1: who would do that? But in general, that's kind of 440 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,440 Speaker 1: what it was. So yeah, this was an idea of well, 441 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:28,879 Speaker 1: let's let's let's create a version of Acrobat Reader. They 442 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:31,280 Speaker 1: will work on a mobile device, so that way you 443 00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:34,000 Speaker 1: can load a document on a mobile device and take 444 00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:35,840 Speaker 1: it with you and you don't have to have a 445 00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:38,840 Speaker 1: computer to set up so that you can read whatever 446 00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:42,320 Speaker 1: the document is. Uh. And in two thousand two they 447 00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:46,000 Speaker 1: celebrated their twentieth anniversary. Oh yes, and they also acquired 448 00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:49,439 Speaker 1: a company, um, a Chilio or a Celio, depending on 449 00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:51,560 Speaker 1: I'm not sure how you pronounce it, but they was 450 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:55,840 Speaker 1: a company that made web enabled electronic forms, and specifically 451 00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:58,880 Speaker 1: these forms were designed to improve business processes. So that's 452 00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:02,680 Speaker 1: his exciting as it sounds, yes, but it's very important. 453 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,000 Speaker 1: It's very lucrative, right, um. Yeah, and and uh and 454 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 1: also in two thousand one, by the way, I have 455 00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:12,920 Speaker 1: listed that John Warnock retired officially from day to day 456 00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:16,439 Speaker 1: operations of the company, so the founders are no longer 457 00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:22,080 Speaker 1: doing the every day Actually they probably were, but but 458 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,440 Speaker 1: just for frenzies. Uh So, moving onto two thousand three. 459 00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:28,239 Speaker 1: At two thousand three, they hit their peak as far 460 00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:31,480 Speaker 1: as I can tell anyway, on the Fortune's Best One lists, 461 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,080 Speaker 1: they rose all the way to number five. So they 462 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,960 Speaker 1: had been appearing on the list year after year, but 463 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:42,240 Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, I believe two thousand three was 464 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:44,240 Speaker 1: when they got as high up on the list as 465 00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:48,400 Speaker 1: they've ever been. They also, of course, guess what they did, 466 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:53,440 Speaker 1: acquired a company, yes, Centrillium, which was a digital audio 467 00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:56,640 Speaker 1: tool company, and they also acquired a company called Yellow 468 00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:01,160 Speaker 1: Dragon Technology, which was again all be getting into a business. 469 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:04,880 Speaker 1: Very early on, Yellow Dragon Technology created x m L 470 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 1: messaging and metadata management software, so x m L Extensible 471 00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:15,600 Speaker 1: Markup Language was something developed to make web pages a 472 00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:21,520 Speaker 1: more rich medium because HTML had certain limitations that it 473 00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:28,080 Speaker 1: was not really able to go beyond without additional stuff 474 00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:30,760 Speaker 1: supporting it, and XML in a way is one of 475 00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:35,560 Speaker 1: the many things that kind of bolstered HTML. Also made 476 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:38,240 Speaker 1: it easier to do things like the metadata menada is 477 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:43,080 Speaker 1: very important. Mentadata kind of tells a computer program what 478 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:47,840 Speaker 1: the content of a particular document, whether it's web page 479 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:51,760 Speaker 1: or uh you know, a document like a like you know, 480 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:55,000 Speaker 1: just something that you're creating on a computer. It gives 481 00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:58,600 Speaker 1: the computer information about what that documents about or how 482 00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:02,840 Speaker 1: to uh sw that document and this this becomes really 483 00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,280 Speaker 1: important in lots of different applications. The one that a 484 00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:07,960 Speaker 1: lot of people refer to because it's a very easy 485 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:12,440 Speaker 1: illustration is search. So if you are searching for stuff 486 00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:16,000 Speaker 1: and the search program looks through meta data to try 487 00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:19,800 Speaker 1: and find documents that relate to whatever your search terms are, 488 00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:23,320 Speaker 1: you need to have a really good meta data management 489 00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:26,040 Speaker 1: system in order to make sure people are finding your 490 00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,920 Speaker 1: stuff when they're searching for it. Um. Because this this 491 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,400 Speaker 1: can make or break a business. Yeah. It was especially 492 00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:35,560 Speaker 1: important in the earlier days of the web when the 493 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:40,040 Speaker 1: search engine uh spiders, which is basically a piece of 494 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:42,120 Speaker 1: software that goes from page to page on the Internet. 