Well All Flash programs have some basic concepts to them that are the same,but the thing is it doesn't matter if CS3 is better,b/c CS4 is out and so they don't really sell CS3 anymore,b/c of that.Still the tutorials for another program may not be very helpful,since the formats of each of them is a bit different,and some of them have different tools.If you want to know which is better.Then let me put it this way.Flash CS4 is known as the best flash program out there.Thats all there is too it.I am not very familiar with Flash MX though.Either way you can do anything in an older program,that you can do with a newer one(I think,but don't know for sure,since I am still quite new to it all myself)but you may not be able to do some of those things as easily.Same goes for different programs.(I hope)Anyways I hope that helped in some way.By the end of the school year though.I should be able to answer questions like this a bit better.
uh...dank.If that is true then what do you call SwishMax2?They can keep the program it self,and the trademark name and such,but if someone creates their own program that does the same thing(or really something similar,as long as it doesn't directly steal the program title or program it self),then they can't really do anything after the copyright expires.(unless they of course renew it)but otherwise that would mean that they would have created a monopoly which is illegal.
So how often has the patent or copyright for Flash traded hands?
I think it was originally owned by Shockwave (hence, the extension SWF; Shock Wave Flash), then Macromedia, and now Adobe. Are there more that I do now know about?
I agree with crimsonblade. Wouldn't that be a monopoly?
Well actually I think those were both former versions of Adobe products,but still the definition of a monopoly is that if you own all of one type of product,and people must use your product or that can't use the type of product at all(like when Windows 95 came out,it had created a monopoly and Bill Gates got sued).Either way it would be suggested that if you want a good program and if you are still a student(or a teacher)then you can go to the academicsuperstore.com or another student discount site,and get a discounted version of the newest program.There is no such thing as a education version of the program,since it would be labeled "Educational Edition" or something similar to that.Just do what you can though.
SwishMax is dependent of Flash. It compiles in .swf format, but it is not a version of Flash. .swf is now an open format and thus can be used by anyone.
As for the ownership of Flash, it was developed by FutureWave Software, then bought by Macromedia, which was recently merged with Adobe.
