Users of FreeHand collaborate to keep app alive

Several users of the vector-based drawing program Freehand have organized a grassroots effort, Free FreeHand, that appeals for other users to help keep the software alive despite a lack of interest by the new owners of the parent company. Adobe obtained rights to the software following a merger with Macromedia.

Following the merger, Adobe announced plans to abandon FreeHand and discontinue development of further feature-based updates. Users were urged to migrate to Adobe Illustrator, although a number of customers allegedly expressed objections to the required transition.

Although FreeHand still works with the latest Snow Leopard operating system, the lack of development has contributed to a growing list of bugs. PDF export does not support overprint colors or bleed, while gradients often break and many fonts do not print correctly. The Mac OS X update also dropped support for PowerPC-based systems, requiring Freehand users to install Rosetta on Intel-based Macs.

Despite the Adobe acquisition, FreeHand's supporters are working to keep the software alive for current users and potential customers in the future. The organization suggests there are several possible ways to achieve its goals. The group claims that Adobe must continue to provide updates to the software, or release the code and licensing to the open-source community for further development.

As a last resort, Free FreeHand may attempt to take legal action to protect the software. "Call it a class action antitrust lawsuit," the organization says. "Our lawyers have advised us that such a course would be futile and doomed to failure, to which we have two responses: 1.) How will we know this unless we try and 2.) What other choice have we been left with if our first two avenues prove to be dead ends?"

by MacNN Staff