Adobe goes subscription only

[LunaSea]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57582735-92/adobe-kills-creative-suite-goes-subscription-only/

"Just a year after launching its $50-per-month plan, Adobe has made its Creative Cloud the only way to get the new versions of its full software suite. Customers "overwhelmingly" prefer it."


Bite me Adobe.
There are alternatives to Photo$hop.

[evlbstrd]

1. There's more to it than just Photoshop.

I depend on it, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver...

[Buzz Clik]

2. I only have the full versions at work. I cannot afford it at home.

Pay huge prices and a monthly fee on top of that?

Agreed -- bite me.

[toadzilla]

14. umm.. it's monthly fee only. no other fees for the CC

[DrDan]

3. and I was getting excited about the upcoming version of PS

will stick with Elements I guess . . . and take another look at that version of GIMP that I downloaded some time ago.

I was getting excited about fixing focus problems though . . . sigh

[Blue Idaho]

4. Adobe - "We don't care, We don't have to..."

Its a shame to see Adobe use their monopoly status to limit choice and maximize profits.

I hope this stunt really bites them in the ass.

[LunaSea]

10. Maybe they'll find themselves here eventually...

http://www.forgottenartsupplies.com/

[msongs]

16. PS is not a monopoly there is more than one alternative for Adobe products nt

[Blue Idaho]

45. Do this...

Call ten professional photographers, graphic designers, and web designers in your local area and ask them what they use instead of Adobe products.

Then count the minutes of stunned silence.

[William Seger]

35. 2012 profit ~$1B on ~$4B sales

Greedy bastards.

[Wait Wut]

5. I'll have to think about early retirement.

I'm getting too old to give a crap about these companies that think graphic artists are all working for top dollar ad agencies.

And the 'customers' that 'overwhelmingly prefer it' are those customers that work for those ad agencies and make a helluva lot more than I do.

[NV Whino]

6. Screw Adobe!

I've almost figured out a way around all the Adobe products I use.

[tridim]

7. I love it.

Though I'm not the one paying the bill.

It's really cool having access to ALL the Adobe software for one price.

[toadzilla]

13. $600 a year for EVERYTHING continually updated is actually a really good price.

n/t

[rightsideout]

8. Arghh

I have CS5 now which I paid $1800 for a couple years ago. Not sure if I can get used to this cloud stuff. Maybe it's time to think of a new career. I'm not a big fancy ad agency that can afford $50 a month.

[toadzilla]

12. It's only $29 a month to upgrade from CS5

n/t

[Wednesdays]

19. Rah! Rah!

[justiceischeap]

9. Looks like I'll be sticking with CS6 and Lightroom 4. nt

[dogknob]

30. Yup. Adobe can bite me. n/t

[FreeJoe]

11. great for me

I use Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere, Audition, Speedgrade, Encore, Media Encoder, and Acrobat frequently and Dreamweaver and InDesign occasionally. For me the cloud version has been great.

[bunnies]

15. So, in effect, one never owns the software?

That seems like total bullshit to me.

[mythology]

18. That's the way proprietary software has been going

If you look closely at the license agreement for iTunes, you are licensing access to the music not purchasing it. A similar issue happened a while ago where Amazon had sold some copies of a book they didn't have legal right to and so simply deleted them from user's Kindles. Amusingly the book in question was Orwell's 1984.

Microsoft has gone with a monthly fee for Office 365 as well.

[RudynJack]

25. With few exceptions

you never owned software. You licensed it.

[William Seger]

32. Yeah, but at least you owned the license

This is just renting the license.

[Buzz Clik]

17. You probably expected me to read the story. How was I to know...

... that the information I was misquoting was cleverly hidden within the words?

[hunter]

20. Who?

[politicat]

21. They'll be losing a lot of government work and gov contractors.

Since anything with an export control or security ranking requires strict backup/version control. We have to know exactly where (as in down to which blade of the server) our offsite backup is at all times. Document control protocols are not taken lightly.

Also, Adobe has clearly missed the concept of the laptop, a device that allows creative professionals to remove themselves from a network and get some work done without interruption.

(For those looking for InDesign alternatives, Apple's iBooks Author does pre-press really well, despite being designed for ebook pre-press. Also, Scribus, which is open-source and platform independent. Go, XML.)

[FreeJoe]

36. I don't think that you understand it correctly

The software installs from "the cloud". In other words, you download the programs to your computer and then install them. I checks online periodically to make sure that you have a valid license, but other than that, it doesn't need to be connected to the Internet. You can go up to 3 months without being connected to the Internet without a service disruption. After that, you need to connect again for it to re-verify your license.

