Ever since the Adobe acquisition of Macromedia faithful developers that find Fireworks to be a vital part of their work flow have worried about Fireworks going down the same path as Freehand. With each CS Suite release they'd ask, is this the end of Fireworks? The release of the public beta for Fireworks CS4 gives a resounding answer to this question!

No it's definitely not the end of Fireworks... In fact, I'd call it a new beginning. Adobe struggled to get it's head around Fireworks and how it should fit into there suite of tools, they were so Photoshop focused that they didn't have a clear vision for Fireworks. Not any more. They finally "got it"!

Fireworks is not a competitor to Photoshop, it's the "next step" in the web development work flow. Adobe has positioned Fireworks as THE tool to quickly comp web sites and RIA UIs. It is meant to bring together designs and elements done in Photoshop and Illustrator and combine them and prep them for the transition to HTML, Flash, or Flex. Take time to dig around the new features and you'll see what I mean.

Looks like Fireworks has been formally welcomed into the family and shaken it's "red headed stepchild" status. Download the public beta and take it for a test drive, the new features, tighter integration with the other Adobe Suite applications and updated "Owl" interface will confirm the fact that Fireworks is definitely here to stay and it's comfortable in it's new roll in the family!

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/fireworkscs4/