Man do I ever miss Fireworks. And Dark Sky for that matter.

Fireworks really was it though.

I miss Photoshop 5. That's why I was so happy to discover and use photopea.com now :)

Still running CS2 from an old ripped disc over here. Does 95% of what I need.

My hat's off to you sir! I wish I could do it, but at some point MacOS moved on and My CS5 would crap out on me. Glad I found a clone online

CS5 predated Retina display support too

Graphite looks like a promising alternative to Fireworks for combining vector and raster graphics. I'm looking forward to the desktop version.

Idk, Apple is just as likely to kill it.

Much, much more likely. The only acquisition I can think of that Apple has allowed to continue to exist is Shazam.

Emagic's Logic is the pro software example. But they've killed others, like Chalice and RAYZ (purchased from Silicon Grail) were killed before Apple released Motion, and Nothing Real was purchased for Shake which was killed 6 years later.

The only acquisition? Emagic, the original maker of Logic was acquired some 20 years ago and now Logic is one of if not the flagship software product sold by Apple

My ability to think of examples obviously isn't that great.

I still don't see where it fits into the lineup. If there's still a PixelMator Pro in 6 months, I'll be surprised, but it won't be the first time I'm completely wrong about something.

Anyone remember Siri Assistant...?

And Siri and Shortcuts.

I was worried Workflow was totally screwed as a product after Apple bought it, but they've done a really great job at turning it into Shortcuts and integrating it across all their platforms.

Being able to put Shortcuts into Control Center in iOS 18 is a handy option, if anyone missed that you can do that now.

Though way less likely to turn it into a cursed subscription zombie.

Leaving aside pricing specifics, the main issue with subscriptions is for products that you just fire up once in a great while. So long as the pricing is reasonable, I have no particular issue with subscriptions for products I use on a routine basis--especially if they're products that more or less require ongoing updates to remain useful.

For me personally, Pixelmator is absolutely a product I just fire up once in a great while. I bought it anyway because when I need it, I need it. But there's no way I would let a program like that deflate my bank account like a pricked balloon.

I don't think you're disagreeing with me. I do subscribe to Photoshop mostly because Lightroom makes sense as a subscription. Otherwise I'd probably make do with GIMP or maybe something like Pixelmator. (I used Photoshop Elements for a long time.)

It doesn't appear that I am. All I meant to add is that if Apple turns Pixelmator into a "cursed subscription zombie" (and I very much doubt this will happen) then I will not be getting that subscription. I expect most people wouldn't either.

Interesting! Do you think a credits-based pricing would be more fair? Only pay for it when you use it? Maybe pay per click? Maybe like how cloud providers charge based on how long you have it open?

Metered pricing is basically cloud pricing. Probably reasonable for some uses but uncommon for applications at least with major providers.

Hasn't Apple gone the subscription route for ipad apps (I am fairly sure I read somewhere that Logic for iPad is subscription based)?

Why would they kill it? Is Apple in the graphic design business today?

If I was to place a bet: they are looking for the next graphics killer app for ipad and macos. They purchased Pixelmator because Pixelmator owns the intellectual property for all their code and Apple found it more convenient to buy complete IP rather than reinventing the wheel.

Doubtful. It might get worked into iPhoto or a new version of Aperture as part of their pro apps.

That would be a nice outcome. I’ve been missing a replacement for Aperture for years. I’m not a professional photographer, but I’ve got more than 30 years of photos inside of Apple Photos. Some old school scans or Photo CDs, some RAW from underwater (Photos does a poor job here), and a ton of iPhone photos.

Bringing a more premium experience to Photos would be a great complement to how you can already shell out to Pixelmator while editing photos.

The big thing Aperture nailed though was photo-management workflows - it was never that great as an image editor. I don't see anything in Pixelmator that moves the needle in an Aperture/Lightroom-type direction by integrating photo management, which was the innovation Aperture and Lightroom brought back at their roughly similar original launch dates. Pixelmator is much more a photoshop alternative IMO.

I'd put money on this acquisition being used to improve the image editing experience in photos.app on iOS/macOS, just like Dark Sky was acquired and then used to improve weather.app, rather than any return of Aperture.

Some time ago they split off Photomator as a more Aperture/Lightroom app.

Ah interesting, hadn't seen Photomator before. That does appear to indeed bring a more Aperture type experience to the editing process.

How is that different from what I said?

It would be a different name or form but it would not be dead.

Incorporating some features into an already existing product of their own is still killing the acquired product line.

I spent a lot of time in the early 2000 with Macromedia apps.. i miss Director

Me too, I produced a lot of work with it. Lingo was a gas.