“As you know, when you buy an app, you don’t actually own it. You own the license to use it for as long as you like. And that can be a pretty long time, although new computers and new operating systems may make it impossible to use,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night owl. “So if you have Word 5.1a, released in 1992, which some consider to be the absolute best version of Microsoft’s word processor ever, don’t expect to have it work on your spanking new 2012 27-inch iMac.”
“In moving to OS X in 2001, Apple included a ‘Classic’ environment that allowed you to run all those old apps in a separate window. There were some limitations that wouldn’t apply to Word, though Classic itself disappeared by 2006 with the advent of Intel-based Macs,” Steinberg writes. “The main point, however, is that, without having to have an old Mac serving standby duty, you were able to use Word 5.1 on a reasonably current Mac for approximately 14 years. Nobody from Microsoft threatened to take your license away. It was yours to keep.”
Steinberg writes, “This week, Adobe announced that they will not deliver a direct successor to Creative Suite 6. There will be no Creative Suite 7. Instead, they are moving to Creative Cloud apps. What this means is that, beginning in June, you’ll be able to download the newest versions of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro and all the rest for monthly fees. For the first year, users of Creative Suite 3 or later will be eligible for discounted monthly fees for the new Creative Cloud suite, beginning at $29.99 per month; students pay $19.99 per month. The fees will go up next year to $50 per month for a regular user (which means $600 per year). But if you miss a payment, prepare to lose access to your software… Has Adobe considered possible lost business as a result?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Since we got PixelMator, we just haven’t missed Photoshop – the only Adobe software we were using with any regularity, so Adobe’s death wish doesn’t phase us. Now, if this were Apple, we’d be screaming bloody murder, so we can understand why Adobe CS users are having some issues with this news. Are you an Adobe CS user? What do you think? If Adobe stick to their plan, will you be a CS user this time next year?
Related article:
Adobe goes subscription-only, rebrands Creative Suite as Creative Cloud – May 6, 2013
Wow…big mistake Adobe!
Pixelmator @ $15 does everything I use Photoshop for.
Guess you could say I am behind the curve.
Gotta go, the demo just finished downloading.
This could lead to a comeback by Quark! (Well, maybe.)
Adobe apparently doesn’t believe there is a worldwide Depression going in right now. Fee-for-use hasn’t helped the TV industry so far (Cable and Satellite vs Flix), why does Adobe think it will work for them with a captive audience?
The value of standalone Adobe Suites just went up. Adobe thinks the Internet is “always on” and everyone has fat pipes with lots of bandwidth. NOT!
It’s not a question of fat pipes and always on. The software still resides on your hard drive and so does your product. The application simply phones home whenever you want to use it to see if you’ve paid your bill.
Bye-bye, Adobe, and good luck!
Will I still be a CS customer?
Yes, because using a legacy copy of CS is how **NOT** to become a CC customer who’s stuck paying a monthly fee to the tune of $600/year per seat.
This applies for both my home small business interests as well as for my ‘Large Enterprise’ day job.
What I expect will happen is that I’ll figure out an alternative to Adobe for my own stuff, that will become the basis of the recommenation I’ll be making for my boss at work to get rid of Adobe in the larger Enterprise setting.
Adobe already has a bad reputation of not being very good as a value proposition product, and this change will force the issue and motivate changing platforms…*away* from Adobe. Their business decision…and subsequent risk.
-hh
this truly sucks! Why not offer subscription and the ability to purchase software? I will not be paying monthly fees, I want to buy it once and not have to worry about spending any more money on it UNTIL I’m ready to upgrade on my terms…I have the retail version 4, and photoshop 5 select and was planning on upgrading to 6 or 7 in the future. This is my hobby and right now in my life, I dont have the time to be on the computer doing my photography thing until later this fall…
As a design professional, Adobe has been a part of my life on a daily basis. I’ve watched this company through many iterations. Going to the cloud makes sense for Adobe, but I think it’s strictly on the premise of piracy, but in a certain sense Adobe brought the pirated issue upon themselves with unreasonable pricing structures.
As a student, there wasn’t a way I could afford to buy the software outright, and many of my peers were in the same boat – so we bought one copy and passed it around. As for the quality of Adobe software: it use to be cutting edge, but it’s morphed into bloatware. DreamWeaver generates terrible code that are not even standard, and the suite just got bigger and bigger. Photoshop isn’t as special as it use to be. Steve pegged them on Flash, and we know that he was right on the money – Flash is horrible in security or efficiency.
The one great thing about Adobe is their Mercury engine they developed for Premiere.