I've been using the cloud version on my desktop and laptop for quite a while now and it really doesn't work any differently than when I was buying and upgrading the boxed versions. Other than how I pay for it, I don't notice any difference in how it works.

[dballance]

24. I use Corel Painter and Aperture

I just can't afford Adobe prices so I started using Corel. I have Painter 12 - the current version and the latest version of Aperture on my Mac.

Although it's a pain that Painter is not as widely used as PhotoShop so you don't find classes as easily as you would classes for PhotoShop. And it seems all the colleges have standardized on using PhotoShop for their digital media courses too. But I can do anything artistic I want with Corel Painter and my Wacom graphics tablet and I can use Aperture to do anything I want with photos.

I'm an amateur photographer, not a professional. So what works for me may not work for others of course. Though, selfishly, I'd like to see more people using Painter so more classes and tutorials would become available

[lob1]

26. I just bought my last version of Photoshop. Screw the cloud.

[Warpy]

27. I have an older version of Photoshop

and it's still working just fine.

[longship]

28. It's time for Gimp.

Gnu Image Manipulation Program.

It might not be Photoshop, but it's free and it always will be.

Fuck Adobe. Open Source is the way to go.

[jmowreader]

29. Try doing a color sep in Gimp and get back to me

[William Seger]

31. That can be done

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/gum-bichromates/cmyk-colour-separation-using-the-gimp

[jmowreader]

38. Not well enough for professional use

If you read all the documentation, you'll find that GIMP with this plug-in has rudimentary CMYK support...if you do color for a living like a lot of people do, you need an application that handles CMYK on an equal footing as RGB.

There is a reason color pros use Photoshop not Gimp: Gimp doesn't do what we need. People who have Best Buy digital cameras they use once in a while would be fine with Gimp, and they can put the money they save toward a photo vacation.

[tridim]

37. Or one of the thousands of other things Gimp can't do.

I bet I'll still be hearing the "Just use Gimp" thing 30 years from now.

[jmowreader]

40. Just 30?

When we're dead and buried, they'll put on our tombstones "he would still be alive if he'd used Gimp."

[FrodosPet]

33. Amen! Programming should be a hobby, not a profession

Money corrupts.

[jmowreader]

39. It costs money to have a soul

Please tell me you're trying to be funny.

[FrodosPet]

42. Yes, I was

I don't know how big of a profit Adobe will make, but I know that talented people deserve to get paid.

There is some excellent free software out there, but the trouble is, unless the people writing it are living off lotto winnings or inheritance, they can only devote part time to it.

[DavidDvorkin]

41. I like Gimp, but it doesn't handle .psd very well

Either importing from or exporting to.

I can't use it professionally for that reason alone.

[longship]

43. I understand that GIMP has shortcomings.

But it is also open source, so what it can and cannot do is subject only to the effort of getting a certain capability into the platform. Also, under Linux, there are multiple utilities which do file format conversions.

I am not saying that any of them are robust enough or even suitable, but open source certainly shows that where there's a will there's a way.

Adobe's software can no longer be owned model may spurn GIMP developers to address some of these issues.

One can only hope.

[DavidDvorkin]

44. Yes, that may well happen

I'll switch back to Gimp if it reaches the point of doing what I need.

For that matter, it may only take some small improvements before it meets the need of the majority of Photoshop users.

[longship]

46. I am no pic edit pro but I like GIMP.

I can do simple things and have even toyed with layers, a concept which I find pretty complex. What I like about GIMP is that it has its own file format which supports its capabilities efficiently. One can always export to other formats so that a specific format is only a matter of conversion. Although this may be very complex, it need not be so if, for instance, Adobe publishes the technical specifics of their file format. That's a problem in itself: proprietary file formats.

Thanks for the reply.

[DavidDvorkin]

47. In my case, "professional" doesn't refer to editing pictures

My skills are minimal in that regard.

I do Web development, and I sometimes get the design files (what the Web site is supposed to look like) in the form of Photoshop files. I have to be able to see them accurately, including the layers, to use that in the final product.

I also help people self-publish. I almost always create their covers, and occasionally they send me PS files to include, created by artist friends of theirs.

[Turborama]

34. Judging by the comments below the article, the response isn't going to be as favorable as they hope

I wouldn't be surprised if this idea is a total flop.

[Matariki]

48. Argh. GIMP it is then...

http://www.gimp.org/