On Mon, 23 Jul 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>While it is a consummation devoutly to be wished, I predict that the
>"backlash" will be gone in a mere matter of weeks, if not days. Let's
>face it: the people most likely to be Adobe *customers* are anything but
>hungry. A fat customer is an apathetic customer...
It would take a *lot* to alienate Adobe's customers on a substantial
enough basis to affect Adobe. Most of them probably haven't even
heard about this debacle and if they did, wouldn't care.
But Adobe has one other check on its behavior -- it lives in the
valley and *HAS TO* attract really bright geeks to work there.
Really bright geeks have probably heard about this and are angry
about it. This will hurt them in recruiting, and (unconfirmed
rumor) maybe it has already cost them somebody they can't replace.
Truly brilliant coders are different from normal people. They have
something like a THOUSAND times the productivity of the merely
competent professional and command only about three times the salary
(Well, at least until they start their own companies, which about
half of them eventually do). There is no other industry where three
orders of magnitude separate the pros from the truly brilliant.
Needless to say, brilliant coders can work wherever they damn well
want, and I hear (unconfirmed) that one such individual has jumped
ship from Adobe (or threatened to) over this. I'm still trying to
confirm it, and if so, find out exactly who.
Adobe's fine on the consumption side -- it's customers, as you say,
are fat and happy. But on the production side, Adobe can't take
very many really serious hits. At best, it only ever had about
five truly brilliant coders at any one time, and in this industry
there is just no making up for losing one. If it turns out to be
true, their productivity is damaged for years to come.
Bear