Adobe is going to only sell subscription based Photoshop

[rdenney]

I would happily participate in an angry public letter / petition.

Me, too. I've paid a lot to keep Photoshop upgraded over the years, but I'm a low-volume user and this will increase what it costs me significantly.

But, even worse, it means I use a substantial portion of the very limited bandwidth I buy each month just downloading updates-without-the-option. These guys assume all their users live in big cities or along the west coast with FiOS or Uverse service. My internet access at home comes over a Verizon 4G modem--anything over 8G and I'm paying a freaking fortune for very single megabyte. And I'm lucky when that service works at all--I'm right on the fringe of coverage.

Monopolies suck. And free software like GIMP just makes it that much more difficult for people who need to eat to offer a commercial alternative to Photoshop that actually serves our needs.

Rick "needing a DISLIKE button" Denney

[welly]

An easy way to pay for the entire Creative Suite rather than a one off payment of thousands of dollars, only for that investment to be rendered useless in a years time, and no more upgrade costs? And I can pick and choose which applications I want to use?

Sign me up! I'm in!

Oh, I've already done so and Adobe have already lowered the price since I first subscribed to Creative Cloud. I would happily rent all my software if I could. Then I wouldn't pay for it when I wasn't using it.

[Kodachrome25]

I have a 3.33 6 core MacPro maxed out that serves my Nikon 9000ED scanner, I have no intention of upgrading anymore at this point. By the time my D800 is replaced by a new model, I will be done with digital nearly completely and just in time, this stuff is all BS...

[welly]

Me, too. I've paid a lot to keep Photoshop upgraded over the years, but I'm a low-volume user and this will increase what it costs me significantly.

But, even worse, it means I use a substantial portion of the very limited bandwidth I buy each month just downloading updates-without-the-option. These guys assume all their users live in big cities or along the west coast with FiOS or Uverse service. My internet access at home comes over a Verizon 4G modem--anything over 8G and I'm paying a freaking fortune for very single megabyte. And I'm lucky when that service works at all--I'm right on the fringe of coverage.

Monopolies suck. And free software like GIMP just makes it that much more difficult for people who need to eat to offer a commercial alternative to Photoshop that actually serves our needs.

Rick "needing a DISLIKE button" Denney

Updates work no different with creative cloud than they have done previously. It doesn't force updates on you every month. It has the same adobe updater application that you can easily choose to ignore.

Out of interest, have you done the maths to confirm that the monthly expense of creative suite would cost more than a yearly (or so) upgrade to the next version? For our office at work, the subscription model has worked out much cheaper. The upgrade from CS5 to CS6 would have cost us over $1000 per seat. The yearly Creative Cloud subscription is going to cost us $588.

[Jeff Dexheimer]

Updates work no different with creative cloud than they have done previously. It doesn't force updates on you every month. It has the same adobe updater application that you can easily choose to ignore.

Out of interest, have you done the maths to confirm that the monthly expense of creative suite would cost more than a yearly (or so) upgrade to the next version? For our office at work, the subscription model has worked out much cheaper. The upgrade from CS5 to CS6 would have cost us over $1000 per seat. The yearly Creative Cloud subscription is going to cost us $588.

For single use users, cloud is much more expensive. A photoshop subscription is $20 for the first year, then it goes up to $30 after that. If you compare the price of licensed software, updating every 2 years, you get CS2 = $600, upgrade to CS4 = $200, upgrade to CS6 = $200, totaling $1000 in 6 years.

Compare that to 6 years on the cloud subscription. Year 1 @ $20/ month = $240, years 2-6 (Assuming no further price increases) $30/month = $1800, or a total of $2040.

In six years time that more than double the cost to the single copy user. After that the difference just increases even further.

[Greg Miller]

For single use users, cloud is much more expensive. A photoshop subscription is $20 for the first year, then it goes up to $30 after that. If you compare the price of licensed software, updating every 2 years, you get CS2 = $600, upgrade to CS4 = $200, upgrade to CS6 = $200, totaling $1000 in 6 years.

Compare that to 6 years on the cloud subscription. Year 1 @ $20/ month = $240, years 2-6 (Assuming no further price increases) $30/month = $1800, or a total of $2040.

In six years time that more than double the cost to the single copy user. After that the difference just increases even further.

I think a more realistic price comparison is to use 18 months. That has been the Adobe update cycle, and with CS6 Adobe had announced that you could only upgrade from the most recent version.

Costs (assuming you already own a valid license which fits most of the people here):
Old model = $200 every 18 months
New model (first year at $20/month, next 6 months at $30/month): $420 for 18 months

The deal looks a different for someone just now purchasing Photoshop, but you still lose over the long run with the subnscription model.

Still a very lousy deal.

[Drew Wiley]

It's important to keep the flow of money going to all these bright-eyed bushy-tailed software engineers around here, so that
they can afford to shoot real film when they finally grow up!

[Kirk Gittings]

I think a more realistic price comparison is to use 18 months. That has been the Adobe update cycle, and with CS6 Adobe had announced that you could only upgrade from the most recent version.

Costs (assuming you already own a valid license which fits most of the people here):
Old model = $200 every 18 months
New model (first year at $20/month, next 6 months at $30/month): $420 for 18 months

The deal looks a different for someone just now purchasing Photoshop, but you still lose over the long run with the subnscription model.

Still a very lousy deal.

Yeah like they just doubled the cost.

[Lenny Eiger]

I hate Adobe. Someone said they have finally got it to work on Mac and PC. I use a Mac for editing and say they haven't gotten it together at all. It's still dog slow with a decent-sized file. It still takes forever to save. Its full of bugs. Listening them talk about Apple (and the reverse) is like hearing 3 year-olds argue.

This is simply an effort to 1) get more money out of you, and 2) get more access to your computer, your preferences, etc. so they can sell your life to targeted marketing.

Try installing Ghostery on your browser and see how many people are trying to track you. I also use an app called Cookie to dispense with cookies. It's a neverending battle. I'm sorry, I just don't want to buy that much....

To those that say they will never upgrade, what's going to happen in 5-7 years? Your printer will die and you will need a new one and you won't be able to print, or do other basic things. Tif may morph into something else. It's not realistic, given the changes that occur in a 10-year period. We didn't have smartphones 10 years ago...

Adobe's going to do what they're going to do. Being an imaging professional I will probably have to live with it. But I don't have to like it.
I'd be happy to sign on to a letter of protest, if someone writes it - maybe a change.org petition would be in order...

Lenny

[bdkphoto]

Yeah like they just doubled the cost.

For working professionals this is just part of the cost of doing business. I've been on the fence about it for a while but there's lots of folks who figured this out long ago. Add it to your production expenses at $xxx per job and move on if you need to stay current. If you are an educator it's a $20 month deal for the entire creative suite for the first year, then $30. That's a no brainer for me.