I’m planning to hold onto Adobe CS5.5 for as long as I can. There’s nothing about Adobe’s products that makes for a compelling upgrade for me personally. Adobe’s approach to an ‘all in-house’ suite for designers have compromised in quality, and service.
The pricing for a user at $600.00 a year is ok, but not for a student. I think if Adobe kept it at $450 it might be something I would use. I don’t buy into ‘you get all this’ when at times, I don’t need ‘all that’. There should be more flexibility (a-la-carte), I just want Photoshop, After Effects and charge $10.00 per app/per month because honestly who uses over a dozen apps per day in their work-flow?
I’m all for paying for quality software, and like Quark knows you don’t treat the design community well, we will abandon you. Show some love Adobe with some reasonable and flexible pricing structures. I understand you need to make money, I understand you have families to support with your employees, but show some love with what works for the design community, churn out some innovative software and I’ll be in line to back you up again once again Adobe.
Your comments about pricing are way off the mark. Adobe has always had student pricing that is extremely reasonable. And the prices for their pro packages have also been way under the industry standards. Under the new plan there is also student pricing at $20 a month, in line with their old model. As a business owner, I don’t mind the new strategy. I’m not getting any kind of deal, Adobe pretty much upgrades every couple of years and I shell out my 800-1000 bucks per seat, but it’s painful to do it all at once like that. The monthly plan spreads those payments out, making it much easier to keep up to date.
As for the bloat-creep, I wholeheartedly agree with you. AE should have been redesigned from the ground up years ago. Now it’s just a big buggy mess. Photoshop has actually gotten interesting again, Illustrator is a mess, dreamweaver is a mess, inDesign – who cares, f*ck print 🙂
“Adobe pretty much upgrades every couple of years and I shell out my 800-1000 bucks per seat, but it’s painful to do it all at once like that. The monthly plan spreads those payments out, making it much easier to keep up to date.”
Or you could plan ahead. 😎
blaargh
What you neglected to mention is that the software you are “spreading out the payments for” is now rented. When you stop paying, you own nothing. Previously, you payed a similar amount every year, and had access to the most current version. Stop upgrading, and you didn’t lose what you payed for up to that point.
I realize that with the cloud you get every piece of software Adobe publishes, but as others have said here, most people only need what is offered in a single Creative Suite package. For myself, and most of the designers I know, it has been the Design CS Suite or its Web equivalent.
I have been using Adobe products for 18 years. The first app I learned to use was Illustrator, and I still use primarily Adobe apps for my day-to-day workflow. I used to have a lot of respect for Adobe. Now I am starting to see the greed showing through.
I have a cousin that uses Photoshop, Indesign & Acrobat in her business making newsletters and flyers, as well as contracts and other documents in Acrobat (she needs the special options of the Pro version). But, she had to buy CS3 Design Premium to get these 3 apps (which included Illustrator and several other apps she didn’t need) because those three she needed separately cost more than the suite. She hasn’t been able to afford the upgrade pricing (nor seen the need) and CS 3 for her still works in 10.8. But, how much longer will it continue to work? Another problem for her is learning new interfaces (She had PPC Photoshop and Pagemaker before CS3) and when upgrading in such huge jumps it really befuddled her, as she doesn’t accept change well. (Going from OS9 to 10.5 was a HUGE complication that she still has trouble with.)
Adobe now allows you to subscribe for $10/mo only the apps you need, and receive constant/automatic upgrades and one is always current. One doesn’t have to “rent” the whole suite, only what you need. Just need PS, then it’s $10/month. Same for the others.
Also, Adobe is still offering CS6 indefinitely with bug fixes/security updates, but no new features will be added, with the old pricing model and permeant licenses for those who wish to upgrade using that model. While this new pricing model may not appeal to all, there are definite advantages to many, if thoroughly looked at. Yes, there are alternatives, and now maybe some more developers may fill the void and offer them a run for the money seeing a larger need to be filled.
Software companies, record companies, the movie industry think we’re all stupid–we’ll some of us actually are–BUT!!!…..
they’re bastards who gouge us for things we’re happy to pay a fair price for…and hence they encourage stealing.
These ass-hats won’t learn until it’s too late.
This feels like the equivalent of Software Tenure to me. While that can be a security blanket for Adobe, it makes me question their incentive to innovate, since they already have my money.
Big opportunity for competitors! Especially if they use Apple’s pricing model for their apps (inexpensive, affordable) I stopped upgrading CS at version 3, and haven’t missed out on anything. Pixelmator can clean up a lot of business as a result of this boneheaded move on Adobe’s part. Kinda sad, another giant from my early Mac years slowly collapsing in on itself.
Huge opportunity for Google to come in, copy the look, feel and functionality and then give it away to gain advertising. I’m sure their little forgers are looking at this as I write.
