I've got much better things to do than write this post. However, I got so frustrated with wasting time dealing with an Adobe issue that I decided I MUST post it. Someone from Adobe please listen!

Adobe Makes Great Stuff

Adobe has / does / and will make some amazing products. I've spent well over a thousand dollars on Adobe products over the last 5 years or so. Adobe Acrobat is pretty central to many businesses' and individual's ways of life. Adobe developers & designers produce some amazing software and share it with the open-source loving world. I am currently relying on Phonegap & Topcoat - for free!

So, we clearly "love" Adobe products - or at least like them well enough to use them. But why then am I discussing "hating" Adobe? How about the problems with Adobe Acrobat trying to take over a computer?

Installs updaters, daemons, etc all over the place
Starts on boot up
Installs browser extensions all over the place
Yes, I know some of those features are helpful to some people. Yes, they can be disabled in many instances. However, they are a pain in the rear to many people. I want software to do one thing AT MY BIDDING and then truly go away when I close it.

Now, I honestly haven't dealt with Acrobat in years. I've refused to install it on my Macs and only use Apple's Preview. I chose to describe Acrobat issues (from past memory) because most people can relate.

He's Actually Going to Whine About A Free Product!

My new complaint is "Creative Cloud". I "needed" it to use Adobe Edge Inspect. Yes, I am going to complain about a company after I use their free software for professional use.

Creative Cloud Is Intrusive and Disrespectful

To use Adobe Edge Inspect, you must install "Creative Cloud". So, go download it. Then, open the DMG and be presented with an "installer package". Oh no, this cannot be good. I really don't like letting Adobe install anything. Why can't they use a simple .app and respect the way people WANT to use software?

Against my better judgement, I install Creative Cloud. Then, within Creative Cloud, I have to install Edge Inspect. Guess what? Edge Inspect ends up being an actual ".app". Why couldn't I just download that?

To my dismay (but not surprise), Creative Cloud has set itself up to be launched on boot/login. Great. So, I have to go disable it. No big deal, right? I click a few preference settings, and voila! - Creative Cloud doesn't launch on boot/login.

Jumping Through Hoops

Well, now the trouble starts. My son logs into his account on my Mac. He's immediately confronted with warnings/prompts about Creative Cloud. I can't remember quite what they are. Basically, they are saying that the administrator (me) doesn't allow him to use Creative Cloud ( I have parental controls turned on). He gets these messages EVERY SINGLE TIME HE LOGS IN. So, we can lay a little blame on Apple here too, right? How about letting my check something that says STOP THESE MESSAGES?

So, Daddy comes to save the day. "No problem son, I'll just disable it on login for you." Except.... I can't. When I click the Creative Cloud icon in the menu bar, I get the "Sign in with your Adobe Id" popover. There is the little settings/preferences icon. Unfortunately, there is no "Preferences" option. That's when it dawns on me that I have to be logged into Creative Cloud to change preferences! Guess what? I CAN'T login because I don't allow my son's account to have internet access.

So, I have to log my son out and login as an administrator. Then, I have to disable Parental Controls on his account. Then, I have to log back in as him.

Hint to Apple:

When a user is logged into an account with Parental Controls, let an administrator temporarily login ONCE and have complete authority inside the controlled account. Maybe have a little "Parental Control" menu icon that an admin can click to takeover for a few minutes?
I can finally login to Creative Cloud from within his account. Except..... I use a crazy long password for my account. It's stored in 1Password on MY Mac account. So, I get to type in something like 16 characters (digits, uppercase, lowercase, special symbols, etc) while staring at my 1Password app on my iPhone. Thanks Adobe. So, I'm finally logged into Creative Cloud on my son's account. Finally, I can disable the "Launch At Login" option for his Mac account. Then, I have to log him out again, switch to my admin account, and then re-enable all the fiddly Parental Controls that Apple failed to remember for me.

Adobe Should Respect Users and Their Computers

All of this could have been prevented by Adobe respecting how a Mac is supposed to work.

We install apps by opening DMG's and dragging the App to the Applications Folder. We HATE installer packages.
Most users don't want any apps to launch every time we turn on the computer or login. Make this the default and let any self flagellating individuals enable it in preferences.
Don't force me to login to your app to turn off a setting that tells your app to buzz off.
Do other companies fail my checklist above? Yes, they do. Microsoft and in some instances even Apple fails these tests. However, in my personal experience, Adobe is the most egregious violator of these issues.

Adobe, please stop making your customers hate you.