To Upgrade Or Not To Upgrade?

Question

Like many on this forum I'm a bit dissapointed with the new
release of FireWorks. Since I often am in the need of exporting my
files as .PSD documents (why developers want that still beats
me.... but that's another rant) I was very happy to see the new PS
text engine in FW CS4! If anything the exporting problems I had in
CS3 (mainly with texts) would be over, right?
I downloaded the Beta, and after that downloaded the trial
version as soon as it came out. All with the intention to buy the
new FireWorks CS4..After using it for some days I experienced many
of the same "bugs" or hick-ups as have been described on this
forum. I was aware of some unstabilities in the Beta, but well that
was a Beta-version. I am surprised to see some bugs returning in
the commercial version:
- Frequent crashes (especially happening when working with
type, but not limited to that)
- Texts that "jumps out" of the blue border, and i'm not
talking about a few pixels.. but often the texts appear somewhere
down on the page while the blue box is still up there...
- Saving to PSD... often works but with more complex files it
either takes a long time or it freezes the machine (with complex
files I mean a original (large with many layers) PSD file opened in
CS4 and edited then saved back as a PSD
- Txts dont look as they look in a webbrowser (the same
problem is mentioned earlier here)
- Overall it feels as a premature and unstable release, i use
the word "feel" because I can't really put my finger on it (yes: I
know that not being that specific makes QA-testers frustrated)
I will try to make a list of bugs and crashes I encounter,
but to be quite frank: I'm using Fireworks on a professional base
and when it crashes it usually means at least 30 to 45 min (but
often more) of lost time... filling in a crash form is than the
least of my worries. And as someone else pointed out on the web...
If I buy a program I dont expect to take a side-job as a
QA-tester..
So did Adobe released an 'unfinshed' and 'unstable' release
as many claim in this forum (and elsewhere on the web)? Is it just
me (us) ?
Or could it be the other causes could be the problem (OS, old
versions, fonts, etc)?
But before pointing (screaming, throwing rotten tomatoes
etc.) to Adobe I first want to make sure I did everything possible
to set up the new package in the right way (i'm also reading a lot
about distorted preference panes and corrupt font folder etc.)
On my current machine (macbook pro 2.33 2GB) I had installed
FW CS2, FWCS3, the FWCS4 beta and now the trial version. I haven't
uninstalled CS3 as of yet.
Do you have any tips, work arounds, on how to give FW CS4 the
"freshest" installation ? Folders that need deleted, cleaned or
rebooted..., Font;s that need to be deleted etc.?
So what do you think? Take the jump and buy CS4 and upgrade
from CS3 or let the first storm pass by and wait for a better
release?
Like many of you I'm using fireworks as a professional design
tool. So an unstable version of Fireworks basically means losing
money....

Answer 1

"Martijnhinfelaar" <[email protected]> wrote
in message
news:ggoj3d$1pt$[email protected]..
> On my current machine (macbook pro 2.33 2GB) I had
installed FW CS2,
> FWCS3,
> the FWCS4 beta and now the trial version. I haven't
uninstalled CS3 as of
> yet.
Really? I never knew FW CS2 existed....
Personally, I've love to have Design Premium, but I just
shelled out $600
for that suite in CS3 about 8-9 months ago. Not really ready
to do so
again... besides, if I understand correctly, only Photoshop
is 64 bit. I
want to upgrade when the whole suite is ready, and about then
I'll be ready
to jump to a new computing environment.
Tim G.
http://www.pactumweb.com
http://www.shortordersite.com
Be smart:
http://www.pactumweb.com/client/tips.php