495 00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,280 Speaker 1: They were less sophisticated than they are now um at 496 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:48,560 Speaker 1: at reading the content on the page and determining context 497 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:50,440 Speaker 1: from from the way the content is marked up in 498 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:54,080 Speaker 1: HTML or or you know, some form of XML so 499 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:59,200 Speaker 1: um or PHP um so h yeah, there are others 500 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:01,880 Speaker 1: um but um. But yeah, I mean it's sort of 501 00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:06,160 Speaker 1: relied on people marking up a page under and in 502 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,520 Speaker 1: the code that you wouldn't necessarily see with tags that 503 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,600 Speaker 1: they wanted to be associated with meta information and uh 504 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:15,320 Speaker 1: so this this was a very important uh you know, 505 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,360 Speaker 1: business to being involved in at that point. Granted, people 506 00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:20,840 Speaker 1: started to figure out ways to gain the system by 507 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,600 Speaker 1: putting in irrelevant information and sta data so that they 508 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:28,120 Speaker 1: would get lots of traffic. Uh it wouldn't necessarily be 509 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:31,160 Speaker 1: productive traffic because people would go to the page and say, 510 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:34,040 Speaker 1: this is not what I was looking for at all. Uh, 511 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:36,960 Speaker 1: It's just that someone happened to include stuff in meta data. 512 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:41,360 Speaker 1: That's the reason why the Google algorithm is so sophisticated. 513 00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:45,360 Speaker 1: It needed to do things like just completely disregard meta 514 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:47,920 Speaker 1: data for the most part and concentrate on the content 515 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:50,440 Speaker 1: of the web page itself in order to try and 516 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:54,440 Speaker 1: get you the best results for whatever search query you 517 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,280 Speaker 1: put in, and other other search engines do similar things 518 00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:03,880 Speaker 1: using you know, a very uh complex approach to curating data. Uh. 519 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,040 Speaker 1: So we're still in two thousand three. They also decided 520 00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:09,720 Speaker 1: to ship some products. You know, they weren't happy just 521 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:14,840 Speaker 1: acquiring companies, so beyond updating their suite of software, Adobe 522 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:19,720 Speaker 1: also shipped new stuff like Encore DVD, also a piece 523 00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:22,720 Speaker 1: of software called Audition one, which was a digital audio 524 00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:26,880 Speaker 1: editing environment that this was mainly meant for professionals, people 525 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:31,239 Speaker 1: who are you that's their living is editing audio, So 526 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 1: this wasn't something that the average user would go out 527 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:37,680 Speaker 1: and buy necessarily. Um. They also had a product called 528 00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:41,920 Speaker 1: Version Q, which was a file management system. Uh and 529 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:45,720 Speaker 1: again this doesn't sound particularly sexy or anything, but Version 530 00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 1: Q what it would allow you to do is track 531 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:52,480 Speaker 1: different versions of files so that you could zero in 532 00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:54,960 Speaker 1: on the specific version you needed to whenever you were 533 00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:58,200 Speaker 1: doing publication. This is incredibly important in the publishing world, 534 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:04,120 Speaker 1: particularly before there were a lot of collaborative environments available, 535 00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:07,840 Speaker 1: because you know, typically what would happen is someone would 536 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:10,920 Speaker 1: create a file on their machine and then they might 537 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:15,040 Speaker 1: copy that file onto a disk or later on a 538 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:18,360 Speaker 1: USB drive, or perhaps email it to someone else who 539 00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:20,719 Speaker 1: would then open it perhaps make some changes. Well, now 540 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,560 Speaker 1: you've got two versions of that file out there in 541 00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:25,720 Speaker 1: the wild. There's the original version that's on the person 542 00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:29,080 Speaker 1: who created its machine, there's the edited version that's on 543 00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:31,240 Speaker 1: the other machine that the edited version might get sent 544 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,080 Speaker 1: to someone else and makes further changes. So you very 545 00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:38,040 Speaker 1: quickly get into the situation where someone coming from outside 546 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,160 Speaker 1: may not know which version is the one they need 547 00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:45,760 Speaker 1: to work with. Yeah, so version Q was kind of 548 00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:49,080 Speaker 1: a way to help try and keep tabs on what's 549 00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:52,760 Speaker 1: going on so that confusion would not ruin a project. 