Marc A. Santacroce, Senior Technical Writer, Owner ePubs, Inc."All Mac, all FrameMaker business. Cost prohibitive to switch platforms, replace all software, and retrain employees. We love the Mac, and FrameMaker. I write for the Aviation industry and FrameMaker is the application of choice." |
Tim Murray, President, TechKnowledge Corp."The scientific community is really embracing Mac OS X. If I'm an engineer doing all this cool stuff in Mac OS X, do I want to have to go over to my Windows machine, which I probably deplore, to write my documents?" |
Matt Neuburg, Author, O'Reilly, TidBITS, Take Control"I've written three "Definitive Guide" books for O'Reilly & Associates directly in Mac FrameMaker from start to finish—first draft right through to camera-ready copy—as well as several software manuals and some structured XML." |
Torben Lauridsen, CEO, Rosemann & Lauridsen, GMBH"I urge Adobe to protect our investment in know-how and software on the Mac platform—FrameMaker and all the other Adobe applications that we use. Macintosh has always been the preferred platform for FrameMaker users..." |
Aviva Garrett, Director, Technical Publications, Juniper Networks"FrameMaker is a fabulous tool. Please continue to support it for the Macintosh." |
Mark Greenberg, Neurosurgeon, Author, Handbook of Neurosurgery (produced entirely with Mac FrameMaker) "FrameMaker is THE only page layout software capable of handling the demands of long, technical documents." |
Bill Briggs, Macworld Contributor, Senior Instructor, University of New Brunswick"FrameMaker is simply without peer in the handling of long living documents..." "...I'd pay an annual fee to use it if they did nothing more than get it ported to OS X. Somehow, some way, this has got to happen." |
Paul Wachowicz, Technical Writer, Nortel "...its ability to elegantly handle long documents, its support for structure and XML, its rich hypertext, cross-reference, and conditional text tools, its variable paradigm—it simply has no peer." "I would pay practically anything for OS X FrameMaker. There is absolutely nothing to take its place." |
Paolo Tramannoni, Italy, Product Specialist and Technical Writer, Korg, Inc."Our writers and translators around the world (we have distributors in virtually every country) use FrameMaker on Mac and Windows. Most of them (probably due to their musical heritage) use Macs." |
William L Fithen, CERT, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University"The productivity associated with Mac vs Windows has always been overwhelmingly compelling. Windows has always been a poor reproduction of Mac OS." |
Scott Johnson, CEO, AtTask, Inc., U.S."No OS X version will hurt FM for PC sales too, as cross-platform publishing companies will have to ditch FM on both platforms in favor of a replacement." |
Steve Rickaby, Managing Director, WordMongers, Ltd., U.K. "Over more than a decade, FrameMaker has proved completely capable of all the challenges involved in the production of complex software textbooks. It is particularly tragic that Adobe has opted to abandon the Mac platform for FrameMaker just when the Mac has achieved the maturity provided by OS X." |
David Crowe, President, Cellular Networking Perspectives Ltd."With a fresh new user interface, and all the capabilities of Mac OS X, FrameMaker could once again lead the world in sales, as well as capabilities." |
S. McClure, Sun Microsystems"While I have access to Solaris desktops at work, I need it on a laptop that isn't overrun with viruses. A Sun workstation doesn't fit into my briefcase when I travel." |
Javier Bargas, Administrator, University of Basel, Switzerland"We need desperately FM for Mac. There are a dozen FM users in our dep. and they do not want to change to Windows for FM." |
David Cortesi, Writer"I have spent many hours evaluating available products for Mac and have found none that even approach FrameMaker's features." |
Gerri M. Zygmunt, Scientific Editorial Associate, Fox Chase Cancer Center"The FrameMaker software has been used to produce our annual scientific report (550 pages) for the last 10 years and we have been very happy with the product. Due to the inclusion of numerous science graphics in the report our platform of choice is the Mac. We sincerely hope that Adobe Systems will consider a version of FrameMaker for Mac OS X." |
Glenn Webster, Senior Tech Writer, Novell"Canceling FM for the Mac has got a lot of users worried about the future of FM on all platforms. They, like me, are looking at alternatives, just in case. Maybe some will make the switch now. Canceling FM for Mac is a bad business decision. If necessary, charge what you must to keep the product profitable." |
