Vengeance Against Adobe

[Ray Dillinger]

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001 measl at mfn.org 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