The hot news today is the acquisition of Pixmantec technologies by Adobe. The facts are limited at this point, but from what I can tell, RSE will be around until Lightroom is finished and out of public beta. RSP (which I own) will be discontinued, possibly immediately. This leaves RSP owners in an ever-unpopular situation, where the product they own is no longer supported and upgraded. It is said that Adobe will provide “an upgrade path” for RSP users to get into Lightroom. What exactly that means, remains to be seen.
I’m not sure how I personally feel about this. On the one hand, software I own and like very much is going away. Granted, my copy will continue to work for as long as I want it to. No one says I have to upgrade it. Of course, I like upgrading, getting new features, and generally giving the developers a reason to keep making things better.
On the other hand, Adobe is a monster in the industry, and for them to take notice and purchase a product I considered best really says something about that technology. For them to possibly scrap what they’ve done on their own and use RSP suggests I was right all along, and it could only get better from here.
I will reserve total judgement until after I hear what they’re actually going to do. Best case, Lightroom includes all the features that make RSP great and adds to it. Also best case, the upgrade to Lightroom will be very inexpensive for RSP users. I’m not holding my breath though.
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