Timothy Priest, Research Scientist, Australia"Please bring Framemaker to OS X! I am going crazy using Word." |
Linda Weidemann, Proprietor, Wolf Creek Press"We need an OS X version of Frame. It does things that no other page layout app can." |
Conrad Taylor, Designer, Consultant, Trainer, U.K. "Have had severe problems printing process colour from FM for Windows; Mac version seems the best for professional colour printing support, so why cut support for it?" |
Bob Beims, Documentation Project Manager"Frame+Acrobat can be the backbone of our Win/Mac/Unix enterprise solution for my 25,000+ person company only if the same versions of both products are available on all three platforms, otherwise we'll be forced to find other solutions." |
Joe Strout, Software Engineer, REAL Software"Vital to producing the 1000-page manuals for our product." |
Masahiro Arakawa, Electrical Engineer"A Mac OS X version of FrameMaker is especially important, as Apple has decided that OS 9/Classic applications will not run at all on their new Intel-based Macs." |
Yoichi Ito, Professor of Law, Japan (FM user for 8 years)"I am truly disappointed by Adobe's decision!! Adobe Japan sent me a very short message saying that users of FrameMaker for Mac should buy Version 7 within a month. No explanation as to why. It took some time to realize its discontinuing plan. I can't believe that a company like Adobe would abandon Mac users. I am furiously angry with the attitude of Adobe." |
Jerome O'Driscoll, University Lecturer, Ireland"FrameMaker is without an equal in the technical publishing field. This fact, and the seamless integration with other Adobe products like Photoshop and Illustrator on the Mac platform, makes it imperative that a version for Mac OS X be released asap. Windows is simply not an option! FM 7.0 is the only application we need to run in Classic mode. If FrameMaker for Mac OS X became available tomorrow, I would immediately purchase 20 licences." |
F. Alfredo Rego, R&D Manager, Adager Corporation"All of my company's primary (source) documents are in FrameMaker/Mac. We do NOT want to use Windows. This is the only application that forces us to use Classic under Mac OS X. Under Tiger, FrameMaker has started to show signs of erratic behavior. Please provide a native Mac OS X version of FrameMaker." |
Peter Gold, FrameMaker Certified Expert, Trainer, Consultant"I'm an Adobe stockholder. I feel the expense of moving to OS X is worthwhile because of the importance of the professional community of Macintosh users, both individuals and respected companies who depend upon FrameMaker for their documentation." |
Richard Oudt, Proposal Development and Production"The cross-platform compatibility is what makes this such a great product for everyone, please stop punishing the Macintosh community and introduce Frame for Mac OSX." |
Terry Jacobson, R&D"FrameMaker is used for Documentation and for Standards documents (TIA, 3GPP2). This change will have a major detrimental impact in these areas." |
Mark Samuels Lasner, Senior Research Fellow, University of Delaware"FrameMaker for Mac is essential for my work as a bibliographer. My current project is a 1,500 page descriptive bibliography which cannot be easily converted into any other program or platform." |
Richard Hudson, Book Publishing Services, Sun Photoset, Australia"We are particularly dependent on Frame for the production of books with long extents, technical journals and Maths books. We have a large investment in the Mac environment and all staff are trained in the Mac. It would be difficult and economically prohibitive to use Frame with a mixed operating system environment." |
Earl Boggs, Technical Publications Manager, Mattson Technology, Inc. "I have been waiting for Frame for OSX for a long time. Please support this application." |
James Wetmore, Publisher"I use FM every day on a Mac. My publishing company depends on it, and I am committed to the Mac platform. Please bring it back!" |
Brett Blevins, Owner, Technical Publishing Services & Consulting Company"As a former Application Engineer with Frame Technology Corp. (and later with Adobe, after Frame was acquired), I remember one of the biggest selling points of FrameMaker was its cross-platform capability. Often this feature was the deciding factor in a customer's choice of software. Adobe is now dynamiting this capability. All the other Adobe products I have bought are Mac OS X native, so I would definitely buy FM on Mac OS X, if released." |
