I recently installed Adobe Creative Suite 4 on my Macintosh. I wanted to use Photoshop for some graphical work, and InDesign for technical document creation. I unselected all the other components that I didn’t want to install. After the installer was finished I had a several, 8 or 9 if I recall correctly, new folders in my Application folder with various Adobe apps in them. I was only installing 2 apps. Why all the other folders? This should have been a sign that Adobe are now pedlars of bloatware. The running apps themselves were slow on my MacBook Pro (2.8Ghz C2D, 4GB Ram and 7200rpm disk machine).
I uninstalled the whole lot. Well I tried. The uninstall option left several bits of Adobe detritus in my Applications folder and in my Preferences Folder. I deleted that manually.
Bye-bye and good riddance Adobe CS. Maybe CS 5 will be different but I doubt it. Given their poor record with the Mac version of Flash I don’t have much hope for their other Adobe produced Macintosh software in the near future. BTW if you haven’t installed ClickToFlash on your Mac, to control Flash loading when browsing, I’d recommend you do so as soon as possible.
Below are some links for alternatives to the Creative Suite Apps. These might fit your needs better than the full Adobe CS offerings. These may not have all the same features of Creative Suite applications, but they are lightweight, easier to use and probably better for most non-professionals. However, some of those listed below are probably better for professionals. Final Cut and Soundtrack, for example.
Alternatives to Photoshop
- Pixelmator – http://www.pixelmator.com/
- Acorn – http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/
- GraphicConverter – http://www.lemkesoft.com/content/188/graphicconverter.html
- GNU Image Manipulation Program – http://gimp.lisanet.de/Website/News/News.html
Alternatives to inDesign
- Pages – http://www.apple.com/uk/iwork/pages/what-is-pages.html
- Swift Publisher – http://www.belightsoft.com/products/swiftpublisher/overview.php
Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat
Alternatives to Dreamweaver
- RapidWeaver – http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/
Alternatives to Illustrator
- EasyDraw – http://eazydraw.com/
- OmniGraffle – http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnigraffle/
Alternatives to Premier Pro
- iMovie – http://www.apple.com/uk/ilife/imovie/
- Final Cut Pro – http://www.apple.com/uk/finalcutstudio/
- Final Cut Express – http://www.apple.com/uk/finalcutexpress/
Alternatives to Soundbooth
- Soundtrack Pro – http://www.apple.com/uk/finalcutstudio/soundtrackpro/
- Fission – http://rogueamoeba.com/fission/
Alternatives to After Effects
I’ll add to this list if any others come to my attention. I might add some options for Microsoft Windows based users as well. Feel free to give me your suggestions for either Macintosh or Windows apps that do any of the functions shown in the lists.