Adobe has turned into the RIM of software…
I used to run InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere. I am down to only Phothoshop now. I am also in the process of transitioning to Pixelmator. If it wasn’t for gradient blending of layer masks (which I do a ton of), I would have ditched PS a good while ago. Hope other programs step up to the plate and take over the Mac market. Screw Adobe.
Graphic Converter! If Adobe has any brains at all, they’ll keep Elements as it is, also. My feeling is, this is going to hurt them- big time.
It’s already ridiculously expensive to buy CS, and I hate the idea of it being just as expensive with no long term use options. It’s an investment to buy software, not a recurring bill. I’ll never subscribe to their monthly plans. I’ll continue to use my CS6 as long as possible, and will likely look to competitors thereafter.
It will be up to consumers not to follow them like sheep. I say sheep as opposed to cattle the Adobe Cloud scenario is more akin to being a regularly fleeced flock of sheep.
New products are coming along and I hope people try them. After years of acquiring Photoshop skills, learning a new program is not a thrilling idea, but Adobe should not be rewarded for this. So try the new products. Reward developers by paying for them also. Help developers make their products as good as Adobe’s. DON’T ( for crying out loud ) use FLASH when developing websites.
Acorn look extremely promising.
http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/
Pixelmator
http://www.pixelmator.com
Gimp of course
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Seashore (Gimp but more Mac Like)
http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/Download.html
Live Quartz
http://www.rhapsoft.com
Adobe’s tools are powerful and mature, but you can ween yourself off of them if you try.
Pixelmator for Photoshop
Acorn for Illustrator
????? for InDesign
InDesign is the problem. When you have to send something to a professional offset printer what are you going to use?
Didn’t you know? Print is dead.
🙂
If you won’t be getting too swishy Swift Publisher might cover your InDesign needs. Works for me now.
http://www.belightsoft.com/products/swiftpublisher/overview.php
Could try EazyDraw
@ GDL, you’re right on the money. I only use Photoshop in my business. I could explore CS6 for a long time and still find new things in there. I guess that’s what I’m about to do.
I’m done with adobe if they really go subscription-only. No way I’m encouraging that licensing model. I’m a graphic designer who’s used Photoshop since the early 90s, but I upgrade when it makes sense for me businesswise, not just because Adobe thinks its time I paid them more money.
This move marks the end of innovation, because adobe now has no motivation to improve their product. Also, every customer is on the bleeding edge — will it be possible to keep running old subscription versions even after newer ones comes out? I suspect not, which means forced upgrades.
The whole idea stinks. I now use Sketch instead of illustrator, Acorn 4 instead of Photoshop, and iBooks Author instead on InDesign. The latter’s actually *free*! Well under $100 for software I can use for years instead of paying $600 a year for te “privilege” of using adobe’s bloated crap!
I’ve always hated this Apple vs. Adobe narrative that peaked during the Flash episode. Apple won, Adobe lost. But in losing, Adobe became better. For example, I actually really like Edge Animate. I’m still new to it but I greatly prefer it to Flash AND it ‘s HTML5 code. While not perfect, I think InDesign has made great strides in democratizing DPS for those that don’t work for mega-corporations (like me). I was an early subscriber to Creative Cloud and I really like it, but then again I was an early adopter of Final Cut X and saw the potential in that too (and happy to have stuck with it).
I can’t see how moving to SaaS is a bad thing for Adobe – if the software and service are great, the market will speak. If they suck, the market will speak. I take the over.
Maybe Quark will win back some people!
I used to ink myself a “power user” for image processing and therefore paid for Photoshop. I then bought Pixelmator on one of those app sales and have never looked back.
I will never rent software.
It’s just another insane price increase and what a way to drive away your loyal customers base Adobe! This a great opportunity for other apps developers to raise up and develop comparable products. Adobe is increasingly acting like Microsoft – being out of touch from regular folks (customers) like you and me.
my 2 cents…
Actually, for Adobe’s most loyal customers, the ones who buy every single upgrade of Creative Suite like clockwork, it’s not only a price decrease, but it’s easier budgeting as it doesn’t require a major capital outlay every 18 months. For those companies that skip every other upgrade it’s a major increase in expense.
Only a price decrease for those who bought every version of Master Collection. The other bundles (Production Premium, Design Premium, etc.) were significantly more affordable, and this represents an increase for them, even if they bought every version.
I have $10,000 plus in adobe licenses that are not worth DICK. Thanks for punishing all the honest developers who have paid for Creative Suite and Photoshop since the 1990’s. When I have a bad year, I don’t upgrade, but now I’ll be on the hook for 600/yr no matter the business climate. BORF.