550 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:57,200 Speaker 1: And trust me, I've worked on projects that where where 551 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,560 Speaker 1: we had major setbacks because someone was using an out 552 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:04,320 Speaker 1: of date file for part of the project. Um, not 553 00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:06,480 Speaker 1: a how stuff works. I was gonna say, I'm sorry 554 00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:08,680 Speaker 1: about that. No, No, it wasn't at how stuff works. 555 00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:14,080 Speaker 1: It was in my previous life working in other venues 556 00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:16,560 Speaker 1: that I will not name, but anyway, it is a 557 00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:20,640 Speaker 1: very frustrating experience. So again, not not something that you know, 558 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:24,320 Speaker 1: those of us who are gamers would necessarily think as exciting, 559 00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:29,200 Speaker 1: but it's very very important. And you know, Uh, Macromedia 560 00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:32,680 Speaker 1: around this time has bundled uh it's some of its 561 00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:36,520 Speaker 1: software together. You know, the freehand um drawing program that's 562 00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:40,279 Speaker 1: sort of a competitor for Adobe Illustrator and Flash and fireworks, 563 00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:45,239 Speaker 1: um Dreamweaver. That's uh, every time you say that, the 564 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:53,000 Speaker 1: song goes through my head, I'm I'm just imagining Wayne's world. Okay. Anyhow, Um, 565 00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:57,200 Speaker 1: and so yeah, around this time, back in two thousand three, 566 00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:00,920 Speaker 1: Adobe fights back. It bundles together first version of its 567 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:04,759 Speaker 1: Creative Suite, Version one point Oh yeah. So this was 568 00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:10,880 Speaker 1: you know, definitely a way of making a stand and 569 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:14,879 Speaker 1: putting together these products that Adobe was known for and 570 00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:17,640 Speaker 1: pricing them in a way where someone who is really 571 00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:21,359 Speaker 1: really determined to go into desktop publishing could get all 572 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:23,800 Speaker 1: the tools they need in one suite as opposed to 573 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:27,440 Speaker 1: buying it piecemeal. Well yeah, because um, you might prefer 574 00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:32,600 Speaker 1: one company's tool over another, You might prefer Illustrator over freehand. 575 00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,680 Speaker 1: But then you'd want dream weaver to Uh yeah, I 576 00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:38,200 Speaker 1: did that on purpose to do your web design and 577 00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:42,120 Speaker 1: maybe flash and but you needed Photoshop. So and of 578 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:45,560 Speaker 1: course Macromedia and Adobe both knew this. Okay, well, we'll 579 00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:48,399 Speaker 1: put together a bundle of software that's maybe a little 580 00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:50,520 Speaker 1: cheaper than if you bought them all together, you know, 581 00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:54,440 Speaker 1: one by one, and maybe we can lock people into 582 00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:58,319 Speaker 1: our environment. Gee that that's not anything like the way 583 00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:01,319 Speaker 1: software companies do that today, not at all. So two 584 00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:04,879 Speaker 1: thousand four, let's get the acquisitions out of the way. 585 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,160 Speaker 1: Q Link Business Process Management suffer a company and okay, 586 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:12,040 Speaker 1: y z or o kis so the three D technology company. 587 00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:16,879 Speaker 1: H we're both acquired by Adobe. Uh. And in two 588 00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:20,680 Speaker 1: thousand five A Shantanu Narai, and you know I mentioned 589 00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:23,279 Speaker 1: him earlier, he becomes the president and CEO O of 590 00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,759 Speaker 1: Adobe Systems. And this is also two thou five was 591 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:31,240 Speaker 1: a big, big year because that whole macro media company 592 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:33,839 Speaker 1: that has been a thorn in adobe side for so long. 593 00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:41,080 Speaker 1: They announced Adobe announces a plan to acquire Macromedia and 594 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:45,000 Speaker 1: uh and the acquisition is done in an all stock transaction, 595 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:48,760 Speaker 1: so instead of cash changing hands, we're talking about stocks, 596 00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:52,000 Speaker 1: and it was valued at three point four billion with 597 00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:56,160 Speaker 1: a B dollars. Yes, to to put that in perspective, 598 00:36:56,400 --> 00:36:59,560 Speaker 1: the revenue for that year was one point nine six 599 00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:02,440 