I’ve had a little audio project I’ve been working on which could only be rescued by an old copy of Cool Edit I have. I am a Linux-head by nature, but the audio drivers in Fedora gave me nothing but a 60Hz buzz when I tried recording. Thus, whatever I had to do, had to be done in Windows. And that’s where Cool Edit comes in.

Way back when, CE was shareware. I normally steer clear of shareware, because its usually “crippleware” too. CE was different. Though the free version had some features restricted, it let you pick which ones. Kind of nice. When I paid them money to register my Cool Edit 96, I could honestly say it was the best software bargain I’d ever seen.

Then one day Adobe was looking for an audio suite to buy. Somehow, they wound up buying Syntrillium. Overnight, the name changed to Adobe Audition and the price went through the roof. In short, Adobe seriously messed up a good thing.

I’m wishing now that I had purchased a copy of Cool Edit Pro back when the getting was good. Now that Adobe has gobbled it up, I don’t feel like giving them any of my money.