Macromedia FreeHand MX

Macromedia FreeHand MX (release 11) is the last version of FreeHand from Macromedia, before it was acquired by Adobe Systems. It was also packaged with Macromedia Studio MX 2004.

Backwards compatibility
FreeHand MX can open files from Aldus FreeHand 4 or later. An older version of FreeHand is required to convert files from FreeHand 3 or earlier. FreeHand MX also installs readers for Macromedia Flash MX and Fireworks MX, which allows those applications to import FreeHand MX files.

Development
FreeHand MX was developed in by Macromedia's Digital Arts Group, formerly Altsys, the original creators of FreeHand. In 2003, most of the development team in Texas were laid off, with some relocating to Macromedia's main office in San Francisco, California. Prior to that, the engineers rushed to add many new features to FreeHand MX with the expectation that it might be the last version that they would ever work on.

After Macromedia was acquired by Adobe in December 2005, work on maintenance updates was transitioned to Adobe India.

Discontinuation
In May 2007, Adobe announced that FreeHand would no longer be updated. Migration guides and upgrades to Adobe Illustrator CS3 were offered to existing users of FreeHand. Technical support for the last version of FreeHand MX (11.0.2) ended on August 1, 2011. The Mac version of FreeHand MX will not run on OS X 10.7 or later due to its use of legacy PowerPC code.

Federal lawsuit
A group of dedicated FreeHand users formed the Free FreeHand Organization (FFO) in an attempt to pressure Adobe Systems to divest FreeHand after its acquisition of Macromedia. In 2011, a civil antitrust case was filed against Adobe. On February 10, 2012, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh dismissed portions of the case, but denied a motion by Adobe to dismiss it in its entirety. Around the time the case entered into final mediation in May 2012, FFO had over 6500 members. Adobe agreed to work with the community to investigate adjustment of Adobe Illustrator's feature set to meet user requests. Members could request discounts for Adobe products. The source code to FreeHand, in Adobe's possession, was never released.

After FreeHand
Some FFO members supported a project called Stagestack in the hopes that an open source alternative would be possible. However, by 2013, Stagestack developer Quasado determined that continued development was not financially viable.

In 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS6 dropped support for opening FreeHand files. The Tensai FreeHand Plugin can allow Illustrator CS6 through CC 2019 to import files from FreeHand 7 and later.

Legacy activation
Adobe Systems, which had acquired Macromedia in December 2005, disabled the activation server for legacy Macromedia products on December 15, 2012. Users who wish to activate FreeHand MX after this date will need to follow this procedure.