Speaker 1: billion in for Adobe. So you're talking about, you know, 600 00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:06,320 Speaker 1: a deal that's uh, it's more than a well nearly 601 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:09,600 Speaker 1: twice the amount of what the revenue was for that year. Yeah. 602 00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:12,920 Speaker 1: And as you might expect this, Uh, this caused a 603 00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:16,840 Speaker 1: lot of consternation over whether or not this would be 604 00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:21,200 Speaker 1: permitted because, um, you know, Adobe and Macromedia had been 605 00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:25,680 Speaker 1: the two big creative packages that that fought against one another. Again, 606 00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:28,200 Speaker 1: like I said, they had bundled their software. You were 607 00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:30,720 Speaker 1: you were an Adobe person or you're a Macromedia person, 608 00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:33,400 Speaker 1: and uh, well you know that sort of made it 609 00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:37,319 Speaker 1: a monopoly in some people's eyes. Uh not so as 610 00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:41,560 Speaker 1: far as regulators, they decided to go ahead and permit 611 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:44,920 Speaker 1: that to happen. Yeah. And uh and this is when 612 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:51,880 Speaker 1: Adobe takes stewardship of Flash. Uh, savior of the universe. 613 00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:56,880 Speaker 1: Now we're now we're we we transferred to queen. Uh. 614 00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:59,839 Speaker 1: This is we haven't really touched on it here all 615 00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:02,000 Speaker 1: the we did talk about a bit with XML. Flash 616 00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:06,800 Speaker 1: was one of those things developed to give more functionality 617 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:10,319 Speaker 1: through the web browsing experience than HTML could provide on 618 00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:14,400 Speaker 1: its own. Uh. When we did our episode about HTML five, 619 00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,799 Speaker 1: we talked about flash quite a bit. Uh. It was 620 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:19,560 Speaker 1: are you are you smiling because you're thinking of the 621 00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:22,319 Speaker 1: song every time? Okay? So so dreamweaver for me and 622 00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:26,200 Speaker 1: flash for you? That makes sense? Okay, So anyway, yeah, 623 00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:29,480 Speaker 1: it's like that. So Flash was a way to have 624 00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:34,120 Speaker 1: these rich media experiences within a web environment that would 625 00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:37,200 Speaker 1: not natively be supported by HTML and meant that you 626 00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:39,600 Speaker 1: had to install this plug in on your browser so 627 00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:42,320 Speaker 1: that you could be able to access this content. Otherwise 628 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:44,719 Speaker 1: you would just get a little error message saying you 629 00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:46,799 Speaker 1: could not see whatever it was that was on there. 630 00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:50,480 Speaker 1: And so um Untobe took ownership of that at this point. 631 00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:52,719 Speaker 1: So that's kind of why if you've ever if you've 632 00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:55,600 Speaker 1: always heard of Flash associated with Adobe, that's why it 633 00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:59,200 Speaker 1: was in two thousand five when they acquired Macromedia. Two 634 00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:02,719 Speaker 1: thousand six, they continued acquiring companies. They acquired file Line 635 00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:06,319 Speaker 1: Digital Rights Management, which was actually a division from uh 636 00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:10,080 Speaker 1: novice Ware. Digital rights management is one of those terms 637 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:14,080 Speaker 1: that is almost like a four letter word in the 638 00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:17,960 Speaker 1: minds of many people who follow technology. Digital rights management, 639 00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:21,560 Speaker 1: of course, is all about protecting intellectual property by putting 640 00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:25,520 Speaker 1: limitations on what people can do with software in an 641 00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:30,920 Speaker 1: attempt to prevent piracy. UH. A lot of the complaints 642 00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:34,799 Speaker 1: around DRM from the consumer side stem from the fact 643 00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:41,280 Speaker 1: that sometimes these restrictions are they go too far. For instance, 644 00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:45,880 Speaker 1: having a DRM that requires that you have a persistent 645 00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:49,440 Speaker 1: connection to the Internet to work on software that is 646 00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:54,920 Speaker 1: not itself dependent upon Internet connectivity. That would seem prohibitive. 