Recent Email & Future (or lack of) for PI, GA, SS, Plugs

ACeleste · Post by **ACeleste** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 11:35 am

I read with interest the recent email which I assume we all received. I share the concern that Corel was only interested in Ulead's video products, and even then only the consumer video products.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that we have seen the last version of PhotoImpact. There will be no Windows 7 version of PhotoImpact. No PhotoImpact X4. No upgrade of the few key issues in this program that are keeping it from being a direct competitor to Photoshop (lack of full alpha channel support, lack of a CMYK export module, improved edge blending on selections). This is not coming from any inside information that I have, if it was, you wouldn't be reading it. It's just my gut feeling from over a decade of working with Corel, that this is the end of the line.

This was a huge waste of money if Corel bought Ulead for a small handful of programs. But bad investments are part of Corel's history. Remember about 10 years ago when they thought Linux was going to replace Windows as a graphics OS? Yeah... Right... That was the bad call that almost bankrupted them.

Corel has a responsibility to the Ulead community, to its Ulead CUSTOMERS, to set this right. If they are not interested in developing PI, GIF Animator, Smart Saver (I gave them the idea to expand Smart Saver to video compression YEARS ago, and years before TMPGEnc...), Cool 3D, Web.Plugins, MSP, et al... then Corel must either sell these products to a company that DOES care about continuing them, or make their code open source and the current binaries free of charge, via a project such as SourceForge.

Pretending these products don't exist, pretending their users don't exist, is not going to make the products or the users disappear. It's now up to Corel to do something responsible: Sell the products to an interested 3rd party, or free then from their (apparently now useless) legal bindings via Open Source.

Anthony Celeste
CorelDRAW 10: The Official Guide
Ulead PhotoImpact 7: The Official Guide

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 11:45 am

What email are you referring to?

I agree 100% with that. However I've had the impression that one of Corel's reasons for buying up other "competitors" is to eliminate the competition. If you can't beat them, with better products, then buy them out, and stop developing those products. So I don't think Corel will even consider releasing or selling them. If they did sell them off, they stand to loose, because those Ulead products would be a direct threat to those few that Corel has decided to keep.

Post by **VikingAnimations** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:49 pm

I believe Anthony is referring to the email you recently sent out, Ron...

I agree with that, too. If Corel had any brains, they wouldn't have stopped developing those products. They were great products, with plenty of loyal users. They shot themselves in the foot... I, for one, have no intention of giving Corel any more of my hard-earned money until they smarten up.

Xyzzy2 · Post by **Xyzzy2** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:40 pm

Remember PicturePublisher...

ACeleste · Post by **ACeleste** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 10:53 am

VikingAnimations wrote:I believe Anthony is referring to the email you recently sent out, Ron...

lol - Yes - That sounds correct. I wasn't sure who sent the email.

ACeleste · Post by **ACeleste** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:08 am

VikingAnimations wrote:I, for one, have no intention of giving Corel any more of my hard-earned money ...

Heh - that might be an easy promise to keep. I can't picture them putting out anything that attracts the graphics crowd. The updates to Photo-Paint have been bandaids, meanwhile, Adobe has Photoshop going into 3D and motion editing.

I hope they prove me wrong and contact me one day with "Look at these awesome new DRAW and PHOTO-PAINT and PhotoImpact and SmartSaver and Cool 3D and GIF Animator and Plugins that we'd like you to write about!!!"

I won't be betting on that one.

ACeleste · Post by **ACeleste** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:22 am

Three consecutive posts at 5:15 am? I clearly need a higher dose of Ambien. But I digress...

Yanno, a lot of the same people that developed these great products around 1995 to 2000 are still working at Ulead in Taipei. They fondly remember me (translation: we had to work too much overtime because of his wish list).

At least, they were still working as of a few months ago. I wonder if they'd be interested in buying out the products that Corel is turning into abandonware. They'd certainly be in good hands.

But then again it leads us to the question "Does Corel WANT these products around as competition?"

Xyzzy2 · Post by **Xyzzy2** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:39 pm

BUT:
-PI is still sold & listed as supported; the dropped Ulead products are not- they've been declared dead.
-Corel has already two alike products (Photo-Paint & PaintShop Pro), just marketed differently. Why not have three? :/
-PI is the only tool for VS and MF menus generation. Hacking UFO into fe. PSP may not be easy.

trueblue · Post by **trueblue** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 12:56 am

I have to agree with ACeleste about Corel having a responsibility.

We don't know what their plans are for PI or PSP. I for one find PI a far simpler program to use than PSP. PI does a lot more too.

Corel's main programs currently are CorelDraw and PainterX and not forgetting the Video Editing program.

I personally feel that Ulead should have held on to PI together with GA.

I'm a 'let's wait and see' person.

The board seems a little faster, maybe Corel heard!

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:48 am

trueblue wrote:.....
The board seems a little faster, maybe Corel heard!

Yes they have.
Currently they are looking at the feasibility of moving the software onto PHPBB3. They are also looking at some administration tools I have requested.

I am more dubious about the software but I can assure you that Ron, Ken and myself HAVE been actively nagging at Corel about the development and availability of the former Ulead Range of Products.

ACeleste · Post by **ACeleste** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:40 am

"Corel are aware of the technical problems with this Web Board and are attempting to resolve them. Our apologies for the poor state of the Web Board at this time"

What you really need to be apologizing for is the poor state of the Ulead product line at this time. Either continue development, or sell the unwanted software, or free it with open source licenses. Burying it for your convenience is not an acceptable option.

Anthony Celeste
CorelDRAW 10: The Official Guide
Ulead PhotoImpact 7: The Official Guide

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 2:10 am

ACeleste wrote:"Corel are aware of the technical problems with this Web Board and are attempting to resolve them. Our apologies for the poor state of the Web Board at this time"

What you really need to be apologizing for is the poor state of the Ulead product line at this time. Either continue development, or sell the unwanted software, or free it with open source licenses. Burying it for your convenience is not an acceptable option.

Anthony Celeste
CorelDRAW 10: The Official Guide
Ulead PhotoImpact 7: The Official Guide

Sorry but I think you are mistaking me for an employee of Corel. I am not, I work for our local Police Force!

ACeleste · Post by **ACeleste** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 4:36 am

sjj1805 wrote:Sorry but I think you are mistaking me for an employee of Corel. I am not, I work for our local Police Force!

Hi

I wasn't mistaking you for a Corel employee. That "Corel aplogizes" text was appearing in red under your last message. Now, it's gone.

In any case, I was pointing out to Corel that there may be problems with the board, but there are much bigger problems with the Ulead software that they are apparently euthanizing.

Anthony Celeste
CorelDRAW 10: The Official Guide
Ulead PhotoImpact 7: The Official Guide

scottb721 · Post by **scottb721** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:01 pm

I'm sad I can't even replace my Ulead travel mug that went walkies

mitchell65 · Post by **mitchell65** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:19 pm

scottb721 wrote:I'm sad I can't even replace my Ulead travel mug that went walkies

I do that sometimes