Whats the verdict on Adobe CC?

[fishbulb]

Even if you paid the full $700 purchase price, amortized over a 30 year use period, it comes down to $2/month.

Yes, I'm sure we all are still using Commodore 64's and IBM XT's from 30 years ago too. Good grief. Curmudgeons indeed.

[Greg Miller]

Worst case, you'd have to get the 30 day free fully functional demo version installed so you could save your PSDs to another format. As Kirk has mentioned there are other options for opening files as well.

Comparing software to a car is apples and oranges. You never own software unless you make it yourself or have it custom made by a programmer on staff, and even then it's largely made with building blocks you don't own such as runtime libraries and open source code. When you "buy software", you are buying a license to use it, which is full of restrictions just like leased software. It's sort of like having the CS6 cd/dvd is like Vivian Maier's negatives; you've got the materials, someone else might have the rights, but a lot more clear cut with software because it was planned that way.

I know the car question is rhetorical, but I'd take the ownership option so I could buy just liability insurance rather than full coverage as the leasing company would require.

My portfolio is large enough I could not possibly convert it in 30 days. And as Kirk said the other options are lame.

With PS6 I own the software license. I can use it as long as I choose to with no further payment to the Adobe. Just like I can use a car that I own as long as I want with no further payment to the car manufacturer.

[Greg Miller]

Yes, I'm sure we all are still using Commodore 64's and IBM XT's from 30 years ago too. Good grief. Curmudgeons indeed.

You missed the point. Historically you paid full price once for Photoshop. Then you could upgrade continuously for as long as Adobe offered upgrades. You could choose to upgrade or choose not too. I started with Photoshop 5.0. Some people started with Photoshop 1.0. You paid the upgrade price each time you elected to upgrade. This is what you originally wrote which prompted my response:

This used to cost about $1000 every couple years when new CS versions came out.

This is completely untrue. Upgrade prices were typically $150 to $200, and you could typically skip a version. So $150 to $200 every 3 years. Not $1,000 every couple of years.

[Tin Can]

I started with PS 4, not CS 4 bundled for a great price with a scanner. The software seemed 'free'.

I just looked and I have CD's for CS 2 and CS 5.5 and who knows what other obsolete CD's are laying around.

I have tried various photo, video and music editing software over 18 years. Wasted a lot of money learning video, with gear and software. 6K that!

Since I do very little video now, I don't 'rent' the whole CS package as I first did when it was $30 for the first year. If it was still $30, I would pay that for the super duper all you can eat Adobe thingy.

My point is, that as an 'early adopter' I have spent oodles on useless crap and now way prefer 'renting'

Works real well for me.

I never bought vinyl records, mag tape ages poorly, CD's self destruct. Hard drives crash. The cloud is currently our safest place for anything. Endless HD backups hidden in banks fail just sitting there.

However I expect data storage to become organic and more like our own internal memory systems within our lifetimes. Pod people.

If you "like' buying just do it, nobody is going to convince 'renters' we are wrong.

Make yourself happy. Time is short.

[John Bowen]

Yes, I'm sure we all are still using Commodore 64's and IBM XT's from 30 years ago too. Good grief. Curmudgeons indeed.

Film and 5 1/4" Floppy disks.....what more could you ask?????

[Jac@stafford.net]

Film and 5 1/4" Floppy disks.....what more could you ask?????

I can only dream I were as old as when those floppys were state-of-the-art.

[Tin Can]

I tossed all the 8" floppies from the lab in the late 90's. We had several pallets of them.

Before that, they used 3X5 cards for data, that was also indecipherable even when written in english. The notes were too cursory. Tossed that too.

Humans are lousy with history, always have been, what makes anybody think we are doing better.


We are piling ephemeral bits up in huge data warehouses that can fail in a blink. EMP anybody.

Maybe my CD of CS2 will survive, but the machine will not.

[Adamphotoman]

At this point I prefer owning the licence for PSCS. At some point I may start with CC.

BTW, Capture One Pro [CO8] is my go to software for 90% of my needs and then I finish up in PS. Also CO8 is available as either an upgrade purchase or a subscription.
Phase One tells us that if one opps for a subscription, and if an update is buggy, one can still use the older version.

[Tin Can]

At this point I prefer owning the licence for PSCS. At some point I may start with CC.

BTW, Capture One Pro [CO8] is my go to software for 90% of my needs and then I finish up in PS. Also CO8 is available as either an upgrade purchase or a subscription.
Phase One tells us that if one opps for a subscription, and if an update is buggy, one can still use the older version.

Now I'm LOL. When did C1P go SS? The only reason I have not bought it, was it required a purchase!

I have used the trial several times...a few years ago...

[Jim Andrada]

My clients in Japan were the last maker of 8 1/2" floppy drives on the planet. Made a LOT of money.

I think there are only two companies that make any money from technology - the first one in and the last one out.