647 00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,880 Speaker 1: If I'm running a program and all it needs to 648 00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,400 Speaker 1: do is run natively on my machine, I should have 649 00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:02,640 Speaker 1: an expectation that that machine does not need to be 650 00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:05,239 Speaker 1: hooked up to the Internet for me to successfully run 651 00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:08,400 Speaker 1: this software. At least that's that's the general argument. I 652 00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:11,399 Speaker 1: happen to agree with that argument, but I should say 653 00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:14,400 Speaker 1: that's just one perspective, and I'm not. I don't mean 654 00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:18,480 Speaker 1: to say that's the end all be all. Uh. They 655 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:23,799 Speaker 1: also acquired Traded Technologies France TTF, which created software to 656 00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:28,640 Speaker 1: allow interoperability between CAD systems and multi CAD mock up 657 00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:33,239 Speaker 1: CAD being computer aided design. Yeah so uh yeah, this 658 00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:36,440 Speaker 1: is getting a little more specialized. Uh. They also acquired 659 00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:41,440 Speaker 1: Pixman Tech Technology, which was the digital imaging software company. Also, 660 00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:45,400 Speaker 1: they acquired Interact, which was a web content management company. 661 00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:48,480 Speaker 1: They acquired Serious Magic, which was a video software and 662 00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:52,440 Speaker 1: communications tool company, and they acquired act Imagine Technology, which 663 00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:56,520 Speaker 1: was a video and interactive vector graphics company. So lots 664 00:40:56,560 --> 00:40:59,000 Speaker 1: and lots of acquisitions. In two thousand and six, they 665 00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:03,000 Speaker 1: also it a huge revenue two point five seven five 666 00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:06,440 Speaker 1: billion dollars. The previous year was one point nine six, 667 00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:12,279 Speaker 1: so that's a pretty impressive growth um. And in two 668 00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:17,600 Speaker 1: thousand seven, Bruce Chisen resigns as CEO and Shantanu Narayan 669 00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:21,799 Speaker 1: becomes the new CEO, so he steps up from presidency 670 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:26,360 Speaker 1: O t CEO UH. That same year, they shipped the 671 00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:31,080 Speaker 1: Photoshop light Room software suite, which lets you manage digital 672 00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:34,839 Speaker 1: images and post production work. And they also produced sound Booth, 673 00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:38,160 Speaker 1: which was an audio editing software suite for people who 674 00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:42,520 Speaker 1: were not audio professionals, So it was a more accessible 675 00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:47,120 Speaker 1: audio tool suite for people who wanted to produce audio 676 00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:50,280 Speaker 1: work but didn't have that level of expertise to fiddle 677 00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:53,360 Speaker 1: with all the knobs on that board that's just outside 678 00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:55,640 Speaker 1: this room. That intimidates me every time I see it, 679 00:41:55,680 --> 00:42:01,919 Speaker 1: because y'all those things move on their own. Well, um yeah, 680 00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,800 Speaker 1: they they Adobe had started really getting into the the 681 00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:11,520 Speaker 1: casual hobbyist market. I think they realized, Um, well they've 682 00:42:11,719 --> 00:42:14,680 Speaker 1: their their software has been pirated quite a bit. UM 683 00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:18,640 Speaker 1: and they Photoshop in particular, that's probably one of the 684 00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:21,360 Speaker 1: most pirated pieces of software that I'm aware of, and 685 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:25,120 Speaker 1: I think in in some way, uh, they have decided 686 00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:29,719 Speaker 1: to reach out to the plain old, everyday consumer as 687 00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:32,760 Speaker 1: a result of this, and as a really good business 688 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:35,880 Speaker 1: opportunity anyway, UM, I think it was sort of for 689 00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:38,360 Speaker 1: for many reasons. But yeah, that that was one of 690 00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:43,080 Speaker 1: a larger series of of UM efforts in that regard, 691 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:47,120 Speaker 1: like the Element series. UM. Photoshop Elements, for example, is 692 00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:50,800 Speaker 1: a lower cost version that has, um, you know, a 693 00:42:50,920 --> 00:42:54,920 Speaker 1: lesser set of tools that the full version of Photoshop has, 694 00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:57,839 Speaker 1: but it's it's much less expensive too, and it's it's 695 00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:02,040 Speaker 1: basically aimed at, Hey, I photos of stuff, and I 696 00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:05,279 Speaker 1: like my kids and my hobbies, and I you know, 697 00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:08,520 Speaker 1: I like to to shoot photos of of my dog 698 00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:14,040 Speaker 1: and double rainbow UM and stuff like that, and I 699 00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:16,160 Speaker 1: just want to I just want to resize that photo. 