Here’s what these pricing schemes miss:
I’m a casual user. As such, I might be willing to pay, say $79 for Photoshop LE (the “lite” version), or maybe $150 or even $200 for a a great deal on Creative Suite (or something vaguely similar).
It’s a one-time cost, so I might bite the bullet for something I’ll use once every few months, after a vacation, etc.
But I’ll *never* pay $50 or so per month every time I want to use it.
$50/month might not be unreasonable for a professional, who uses it every day as a core tool for their livelihood.
But for the rest of us, Adobe just closed the door on ever using their future products.
Same goes for Microsoft’s similar plans. I use Word, Excel at home occasionally…it might have been worth buying the software once for $150 or so, to do the occasional letter or budget. Now, I’m moving 100% to iWork.
They think they have piracy problems now???
This will make things *much* worse.
What they’re missing in this equation is that while there are power users who will gladly upgrade to each version if there’s any advantage at all, many people are content with being multiple versions behind. If those version-casual-users are forced into the same bucket as version-power-users then they’re going to find the product to be overpriced as well as more inclined to pirate.
Note there’s a difference between power-users and version-power-users. This is especially true with apps like Photoshop.
Personally, I’ve purchased Adobe licenses since Photoshop 3, then upgraded to the CS Design Suite skipping a version only on a rare occasion. I will not be paying a monthly fee for their software for my personal home use. I will continue using CS6 for quite awhile, seeking alternative SW if needed.
Professionally, the company I work for only upgrades our SW in response to files we receive from clients. I doubt the majority of designers we work with will be paying the monthly fees for Adobes CC software. The CS6 apps are capable of producing almost anything they need to produce.
Adobes monthly fee is only good for those that need several of their apps and find the full price of the CS Suite too much to pay for initially. I don’t think that base will be enough to sustain Adobe in the long run as other SW companies improve their software to take the place of Adobes over priced, bloated software.
Unfortunately, the day will come when current Mac hardware and/or Mac OS won’t support CS6, leaving legions of CS users up a creek without a paddle.
I have CS4 suite, which is awful to use and takes FOREVER to install. I can’t justify a monthly payment, but its possible I might rent the latest software on a project basis as long as I don’t have to sign up for a year at a time…
If it can be downloaded, which it will, then some hacker is going to find a way around the checks built into the software to see if you actually paid for it. Then Adobe will be screwed again, by their own greed, of course.
phase |fāz|
verb [ with obj. ]
carry out (something) in gradual stages: the work is being phased over a number of years
faze |fāz|
verb [ with obj., usu. with negative ] informal
disturb or disconcert (someone): she was not fazed by his show of anger.
i.e.
Adobe’s death wish doesn’t FAZE us.
Hello Aperture
I can’t believe no one has mentioned the possibility that this could push some pros over to Final Cut from Premiere Pro. Video pros care to weigh in?
OK -so let’s all slow down a little and take a look at what is happening, and see if we can discern why… and perhaps who gains, and who loses.
Adobe want us all to pony up monthly to have access to the new CC versions of their professional level creative software:
1) Heavy duty users who pay for this level of software and make money from using it and upgrade regularly every cycle (or at least every other one) won’t notice a cost change… in fact I suspect many bigger company bean counters will love this road as it makes their lives much easier… those heavily into the Adobe “ecosystem” will not, don’t want to, or cannot change paths anyway – they are too heavily entrenched and committed. And subscriptions (at current advertised rates) really make no difference to them. All they care about is their workflows stay uninterrupted.
2) Mid level users who make a fair amount of use of a limited set of Adobe products and make money from it may waver… and for now have the option to hold on to what they have, or grab the last CS6 “perpetual” to see them through the next few years and see what happens. If they can hold out for two years they should be able to see which way the wind is blowing and take a decision then – although I would advise considering options and damage limitation strategies now.
3) Casual users who occasionally use one or two products for financial gain could access any product they like on a pay to use basis… and that could save them considerably in the long run (at the currently advertised rates). But if your use is casual or intermittent perhaps you should be considering alternatives and how to futureproof legacy files now.
