Is Adobe "Officially" killing ColdFusion?

ColdFusion survived the turn of a millenium, the destruction of the .com era, the changing of underlying technologies from a wholly owned C-based technology to living on JAVA in a complex and ever changing world, the changing of product managers several times (including the change to me being the product manager), 2 acquisitions, and 8 versions (with the 9th version already announced by Kevin Lynch, the SVP of the Platform BU and Chief Software Architect of Adobe)... but CFDJ has keenly determined... that ColdFusion cannot survive one thing... Tim Buntel... moving to the FlexBuilder team.

To be clear, I have more respect for Tim Buntel than you will ever know. He has done tremendous things for ColdFusion. He carried the CF torch for a very long time, through very tough times. He was involved in the product decisions for CF8, but certainly did not run the show. His responsibilities as Product Marketing Manager left him mostly concentrated on things dealing with... well... Marketing.

Tim's replacement in the Marketing role is Kristen Webb Schofield. Kristen has been working on the ColdFusion team since 2000, back to the Allaire days. She has been to all the conferences, understands the ColdFusion user and community as well as anyone, is hard working, and is as sharp as they come. We are all very fortunate to have Kristen working on ColdFusion.

So... I came on almost 2 years ago in the Product Management role and Kristen has moved up to replace Tim in the Product Marketing role...

Is CFDJ saying that the two of us... can't possibly replace the one Tim Buntel? and therefore Adobe must be killing CF?

Tim is still involved with the CF community (he's heading to Europe over the next few week to promote CF) and he's still at Adobe. In fact, rather than seeing Tim in one Marketing meeting a week and the occassional chat by the water cooler... he is a fellow Product Manager, and we are on the same Product Management team! Which means we meet several times a week, and are able to exchange more product ideas than ever before.

The climate of "everything must be JAVA or .NET" is gone... it is clear that CF has a future, and a team focusing on that future. We are firing on all cylinders. The sales phones are absolutely ringing off the hook (ask Jason Graves our Sales Account Manager some time). CF is in the best position it has been in years...

In fact, we're expanding the CF team, looking for sales members and evangelists.

I don't get it... spite? sensational journalism? lack of understanding of the real situation? This just seems to validate the decision to no longer fund SYS-CON. The decision was made because the content and services were less relevant and compelling, but their lack of professionalism is justification in itself.

I just don't get it... I'd love to here your comments.

Jason

Comments
Raymond Camden's Gravatar Looking for evangelists, eh? I'm more of a PHP guy, but would you consider me? ;)
# Posted By Raymond Camden | 10/12/07 11:53 AM
Andy Allan's Gravatar We used to use Sys Con magazines for toilet paper... not it's not even good enough for that.
# Posted By Andy Allan | 10/12/07 12:02 PM
Mike Sewell's Gravatar Read the second paragraph. Its all about Adobe no longer funding their pitiful excuse for a "magazine". They take a piece of irrelevant information about two people being promoted and spin it to appear like they are killing CF. How else are they going to get people to visit their site? The content is weak and mostly stolen (blogs). The only thing Adobe is killing is support for their drivel. Read the article and it will become very clear as to WHY Adobe no longer supports this type of publication.
# Posted By Mike Sewell | 10/12/07 12:23 PM
Scott Stewart's Gravatar "We used to use Sys Con magazines for toilet paper... not it's not even good enough for that. "

ow, ow, ow, ow.. Holy paper cuts, Batman.

While ColdFusion Journal has died, and Sys-Con is dying rapidly due to stupidity. I'd like to see a print version ColdFusion Developer's magazine.
It's great to have a pile of reference material to rely on
# Posted By Scott Stewart | 10/12/07 12:24 PM
Raymond Camden's Gravatar Scott- are you saying you would like a print mag? If so- have you looked at Fusion Authority Quarterly Update? Slower to pub - but much higher quality.
# Posted By Raymond Camden | 10/12/07 12:41 PM
Scott Stewart's Gravatar I haven't I sounds like I should
# Posted By Scott Stewart | 10/12/07 12:56 PM
Brian Rinaldi's Gravatar It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. My favorite was the use of the word "dismentaling" and the quote from an industry insider who is unnamed and probably works for Sys-Con (James Hamilton perhaps???). What's this I hear about evangelists??? ;)
# Posted By Brian Rinaldi | 10/12/07 1:24 PM
Andy's Gravatar "Joshua Cyr at Macromedia blogs writes: "I got some spam from sys-con again today..."

I thought this is funny since they are pretty much making fun of themsevles. I don't know if Adobe can do anything because if they get into it, it will just give the site more traffic.
# Posted By Andy | 10/12/07 1:42 PM
jM's Gravatar > "dismentaling"

Hm. I'm surprised a magazine doesn't have spell check.
# Posted By jM | 10/12/07 1:52 PM
David's Gravatar Wait...there's a CF evangelist position open? How do I apply for that?

You know, the article was so laughable that an explanation really wasn't necessary - having said that, it's a good explanation. Why would you plan the release of a product, and plan its demise at the same time?

Cheers,

Davo
# Posted By David | 10/12/07 1:56 PM
Larry C. Lyons's Gravatar I simply don't get it. Sys-Con, or rather the people behind it, are acting as if they were spoiled 3 year old kids.

No I take that back, my kid is almost 3, probably spoiled, and she doesn't act that way.

C'mon already Sys-con give it up and get a life. Quit the temper tantrum.
# Posted By Larry C. Lyons | 10/12/07 2:07 PM
tc's Gravatar Having worked with Kristen when CF was still Allaire, I am sure she will do
just fine taking over the reigns. Its good to hear that Jason Graves' phone
is ringing off the hook. Jason was also a good account manager for
Government sales. It is good to see his role expanded.
# Posted By tc | 10/12/07 3:46 PM
Jason Graves's Gravatar 1)Tim is not dead or gone. He now owns Flex which is good for
ColdFusion. Ben now owns Platform which is good for CF+Flex+AIR.

2)Kristen and Jason D both are rockstars. They are making all the right moves interally.
3) All we need is customer examples to show how CF rocks. Send me your apps and we will show the world. jgraves@adobe.com
# Posted By Jason Graves | 10/19/07 1:08 AM
BlogCFC was created by Raymond Camden. This blog is running version 5.9. Contact Blog Owner