700 00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:17,759 Speaker 1: I want to I want to put it in the 701 00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:20,319 Speaker 1: school newsletter for my kids, or I want to put 702 00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:23,279 Speaker 1: up online. And I don't need this crazy resolution to 703 00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,400 Speaker 1: make this this one web page way larger than it 704 00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:28,200 Speaker 1: needs to be. You know, I don't need to use 705 00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:29,959 Speaker 1: it and see m y K because it's never gonna 706 00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,239 Speaker 1: see print or if I if it does it, it 707 00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:35,920 Speaker 1: doesn't have to be perfect. Well, you know, they'll be said, hey, 708 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:37,680 Speaker 1: you know what we can We can offer you tools 709 00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:41,239 Speaker 1: for this, and they, um, they sort of split a 710 00:43:41,320 --> 00:43:45,120 Speaker 1: second line off of their their main line of software 711 00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:48,560 Speaker 1: tools and and started offering those around around this time 712 00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:52,040 Speaker 1: to too people who um, you know, may just not 713 00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:56,120 Speaker 1: need the same to the same kinds of professional level tools, 714 00:43:56,800 --> 00:43:59,400 Speaker 1: and and they were very successful. And this is also 715 00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:03,160 Speaker 1: the time where I alluded to it in the previous episode. 716 00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:05,520 Speaker 1: You know, there was a battle between Apple and Adobe 717 00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:08,600 Speaker 1: with the whole fonts issue where Apple wanted to try 718 00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:11,640 Speaker 1: and develop its own fonts, and it actually eventually did 719 00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:15,520 Speaker 1: because it was licensing fonts from Adobe and felt that 720 00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:19,560 Speaker 1: those licensing fees were becoming prohibitively expensive, so Apple began 721 00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:22,560 Speaker 1: to design their own and well, there was another fight 722 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:25,640 Speaker 1: that was gearing up around this time. And it's because 723 00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:27,960 Speaker 1: in two thousand seven, that's also when we had the 724 00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:33,040 Speaker 1: introduction of a piece of technology that has revolutionized consumer 725 00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:36,920 Speaker 1: electronics in the latter half of the first decade of 726 00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:40,520 Speaker 1: two thousand that was that was a complicated sentence thank you, 727 00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:44,239 Speaker 1: That would be the iPhone. So the iPhone comes out. 728 00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:50,080 Speaker 1: It is the first truly successful consumer smartphone in the 729 00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:52,960 Speaker 1: United States. There were other smartphones that were popular in 730 00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:55,320 Speaker 1: other parts of the world. There were some smartphones that 731 00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:59,320 Speaker 1: had fans in the US, but they just it just was, 732 00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:01,399 Speaker 1: you know, they were in minority. Most people were using 733 00:45:01,680 --> 00:45:03,960 Speaker 1: what we call feature phones now cell phones that had 734 00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:07,120 Speaker 1: some limited web connectivity. I guess they didn't link dumb phones. 735 00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:09,280 Speaker 1: I was really working on that. Yeah, Well, the iPhone 736 00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:12,960 Speaker 1: ended up being the first true runaway success smartphone in 737 00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:18,160 Speaker 1: the United States. And Steve jobs Uh famously said that 738 00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:22,920 Speaker 1: he didn't believe that the iPhone or the iOS operating system, 739 00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:24,960 Speaker 1: which at the time was not called iOS but that's 740 00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:27,640 Speaker 1: what we call now, um that it would not support 741 00:45:27,719 --> 00:45:33,399 Speaker 1: flash because they decided that it they wouldn't make it happen. Well, 742 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:37,080 Speaker 1: the essentially what the arguments against it at the time, 743 00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:40,759 Speaker 1: and you could you know, you could maybe uh dispute 744 00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:45,160 Speaker 1: the truth behind it. But the arguments were that flash 745 00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:49,240 Speaker 1: would require so much processing power that it would drain 746 00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:53,080 Speaker 1: the battery life of an iPhone and create an unsatisfactory 747 00:45:53,320 --> 00:45:56,480 Speaker 1: experience for the consumer. So you go out, you buy 748 00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:57,960 Speaker 1: an iPhone, You're like, this is awesome. I'm going to 749 00:45:58,000 --> 00:45:59,600 Speaker 1: serve the web and oh, this is great. I'm looking 750 00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:01,799 Speaker 1: all these pages and two hours later like, wait a minute, 751 00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:05,200 Speaker 1: I have to charge this thing again. Um and Steve 752 00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:07,759 Speaker 1: Jobs said that's not a good experience. I don't want 753 00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:09,800 Speaker 1: that to happen on our product. I'm not going to 754 00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:12,160 Speaker 1: allow it to happen because I'm not gonna have Flash 755 00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:16,239 Speaker 1: work on this this device. It created a lot of 756 00:46:17,239 --> 00:46:21,640 Speaker 1: challenges for developers for all sorts of things, what web 757 00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:25,000 Speaker 1: apps as well as iPhone apps, things like that. Um 758 00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:27,719 Speaker 1: and it was kind of a glove in the face 759 00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:32,120 Speaker 1: of Adobe saying, look, we're creating a juggernaut here. This 760 00:46:32,280 --> 00:46:34,360 Speaker 1: is going to be the future of computing, whether you 761 00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:36,600 Speaker 1: like it or not. And we are not supporting this 762 00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:40,400 Speaker 1: product that you have taken ownership of. And um and 763 00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:43,279 Speaker 1: it just got uglier from there. I mean, every people 764 00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:47,480 Speaker 1: started taking sides designers. A lot of designers love Flash 765 00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:49,799 Speaker 1: because I mean they can really show what they can 766 00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:53,600 Speaker 1: do with the with the animation and and you know graphics. 