You are reading that statement and applying your own logic to the situation, and still are comparing the actions Adobe has taken to that of Apple.

You are wrong…

http://www.adobe.com/products/freehand/

They still sell the product… they still provide support for the product.

No one is stopping you from using the product to produce Vector Graphics. At this moment in time, you can still purchase the product, install it in accordance to the System Specs, and do your work. They are supporting and selling the last version of the product, so you can still do everything you want with it. They are just not doing any more development of the product. There is a major difference between the way Adobe has conducted itself as a company and service provider compared to the way Apple has set up a monopoly for their hardware. There is a direct comparison to the Microsoft anti-trust issues of the past. Apple is directly hindering software development companies by telling them that they can no longer use the software of their choice to develop for the iPoop. Apple wants all Software companies to purchase a Mac, and do development with Mac software, so that they are allowed to sell/run their software on Apple hardware. It is a Monopoly, and the only reason you don't see the same outcry that Microsoft dealt with is because a Mac is cool, and iPeople are brainwashed into thinking somehow this is okay.

I am a fan of the Apple hardware and some software, but the way they conduct business is shady.

rp

— Adobe and the Future of FreeHand:
No updates to FreeHand have been made for over four years, and Adobe has no plans to initiate development to add new features or to support Intel-based Macs and Windows Vista. —

As you can see, NO support and NO development, plain and simple. Kiss of death. So indeed Adobe IS removing the only other pro-vector tool to compete with AI. It appears they have stopped FreeHand in order to stop vector creation with any other pro-app than their own AI. By saying that, “All they did is make a business decision to not cannibalize their sales of Illustrator.” is exactly my point; Adobe is playing Wall Street dominance.

Here's the deal, FreeHand had 14% marketshare when it was gobbled up by Adobe. It is probably much less by now, say, 7%. This is no threat to AI sales and they got some fine FH features added to CS4-5. So what are they doing by sitting on it at this point? After 4 years of ownership, do they honestly think they will still convince FreeHand users to come on board with Illustrator? You and I both know the answer to that question and if there is any doubt, go here: http://www.freefreehand.org or the Adobe FreeHand forums.

We FH users are full-on Adobe customers so this policy towards FreeHand is Adobe management shooting itself in the foot.

Freehand RIP… sorry for your loss.

I think you almost have it, but are still explaining things wrong. Adobe did not take away Freehand and outright stop you from using the software to create “Vector”. All they did is make a business decision to not cannibalize their sales of Illustrator. BUT… they still have support for it, and as long as you keep using Freehand, you will still have the ability to use your tool of choice to create “Vector”.

Apple on the other hand, if compared to Adobe, has has said… I don't care if you want to use Freehand, or VCL, Alchemy, or Skencil, or any number of vector format design tools I have never heard of… you will use Illustrator or any other tool we think is in your best interest to use…. cause well… we are Apple and we can do that.

There is a slight difference… and as stated before… the Apple Fanboy hoards allow this to happen.

rp

Firstly George, how I or other FreeHand users missed this article of 2 months ago is a shocking. I guess not many FH users are reading this site much anymore as I would have expected more opinions. But having stumbled on it today, I suppose it's better late than never to comment.

I followed your article in agreement until the above quote and here is the difference between Apple's decision for the iPad and Adobe's decision with EOL of FreeHand; Apple is saying “no” to what app technology go on it's iPhone OS while Adobe is saying “no” to what tools can be used for VECTOR. Apple owns its iPhone OS while no one owns the Vector world. By your analogy, Adobe is presuming they “own” the vector world and tragically that is probably close to their truth. By canning FreeHand upon acquisition, it took them one step closer to “owning” vector just as Photoshop clearly “owns” image processing. I would go so far as say this seems to be their business strategy.

Would Adobe want to “own” the page-layout world if it could get its hands on Quark? I would bet, yes. What they created with Photoshop is dependence on Adobe. If they didn't believe in this or if their slogan of “We Love Choice” had any meat to it instead of a shallow slogan, Adobe would get whatever features were needed from their acquisitions to improve their apps and then release the old product back to the community. That would be honest choice and Adobe standing on its own merits instead of this Wall Street game of dominance. For FreeHand users, that is why we fight.

There is a whole post on this very topic here: http://freefreehand.wordpress.com/