Larry Scheer, Software Engineer"I helped port Frame Maker to the Apollo RISC platform in the late 1980s. Adding an OS X port is not difficult and the ROI would, IMO, be significant. I use FrameMaker on Solaris and Windows and would purchase it for my OS X system if it ever becomes available." |
Yllona Richardson, Program Manager"My small business is completely dependent on FM, as I work in the gov't and non-profit sector. Everything I do is bid and proposal, and FrameMaker is the best tool for this type of work. I cannot switch to WinTel because most of my non-profit and commercial customers are artists, and I need to be compatible with their hardware and software configurations." |
Dr. Klaus Schmitt, Biotechnology/IT, Germany"After our recent switch to Mac OS X we are truly disappointed that we cannot use our favourite app for the papers/documentation in our university and connected institutes." |
Janet Christian, Technical Writer"Sales dropped BECAUSE it wasn't OS X compatible and we were all waiting!" |
Matt Bishop, Professor, University of California"Framemaker is by far the best program of its type. But switching to Windows is not an option for me." |
Dr. Doug Edwards, University Lecturer, Manchester, U.K."Our research group uses Framemaker for all its publications and documentation because a) it is suitable for long (book) documents, but mainly b) because it is cross platform (e.g. Solaris compatibility is essential). We are still on earlier versions to retain Mac OS capability." |
Paul Doyle, Lecturer/Training Consultant, National Institute of Education, Singapore"This program has got to survive on the Mac platform in OS X form: it's simply too good to disappear. I would buy a copy tomorrow if it were available. I have used Framemaker to produce printer manuals, training materials and to write a thesis—nothing else was as solid or as effective for indexing, book building and making conditional text work." |
Andrew Diaz, FM User, Jamaica"Adobe has not seen much FrameMaker sales on Mac because no OS X version is available." |
James J. Solberg, Professor, Purdue University College of Engineering"Have written several technical books in FM. There is no substitute. Must use Mac." |
Laurie Stewart, Compositor"Many of my clients require that FrameMaker be used to lay out their books. Without the continued support of a Mac version, my livelihood would be greatly affected." |
Heinze, Chairman, AKTIF Technology GmbH, Germany"FrameMaker is my favourite tool. I use it for my daily work. This is my order for FrameMaker for Mac OS X." |
Barbara Peschke-Conradi, Documentation, 4D, Inc., Germany"FrameMaker is the best option to produce books. All our manuals are written in FrameMaker on Mac OS. That means 12 manuals with more than 15,000 pages." |
|
This is just a small selection of the comments left by petition supporters.You can read more in the petition. |
|
Petition for Adobe to Develop FrameMaker for Mac OS X |
 |
 |
After 15 years on the Mac, Adobe discontinued Mac FrameMaker on 21 April 2004. My company is 99% Mac, 99% FrameMaker so this is a real blow for us and our associates around the world. Although it's possible to run FrameMaker in Mac OS X's Classic environment, it's less than ideal, especially when running multiple language kits. There is no alternative and we don't want to switch to Windows so we continue to use Mac OS 9 to this day. Even Apple is still using FrameMaker in Classic to produce its own user guides. Another concern is that the new Intel-based Macs don't support the Classic environment, which means they won't run FrameMaker. The FrameMaker for Mac OS X Petition was created to persuade Adobe to reconsider its decision and develop FrameMaker for Mac OS X. If you feel strongly about Adobe's decision to discontinue Mac FrameMaker, write to Adobe executives explaining how it affects you and your business, sign the petition, and join the FrameMaker for Mac OS X Mailing List for news and updates. Write to Apple executives as well and ask them to put pressure on Adobe. The petition was launched on 21 June 2004 and is still active. Sign up today! Sixteen copies of the petition have already been posted to Adobe executives, in two batches, and nine copies to Apple executives. More submissions are planned. |
| "I depend on FrameMaker on a Mac for my publishing business. Being forced to switch to a PC is a major problem and a financial setback." —Thomas Greene, Tech Writer/Editor. |
