raag | madhuvanti { my longings };

That is the wall of the front lobby of 3rd floor, Salarpuria Infinity, Bangalore. Thats the Macromedia India office in Bangalore. Why am I putting up this picture here? Well, 12/03 was officially the last day of Macromedia (Only the name) the company that revolutionized the web with innumerable tools like Flash, Director, Dreamweaver and the ubiquitous flash player and the swf format

Adobe had announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia in Apr 2005, It has finally come by. 12/05 is officially the Day One for Adobe - Bangalore. Now, What difference does this make to my life? Well way too many to list, I must say! Let me give you a brief overview what macromedia and its technologies mean to me. I started my first ever qualified software project in early 1999, a simple website development assignment with some jazzy animations.

Thats when I first saw this uncomparable tool called Flash 4.0 , which does spellbinding animations for the web. It took a few months for me to master flash 4.0. Then came flash 5 the master blaster animation tool and some kickass programming capabilities. couple of years rolled, and my love for this tool kept growing. Then came flash MX, Whoa what a leap. With actionscript much stronger than before and OO programming capabilities. I started taking flash scripting much more seriously than before. 2003, I land my first job as an actionscript developer. I couldnt ask for a better job profile, I must say! Then there came the Flash 7.2, with the show stealer ActionScript 2.0.. AS2.0 meant more kickass applications and better, richer internet. Only Macromedia could do wonders of this kind. 2005 May 24th.. It felt like world just came to a halt! I landed a job with Macromedia. (Dream come true is an understatement, I am not saying it....)

Okay, I knew the acquisition was announced, but dint matter much to me, being a macromedian mattered a lot at that time. But today, I am forced to retrospect.. Its going to be Adobe going forward.. Its going to be Adobe Flash, Adobe Exchange (if Adobe keeps the product names as is...) Is it just about losing the name? yeah it is, but a name that i hold close to my heart, a name that always inspired me to do better, a name that made me proud when it featured in my email address.... Its a very sentimental moment for me... indeed! But as they say, change is the only constant thing and the show has to go on, So Here I am, moving on, carrying the rich and colorful memories and experience that I gathered from macromedia to Adobe - a much stronger one with 1000+ macromedians joining it.

The name will cease to exist, but macromedia will continue to be a legend that entralled thousands of internet users for the past many years. Long Live Macromedia!