A few days ago someone sent me a list of 100 complaints about Adobe software. They boil down to gripes about stability, frequent updates, slow updates, high prices, and force-feeding add-ons.

I share all those complaints, but (as someone who thinks about marketing) I'm particularly struck by the last issue. I recently bought Adobe Premiere (video editing), and it aggressively pushes Photoshop Online, downscale "cloud" software for consumer users. I don't want Photoshop Online. I use real Photoshop, and I use Illustrator. But when I click on the icon to start Premiere, it doesn't go to the user interface for Premiere. It goes to a splash page that asks why I haven't signed up for Photoshop Online yet. There is no setting to change to make it stop that.

My latest Adobe Dreamweaver came bundled with Adobe Bridge. I'm not sure what that is, except that it loads very slowly, hogs a bunch of memory, and doesn't do anything I need. Dreamweaver also installed Adobe Air, which has been used exactly once by an outside Web-based application. When I updated Adobe Photoshop, I got stuck with some Adobe online graphics thing that they abandoned after about six months. Adobe shoves these things at you whether you want them or not. And Adobe Acrobat keeps sticking unwanted toolbars into all my other programs. I delete them, and they come right back.

To me, this is terrible marketing. Maybe I'm crazy, but what about listening to your customers and giving them what they want? What about offering new ideas and allowing your customers to select those that they need? What about leaving the customer with the feeling that you're asking, not telling? What about not pissing your clients off on a daily basis?

Adobe markets like Vladimir Putin.