Is Freehand dead?

Though I like the Adobe apps in general, Illustrator never has been my favorite. FreeHand MX still does what I want and isn't a CS upgrade every 18 months overkill for freelancers with a budget like me?

I use to be a Freehand "evangelist" but since I started using Illustrator I never looked back. Just the integration itself between Ai and InDesign+PSD makes using CS worth.

All I'm saying is that Macromedia might miss the boat!

i think Freehand kicks ass when doing small brochures on tight deadlines. It's just the fastest to use for me. I love illustrator for logos, illustrations and packaging, but not for smaller pagecount jobs. I guess I need to get into InDesign, that might replace my need for Freehand. I think there are definitely some cool interface ideas that Adobe can take from Macromedia. DreamWeaver is just too slow and complex for me even on a G5 with 2GB RAM. I'll have to take a closer look on GoLive as well. I really like Flash and I don't think that's gonna go away in the near future. I hope Macromedia catches up, we need at least two major software developers, so that nobody feels too comfortable. :)

Ivan: I think if you find DreamWeaver slow and complex, you'll find GoLive even more so. It may have changed with CS (in fact I hope it has), but DreamWeaver was far easier to use, and still is the fastest option for me when I want to knock up a quick page.

I find GoLive (both CS and earlier versions) MUCH easier to use than Dreamweaver... but then it's what I originally learned on. For most, it comes down to the ole saying "you dance with the girl that brung ya."

And Freehand... I certainly HOPE it's dead. I always hated it.