When Adobe released the CS6 Suite, maybe one entire year after they had just released CS5, I didn’t have high expectations for it, the moment I saw that they had redesigned the software down from the splash graphics to the software’s workspaces.
Recently, I ran into a problem in InDesign CS6, where I couldn’t get a particular file to print, or export to PDF. Upon attempting to initiate either task, the program would crash. It was related to a problem in the file itself, as troubleshooting with blank new documents or other projects did not replicate the problem. After about 20 minutes of frustrating unsuccessful troubleshooting, I realized that I had still not uninstalled CS5. I saved my problematic file out as an IDML legacy file, and opened it up in InDesign CS5.
It printed without any complications.
It PDF’d without any hesitation.
In conclusion, it didn’t work in CS6, because CS6 is fucking retarded. I thought about it for a second and chastised myself, because honestly, this was, and shouldn’t ever have been, much of a surprise.
The way Adobe has progressed throughout the years has been pretty systematic. The pre-CS creative packaging of Photoshop 7.0, Illustrator 10 and the InDesign 2.0 was one of the most solid combinations I ever enjoyed. It was around this time that I feel that I had some of the most crucial growth in the development of the fairly-everyday skillset I use today. Even the first CS suite wasn’t that bad. CS1 and CS2 versions of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign were all solid programs, and there was noticeable advancement and integration of useful, convenience-creating solutions going from one to the other.
When CS3 came out, it created a whole new chapter for the company, because this was the first generation in which Adobe officially launched all of their new Macromedia assets under their own name. Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks joined the suite and list of software I use and/or dabble with from time to time, and most of Freehand’s most useful functions were assimilated into Illustrator and InDesign (except for the all-important ability to create multi-page documents of varying sizes).
But this endeavor ended up turning into this beautiful disaster, and sowed the seeds of resentment towards Adobe for this graphic designer. Photoshop and Illustrator were mostly fine, but InDesign, quite possibly my bread and butter, turned out to be this program of endless misery and inexplicable ass-hattery. Constant crashes, unexplainable events of malfunction, file corruption; you name the problem, it existed somewhere in the bowels of the software. CS3 caused me to have some of the most elaborate rages in my professional life, and I’ve brogged about my discontent towards Adobe on numerous platforms, many different times. And no, I am not the one responsible for writing the segment on Wikipedia about how much InDesign CS3 sucked; clearly, I am not the only designer on the planet to have felt this resentment.
Anyway, CS4 was a welcome upgrade, and much to my pleasure, InDesign, among the other software in the suite definitely seemed more stable. CS5 was just as seamless, and to be honest, I still didn’t really recall the most notable differences off the top of my head, but the fact that I went about my days using CS5 with minimal problems is testament to its stability, in my opinion.
But then CS6 was released suspiciously quick, and it was at this point I realized that Adobe operated much like a car company. But instead of four-year generational lifespans, Adobe seemed to operate in three-year cycles. CS1 and CS2 built off and perfected what was originally laid out in the initial creative suite. CS4 and CS5 improved on the fucking nightmare spawned in CS3. And CS6 is the start of the new generation of the Adobe creative suites.
The rule of thumb with cars is that you typically avoid the first year of a new generation. Let that first year get all the kinks, recalls, and flaws ironed out. If you don’t care about being last in line, the fourth year of a car’s generation is almost always the most reliable year, because it’s had three years to perfect. Adobe’s kind of the same way. And much like its predecessors, the first generation always sucks, and leaves us already counting down the days until the release of CS7.
