[adzm]

Headline is out of date. They changed their plans. From the link:

> We are not discontinuing or removing access to Adobe Animate. Animate will continue to be available for both current and new customers, and we will ensure you continue to have access to your content. There is no longer a deadline or date by which Animate will no longer be available.

[parkersweb]

I suspect this may be driven by subscription consequences. In the UK consumer rights mean that you're able to cancel a subscription commitment if the offering is materially changed. I used this in the past when Adobe withdrew a product to cancel an annual license I no longer needed mid-term.

Making a zombie product probably has a lower impact on their revenues.

[troupo]

They only "changed" them because it materially affected them.

"We're going to provide support and security patches" means "in a year we'll quietly stop any work on it anyway"

[pjc50]

There was a cartoon on bluesky with the dialogue:

"we've listened and we're going to keep offering Animate" (crowd cheers)

".. but we're not going to make any changes to the software" (crowd cheers louder)

"wait why are they still cheering"

.. the joke being that the customers don't want the software to materially change, just so long as it continues to run.

[troupo]

We have to learn that a lot of software can be just that: done, without requiring a continuous of new superfluous features

[seg_lol]

Knowing how to finish can be just as important as how to start.

Or, a bad finish can absolutely ruin a good start.

Adobe has no clue how unattractive it is right now.

[ziml77]

> "in a year we'll quietly stop any work on it anyway"

Exactly what my guess about this is too. People who rely on Animate shouldn't rest easy just because Adobe backed off this time.

[bryant]

I mean, framed differently:

> A material number of customers see Animate as a differentiator from our competitors, so even if we only provide support and security patches, the investment is justified for retention.

I don't really think there's a hidden agenda here. The announcement surfaced new information for them, they probably reframed their own analytics and saw insights that backed maintaining Animate as a result.

[troupo]

> The announcement surfaced new information for them, they probably reframed their own analytics and saw insights

That's such corporate-speak.

It means they don't know their customers at all and/or couldn't care less. They literally told major animation studios that the product is going to be dead in just a month.

And now they slightly backtracked the decision by promising vague support and bug fixes. Internally the product is already dead (otherwise there wouldn't be an announcement), teams disbanded and/or re-organized. They will fund a skeleton crew for "bug fixes", and the product will eventually be broken beyond repair in the same time frame as in the original deprecation notice.

[bitwize]

Kinda like what happened with Xorg. WHOOPS DID I JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD

[falloutx]

People who still move to other options, if you can find something thats offline & local, as Adobe will rethink it in next couple of months again.