4) Home users, charities, hobbyists and any one else who uses Adobe stuff “not for personal gain” just got screwed over right royally… Adobe doesn’t want you folks, so pack your bags and get out of (Adobe’s) town… You were “probably all using old or pirate copies anyway” … you don’t spend enough money to matter to us so just leave quietly OK? I would be planning what alternatives I want to move to and how to protect access to my legacy files right now…
5) Adobe see a way to get all their subscribers in a headlock… pay up or lose out! People are saying what a selection of great deals they see and how that can save them money managed correctly – yes, for now that is true… and in two years when you are all locked in up to the eyeballs and Adobe decide the subscriber numbers are not so great and they announce subscription increases of 200% or 300%? Then what? Remember you could stand to lose access to years and years of your files… As I see it the only real winners in this deal are Adobe… they can shunt you whatever rubbish they like and you still got to pay up if you want to use your old files – unless you plan an exit strategy, and start doing it now
I totally feel betrayed by Adobe… I have been a loyal client since 1988, and have championed their software for years – and now they basically want to hold me to ransom and sodomise me if I don’t pay the “protection money”
I guess Adobe are hoping the big boys and those who can’t/won’t/don’t want to give up their Adobe workflows will carry the tide and we will all just get used to it… Yes for now we can hang on to our last “perpetual licence” version, until hardware or software updates break it – but that is not a long term solution. Adobe are currently king of the hill and seem to have learned nothing from Quark (from whom they stole the crown because the fat, lazy, greedy, complacent king fell asleep on the throne atop the hill…)
Only time will tell how this model will pan out for users and Adobe – in five years from now EITHER most pro software will be sold by subscription as SaS (Software as Service) following their lead, or the backlash will bite Adobe really hard and people will start dropping them in favour of alternatives that allow “owning” the software… I think Adobe are betting the farm on industrial inertia and their “king of the hill” position to swing the day for them… But I am pretty sure they are going to find themselves taking a hit in the consumer/hobbyist/casual market – and they could end up the preserve of the professional user only, and if that happens it may burn their fingers a hell of a lot more than they expect. If you stop being a de facto standard you become “just another app”. In some ways I would not mind seeing Adobe paint themselves into a “Professionals Only” corner – not in an elitist “I use Adobe” manner but in a “you tried to shaft the average users… and instead they gave you a bloody nose” way.
If you are a hobbyist/charity/consumer user I am pretty sure Adobe just screwed you over big time – and I suspect some lesser known app makers are rubbing their hands in glee – if I was the owner of Pixelmator/Acorn/Photoline or any one of a hundred other PS substitutes I would be jumping for joy right now! Same for apps that can take over from some of their other creation tools – I think I would be thanking Adobe for their kind gift of hundreds of potential new users in the next few years! Maybe that is a “GOOD THING (TM)” – perhaps it’s time their “de facto standard” stranglehold got taken down. I am sure the big boys aren’t going to shift away – but in my sector I already support pretty much every app available on Mac/Win (and to some extent Linux) that can turn out something someone wants printed… I can see that becoming an ever increasing slice of my work now – perhaps at least it will stop people doing “DTP” in PS ;D… But even so, I will no longer be recommending Adobe Apps to anyone – I have always given anyone who asks me a slew of options from the no cost/low cost all the way up to the CS… But if you are not someone actually making money out of using it Adobe just painted themselves out of the picture for the majority of my clients.
For me (personally) the biggest problem is probably In Design… I have always hated Xpress even when it was the “best tool available” (probably the time between PageMaker 5 and In Design 2.0) and In Design isn’t an easy tool to replace… PS alternatives are 10 to the penny – ranging from near toys to actually pretty good analogues. Ai alternatives are harder to find, but it is doable in my line of work, there will be some pain if I decide to shift, but probably not unbearable pain – for those who rely on Ai features I rarely (if ever) use perhaps that may be more of an issue. But In Design… now that is going to be hard to handle… of course I have the option of PDF to help me take old files elsewhere (as long as I can keep ID CS6 running to open and PDF legacy files) but where to find a real page layout package that supports the sorts of features In Design does? (and BTW and FWIW I am a DTP tool lover… I download and experiment with pretty much any DTP/Page Layout I can find – time to start testing some of them in real anger I suspect). Also FWIW I work in jobbing/commercial print, so I admit the most fancy and funky features of modern software are nice… but not always essential to me. We are not a “cutting edge” design studio… However the pro prepress tools I use inside Acrobat would be a massive loss… perhaps not an insurmountable one but definitely a huge PITA – And WTF will I do about a replacement for PitStop Pro????
To conclude – I am sure my company will hang on to CS 6 for as long as it can, perhaps we may even subscribe one seat to CC for a bit to see how it goes. I will be against this in principle, but in practice I suspect it may be both a necessity and outside of my remit to decide on.. though I will be having talks with the management about options and damage limitation strategy. I really do think we all need to consider how much we can leverage other options to lessen our professional reliance on one supplier… and one that has decided it can grab us by the balls and order us around at that!
As I have said.
This will be their undoing.
There is some merit. Would you pay $2 to use Photoshop for a week because that’s all you needed ?