767 00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:56,480 Speaker 1: It's it can make beautiful web applications and hey, you 768 00:46:56,520 --> 00:46:58,440 Speaker 1: know we've touched on it in the past. To h 769 00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:00,719 Speaker 1: the web wasn't designed to do what we do with 770 00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:04,680 Speaker 1: it these days. And Johns's argument was that it would 771 00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:07,959 Speaker 1: be better to support the development of HTML five, which 772 00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:12,320 Speaker 1: the next generation of the hypertext markup language that would 773 00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:17,800 Speaker 1: uh natively support things like video and audio uh in 774 00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:21,160 Speaker 1: ways that HTML the previous versions of HTML did not. 775 00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:24,080 Speaker 1: So that was his argument was like, instead of just 776 00:47:24,320 --> 00:47:30,239 Speaker 1: continuously adding on additional elements to our web browsing experience, 777 00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:35,000 Speaker 1: let's redefined, redefined the markup language itself so that we 778 00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:38,399 Speaker 1: don't need all these added elements that are just making 779 00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:41,640 Speaker 1: this clunkier and it's requiring more processing power. Now, this 780 00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:44,040 Speaker 1: is Steve Jobs argument, I should I should point out 781 00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:47,440 Speaker 1: not my own, because I'm an Android phone owner and 782 00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:53,840 Speaker 1: my Android phone runs a version of Flash. Um, but 783 00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:57,480 Speaker 1: that was that was the gauntlet there, and uh as 784 00:47:57,560 --> 00:48:00,360 Speaker 1: the years go on, it got pretty I mean it 785 00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:03,480 Speaker 1: got pretty nasty, to the point where I'm going to 786 00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:06,320 Speaker 1: jump ahead a little bit, but in two thousand and eleven, 787 00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:11,040 Speaker 1: Adobe announced they would stop developing flash for mobile after 788 00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:14,680 Speaker 1: version eleven point one and instead they would focus on 789 00:48:14,840 --> 00:48:19,160 Speaker 1: HTML five. They essentially acquiesced and said, you know, we're 790 00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:23,640 Speaker 1: getting enough pressure here, We're going to stop pushing flash 791 00:48:23,760 --> 00:48:27,120 Speaker 1: for mobile devices. Um and that was you know, that 792 00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:30,759 Speaker 1: was kind of big news. Well, you know, there were 793 00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,360 Speaker 1: there was a group of people that was sort of 794 00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:36,200 Speaker 1: in the middle, and I admit I sort of belonged 795 00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:39,919 Speaker 1: to that group where I could see why Adobe would 796 00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:43,160 Speaker 1: defend Flash. I mean, you know, it's a flash cow, 797 00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:46,080 Speaker 1: I mean cash cow sort of in a way. I mean, 798 00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:48,800 Speaker 1: you know, it's a it's a good technology and in 799 00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:52,040 Speaker 1: some respects and it there really wasn't There's not anything 800 00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:56,000 Speaker 1: i mean, other than than Microsoft silver Light. There's nothing 801 00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:57,800 Speaker 1: that I can think of right off the top of 802 00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:02,920 Speaker 1: my head that's um as as mature as a competitor 803 00:49:03,040 --> 00:49:05,600 Speaker 1: for flash and and like a software that you can 804 00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:08,319 Speaker 1: go build something in and make a website that has 805 00:49:08,719 --> 00:49:12,439 Speaker 1: interactive content like that. UM So you know, they would, 806 00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:14,560 Speaker 1: of course they would defend it. But at the same time, 807 00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:18,560 Speaker 1: I thought, this is Adobe, they should be able to 808 00:49:18,600 --> 00:49:22,960 Speaker 1: come up with some killer HTML five editor and then 809 00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:27,440 Speaker 1: that's really what they did. They introduced their edge UM software, 810 00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:31,200 Speaker 1: which is is uh still you know, sort of brand 811 00:49:31,239 --> 00:49:34,520 Speaker 1: new ish. Uh still very newish, let's say that UM. 812 00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:37,520 Speaker 1: And you know, they're these tools are designed to work 813 00:49:37,640 --> 00:49:42,399 Speaker 1: with HTML five and and other related technologies using UH 814 00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:47,960 Speaker 1: standards like CSS UM and UH web fonts. You're starting 815 00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:50,680 Speaker 1: to become more popular too now that you can have 816 00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:54,080 