"The loss of Frame for Mac is having a major impact on my company's daily functioning (a large, well known computer maker). We are being forced to move to another non-Adobe solution since Adobe is *not* providing a FrameMaker migration path (a huge slap in the face to Mac users). For Mac professionals, Windows is simply not an option. Adobe should also realize that InDesign is very far from being an adequate FrameMaker replacement." —Andrew Clayton, Publishing Engineer. |
 |
|
"We use FrameMaker to produce PDFs of very large technical documents because it is the ONLY application that can reliably and economically do what we want to do. We access an archive of thousands of graphics created on Mac, and we operate on a Mac-based LAN; we are continuing to use FrameMaker 6 until we can assess the technical challenges and huge cost of converting our operation. We NEED FrameMaker, but Adobe is making it very costly for us..." —Daniel Portwood, Supervisor, National Security Technology Department Publications (NSTD). |
| "Over the past 2 years FrameMaker has saved our company ~$300,000 and prior to Adobe abandoning an OS X version, structured FrameMaker promised an additional $20,000 per year saving. Adobe's decision to cancel the Macintosh version of FrameMaker is forcing us to retire the only suitable tool for publishing STM books in terms of cost and workflow compatibility. With no workable replacement, our company (T&F Informa) will be forced to reconsider its primary publishing tool (currently FrameMaker) and will likely settle on a more expensive and less attractive, non-Adobe solution." James Yanchak, Electronic Production Manager. |
|
|
 |
"FrameMaker is an indispensable tool for creating the printed and PDF documentation for our products. We would upgrade to the Mac OS X version immediately if it became available. In my opinion FrameMaker is a killer app that Adobe never bothered to market. It's ability to seamlessly create structured documents for print, web, and PDF means that it is the only "OS 9" classic application that we will continue to use on a regular basis." —James Rea, President, ProVUE. |
| "Having to get by with an old version of FrameMaker—It would be fantastic to get an OS X version." —Clive Bennet, Graphic Repro, Australia. |
|
 |
"I use Framemaker to produce laboratory manuals, scientific reports, papers, and documents. There is simply no comparable program. Although upgrades since version 5.5.6 have been unworthy, I implore Adobe to release a Mac OS X version and not abandon this excellent program." —Dr. Zolili Ndlela, Physicist. |
| "We used FrameMaker for about two years writing all of our technical documentation until Mac OS X arrived. Now we switched to alternatives and are less than happy with them. Returning to FrameMaker on Mac OS X would be a big step in the right direction."—Wolfgang Berberich, Director Software-Engineering, salient GmbH. |
|
 |
"Framemaker is the only viable alternative to the dinosaur known as LaTEX when it comes to writing quality technical papers. Mac OS X is the best operating system to perform technical studies because of the UNIX backbone. Native X-Windows makes porting existing X-Windows based software easy." —David L Rodriguez, Aerospace Engineer. |
"I chair a group in the 3GPP2 that is considering switching to FrameMaker for our document creation. Since some of us are Mac users it is difficult to even consider a switch to FrameMaker." —Kurt Bantle, Spirent Communications. |
|
|
 |
"Our IT is based on Macintosh and we use FrameMaker's MIF feature extensively to do database driven publishing as well as simple office writing. No other product like FrameMaker is as versatile and precise for printing." —Arthur W. Müller, CEO, vita sana magazine. |
| "I have several thousand PC FM files. I've just bought a G5 Mac so "switching back" to a PC is not what I'm trying to do. I feel pretty badly let down by Adobe." —Mike Powell, Lawyer, Canada. |
|
 |
"I work in Bible publishing and FrameMaker is the best program we've found for the production of Bible pages. Many of the Holman Bibles we produced are all set in FrameMaker." —Lloyd Mullens. |
"It is used every day for class notes, writing of reports, publishing of a book. Students use it for publication of their Ph.D. thesis. At present, there is no other software that can perform these tasks. I do hope this petition will help persuade someone to continue FrameMaker for the Mac." —Charles A. Ward, Professor, Canada. |
|