Dreamweaver ... It's a bit the previous bone of contention on the web, similar to the current debate between flash and html 5 (hey, another Adobe product ?). There are those who are for, those who are against, those who don't have an opinion, those who know nothing, those who prefer to do by themselves, those who don't care, those who tried an old hacked version, those who swear by open source, those who have never heard of it, those who don't want to hear about it at all, those ...

For those who never heard about it, it is simply a software used for create websites. Originally developed by Macromedia since 1997 and acquired by Adobe in December 2005, Dreamweaver has had its moment of glory at a time when the web was not that developed, particularly in terms of tools to help the website creation. This new CS5 version of course allows to create CSS files and allows to interface with other languages such as ASP and PHP. But the real question is not really there ... because despite its undeniable qualities and its crazy price of € 572.88 ! (the minimum wage is how much already ?), the landscape of the web has drastically changed since the dreamweaver acquisition by Adobe.

Lift up the debate and let us work from the perspective of a user searching the perfect solution:

If he is a neophyte, he will use a platform that does everything (hosting, editing, administration, template, ...) and many are very good. If expert, he will write everything himself, choose an hosting service based on its actual needs and rely if necessary on an available open-source solution. Between the two, depending on the level of the user, the installation of an open source or commercial version of a turnkey platform will certainly do the trick - the big advantage of platforms is that they provide a intrinsic share of visibility and advertisment. In this case the price will certainly be the determining factor of choice, letting Dreamweaver on the side line. All that's left is the case of a Web Agency which is already equipped with Adobe. In a context of economic difficulties, I doubt that this will be sufficient for a long time since many have already switched to open-source solutions or are about to do so.

Conclusion: Dreamweaver is not dead but I would not give much of his skin if the economic environment does not improve within a year. Adobe does he continue to maintain that despite sales fall? Probably not to annoy immediately and existing users especially because Adobe is stubborn (it reminds me of an Apple button mouse).