Speaker 1: fonts load in the cloud rather than having to have 817 00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:58,439 Speaker 1: them on the host's computer to show up UM, which 818 00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:01,080 Speaker 1: is the way it was strictly or you know that's uh. 819 00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:03,440 Speaker 1: These are innovations that they can take advantage of. And 820 00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:05,680 Speaker 1: you know, I can't think of anybody who does that 821 00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:08,719 Speaker 1: that kind of thing quite as well as Adobe. And 822 00:50:09,320 --> 00:50:11,360 Speaker 1: that's my personal opinion. Should probably kind of wrapped this 823 00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:14,200 Speaker 1: up before I finished. I should say. They also acquired 824 00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:18,239 Speaker 1: Business Catalyst, Omnature and Efficient Frontier. Yeah, well they have. 825 00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:21,600 Speaker 1: They've been moving into marketing as well web marketing. UM. 826 00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:24,759 Speaker 1: So it uh, you know, unlike some of the other 827 00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:29,560 Speaker 1: companies that that we've talked about, UM, Adobe has has 828 00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:32,960 Speaker 1: faced stiff competition from from a couple of its uh 829 00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:36,400 Speaker 1: serious serious competitors. I mean, they're still face facing h 830 00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:40,080 Speaker 1: Apple and and Avid and some of the others, but 831 00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:43,879 Speaker 1: they've they've weathered that competition, and uh, you know, there 832 00:50:43,920 --> 00:50:47,960 Speaker 1: hasn't been a lot of uh confusion and drama at 833 00:50:47,960 --> 00:50:51,000 Speaker 1: the top. And there haven't been too many huge like 834 00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:56,759 Speaker 1: departures from Adobe's core business. Like you don't see examples 835 00:50:56,880 --> 00:51:01,440 Speaker 1: of something really really unusual wool that has nothing to 836 00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:04,440 Speaker 1: do with any form of publication or editing, which is 837 00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:06,719 Speaker 1: really what Adobe is known for. You haven't really seen 838 00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:09,719 Speaker 1: anything that goes so far outside of that as to 839 00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:13,200 Speaker 1: make you say, huh. So yeah, I mean that's that's 840 00:51:13,239 --> 00:51:15,279 Speaker 1: kind of the story of Adobe so far. And I 841 00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:19,080 Speaker 1: mean the company is still going strong, and it'll be 842 00:51:19,160 --> 00:51:23,480 Speaker 1: interesting to see how Adobe, uh you know, how how 843 00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:27,960 Speaker 1: it adjusts to the HTML five era, which of course, 844 00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:31,120 Speaker 1: you know, still has not really launched. I mean, there's 845 00:51:31,239 --> 00:51:33,919 Speaker 1: there's some early development in HTML five, but it's still 846 00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:38,520 Speaker 1: not a thing with a capital T yet. Yeah, And 847 00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:40,120 Speaker 1: I think I think that was one of the reasons 848 00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:43,200 Speaker 1: why so many developers still cited on the side of 849 00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:47,880 Speaker 1: Adobe with flash was because flash is mature in HTML 850 00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:50,279 Speaker 1: five has yet to mature. In fact, there's not a 851 00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:55,440 Speaker 1: firm um standard yet. And I've got friends who are 852 00:51:55,600 --> 00:51:58,919 Speaker 1: flash animators, you know. They that's the tool they used 853 00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:02,399 Speaker 1: to create anime s and uh they have very strong 854 00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:06,480 Speaker 1: opinions on this subject, understandably so because their livelihood depends 855 00:52:06,560 --> 00:52:11,560 Speaker 1: upon this tool. And uh so their opinions are very 856 00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:15,120 Speaker 1: different from apples. So, I mean it's there. There are 857 00:52:15,120 --> 00:52:16,680 Speaker 1: a lot of sides to this story. We don't mean 858 00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:19,320 Speaker 1: to try and oversimplify it and say that one company 859 00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:23,480 Speaker 1: has the right perspective over another one. Uh. In many ways, 860 00:52:23,560 --> 00:52:26,960 Speaker 1: you could argue that both perspectives are valid, just for 861 00:52:27,239 --> 00:52:30,719 Speaker 1: different reasons. So anyway, that's the that's the story of 862 00:52:30,719 --> 00:52:33,920 Speaker 1: Adobe in two parts. And uh, we're gonna wrap it 863 00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:36,840 Speaker 1: up here. If you guys have any suggestions for topics 864 00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:38,960 Speaker 1: that we should cover in future episodes of tech Stuff, 865 00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:42,200 Speaker 1: I invite you to send us a little note letting 866 00:52:42,239 --> 00:52:46,040 Speaker 1: us know of your your brilliant idea. UM, you can 867 00:52:46,120 --> 00:52:48,240 Speaker 1: learn that note to our email address it's tech stuff 868 00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:50,560 Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com, or you can drop us a 869 00:52:50,600 --> 00:52:53,080 Speaker 1: line on Facebook or Twitter or handle of both of 870 00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:55,360 Speaker 1: those is tech Stuff, hs W and Chris and I 871 00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:59,480 Speaker 1: will talk to you again really soon. For more on this, 872 00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:02,160 Speaker 1: and of thons of other topics, visit how stuff works 873 00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:02,600 Speaker 1: dot com.