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Author Topic: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?  (Read 3278 times)

pwhodges

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Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« on: 06 May 2013, 15:39 »

We've had a thread about Microsoft stupidity, and now it's Adobe's turn.

With the release of the new version of the Adobe Creative Suite later this month, it will no longer be sold.  That's right, you won't be able to buy it, nor any of the individual applications.  Want to buy Photoshop?  Tough.  Want to get your own copy of the new version of Audition?  No. 

The Suite will only be available in the future on a monthly subscription.

Details

Note: the sums about the benefits in that article make assumptions that are not historically correct; for my usage of Audition, the new scheme costs greatly more than the costs of upgrading to every version have been.
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Masterpiece

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #1 on: 06 May 2013, 15:48 »

I heard about that. I can get where they're coming from, as they now have a concurrent revenue stream, but it's still sad to know I won't be able to have the newest version of fine Adobeware to mess around with.

That said, I didn't know Microsoft went subscription-only.

pwhodges

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #2 on: 06 May 2013, 15:57 »

They didn't - I meant this.
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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #3 on: 06 May 2013, 17:06 »

This means that they are completely pricing themselves out of the range of most hobbyists that wants to use (only) photoshop. Unless that market has become very small (due to piracy and Gimp and similar, free services), this seems like a kinda silly move. The reason given - a desire for a constant cash flow instead of spikes - is a good one, but that assumes that the customer base stays the same or slightly smaller.
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pwhodges

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #4 on: 07 May 2013, 07:38 »

From the comments sections of a discussion about this elsewhere; part of an obviously planted comment:

Quote
3. Adobe products are for professionals. $50 (first year $20 or so) a month is nothing for all the products that you get. It is not meant for hobbyist. And if you can't make enough with adobe products that you can easily afford $50 a month, you should really consider changing your profession.

Another problem is archiving.  You archive files in Photoshop PSD or Audition SES formats, say, and in 20 years time the program has dropped backward compatibility with the old version of the format.  Typically a responsible archivist will have kept copies of the different versions of the programs to account for this situation, but under the new arrangements this is not possible. 
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Masterpiece

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #5 on: 07 May 2013, 09:50 »

Archiving sounds like a legitimate issue I hadn't considered. Interesting.

SerebroRaya

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #6 on: 07 May 2013, 10:14 »

At least Microsoft offers purchase of their Office suite without a subscription still--this is incredibly disheartening news. It makes a whole lot of economic sense, however, since a subscription service fundamentally prevents piracy and provides more stable revenue. As sad as I am to see professional, stand-alone apps that one actually owns go the way of the dinosaurs, I'm hopeful that a stable income will let Adobe make their products even better--Photoshop is fantastic, but most of their applications still have horrendously dated interfaces (Fireworks and Illustrator, for example) and a dearth of feature bloat.

Services and cloud-based productivity are the new norm, and I can't really see a way for the consumer to protest that.
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rschill

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #7 on: 07 May 2013, 13:24 »

Maybe this will push more hobbyist artists and developers into using and developing free (libre) software. 
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mtmerrick

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #8 on: 07 May 2013, 15:25 »

Most hobbyist artists/developers I know swear by gimp....
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GarandMarine

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #9 on: 07 May 2013, 16:03 »

Hey what those guys do in their personal lives has no relevance to art programs
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Parkour Lewis

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #10 on: 07 May 2013, 16:20 »

I don't like how companies keep trying to move to this "you're not buying our software, you're just renting it" model.  I don't think it's good for the consumer or the industry as a whole, and in the end, when it all settles, I think everyone will just switch to a different company's software that doesn't try to keep such a stranglehold on how you use their product.
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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #11 on: 07 May 2013, 18:05 »

It doesn't prevent against piracy.  I'm sorry.  It doesn't. 

I can make this prediction with no worry of being wrong.  Within a few weeks of whatever they release, there will be a way to use it without paying for it. 

So, if you take that into account, and this 'security measure' is useless, then what exactly is the goal?

I am a graphic designer.  I use Adobe products all the time in my business, and this is, quite frankly, bullshit.

 :meh:
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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #12 on: 08 May 2013, 08:48 »

If they were running it on the cloud, then it could actually prevent piracy, but it's just a subscription model to a local binary.

I predict that more of the hobbyist users will start pirating it as well as switching to the GIMP, and small business users may move to the GIMP (but that won't mean anything for development effort). Also, piracy will be how archival is pulled off.

This is simply a "fuck you" to hobbyists, really, though. Which is a really, really dumb strategy.
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Parkour Lewis

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #13 on: 08 May 2013, 18:30 »

I've always hated Gimp's interface, but I may have to try it out again now instead of pirating Photoshop like I've been doing to make my badly - photoshopped jokes.

Yeah I said I pirated it.

Yarr.
« Last Edit: 09 May 2013, 01:33 by Parkour Lewis »
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Masterpiece

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #14 on: 09 May 2013, 02:42 »

Who didn't?

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #15 on: 09 May 2013, 08:30 »

Who didn't?

Me. I don't consider downloading the free version of CS2 and registry key Adobe recently put up on their website piracy. However I've hardly ever used it. Total overkill for my needs. Paint.Net and that other program with the ridiculous name are fine for all my present graphics needs.

But yeah, Photoshop's  popularity owes  as much to the ease of pirating it  as it does to it's killer features.

I get the feeling the CS applications have matured, and there aren't many new features being added, so the amount of people upgrading regularly is slowing, which is why Adobe is switching to a subscription model.

It could work out for them. Autodesk went subscription years ago and are still making money hand over fist. Although you can still buy Autodesk products, just don't try selling them second-hand, or expect product support.

EDIT: of course with AutoDesk the yearly subscription/lease works out cheaper than buying a new version outright yearly, which doesn't seem to be the case with Adobe Creative Cloud.
« Last Edit: 09 May 2013, 13:21 by Eternal_Newbie »
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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #16 on: 09 May 2013, 14:02 »

Was talking with my media tutors about this. All round opinion is it's bloody annoying but you can't fault them for wanting a stable income.

pwhodges

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #17 on: 09 May 2013, 14:18 »

If they updated the programs at separate times rather than moving people to buying a suite which then had to be updated all at once, then the same objective could be achieved.  Of course, they'd have to ensure that upgrades of individual items remained compatible, but that would be no bad thing.  Or you could own the program after paying a year's subscription charges (whether monthly, or all up front) to even out the revenue flow.  There are lots of things they could have done, but this is the one that ensures that users never stop paying - it's less about continuous income than more income, I suspect.
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mtmerrick

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Re: Adobe Creative Suite - RIP?
« Reply #18 on: 09 May 2013, 16:14 »

As someone with first hand experience with autodesk's subscription services let me just tell you it sucks balls. They pretty much demand an absolutely obscene amount of money at absolutely the worst time possible,  and kill all backwards compatibility at the same time. Transferring licenses is damn near impossible, multiple installations are impossible, you’re allowed a licence of the older version to move to a different PC if you can get it to work, but it's rendered nearly unless because they have a new file format every year that the entire industry is forced to move to,  and it's not backwards compatible......

It's a bad joke,  that's what it is.
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