Adobe heralds subscription-only future for Photoshop and Creative Suite

Talk about disingenuous, "Adobe has said it will no longer be developing its Creative Suite range of software, leaving its subscription and cloud-based Creative Cloud as the only way of accessing the latest version of Photoshop."

Of course Adobe is continuing to develop its CS apps (as they now call their programs in an unintentional attempt to be link themselves to cellular phone companies who know a thing or two about abusing subscribers); they just want to control who has access to them. Now, there's nothing wrong with trying to thwart piracy, but the alleged brain trust at Adobe cannot figure out how to do that without screwing the people who have paid them loyally over the years. Maybe Adobe will diversify into auto insurance next. After all, they've already figured out the hardest part of that industry, making legal drivers pay the freight for illegal ones!!

One another thing — it takes away pressure form Adobe — no more need to new releases — you can very slowly to tweak same old programs and no need to make a big jumps and present tons of new features — customers need to pay upgrade fees anyway:(

PS CS6 should remain capable of editing non-RAW images for a few more years at least. PS relies on ACR for newer cameras and functional updates so RAW editing will slowly deteriorate for existing cameras and be problematic for newer cameras.

LR 4.x is being upgraded to 5.x and should remain a non-Cloud app for a while. Sooner or later Adobe will probably pull it into the Cloud too, so I'm preparing now to become sans Adobe.

I purchased Aperture 3.4.x today to start learning it. I have only Canon cameras so perhaps Canon will greatly improve DPP's RAW editing capabilities. Hopefully other software firms will now develop/upgrade RAW editing software to rival ACR.

I will purchase the LR 5 upgrade when it is available if it gets good reviews. But I won't be purchasing any other Adobe products ever again! I'm a 20+ year user of PS, but Adobe's BS has finally crossed way over the line. Time to shop elsewhere.

I use photoshop less and less and no way will I pay a subscription for it. If LR goes the same way then I'll use an alternative to that too. Looks like Paintshop Pro or Gimp in my future.
I'm confident that Adobe will regret this move, if not now then in the long term. Customer loyalty is hard won and easily lost-this will open up the market for competitors.

I can only hope for the sake of consumers that this will not be the future where you are hooked into lease/rent/subscribe models where - after you hop on the bus - the earning capacity of the software companies involved with be limitless. Maybe a great time to promote other companies that haven't embraced the policy yet, like JASC (Corel) Paint Shop Pro or PhaseOne's Capture One!! All of a sudden their pricing looks like a steal ...

Never seen more comments on a single post.

As others have stated..... I wish that this ends up being an EPIC FAIL.... a fail so huge that until now, nothing will have rivaled it.

I'm talking ..... upper corporate management wholesale head-rolling... EPIC fail.

I'm talking the 1980's "New Coke" ... EPIC fail.

After the initial annoyance at Adobes move, I now feel its not really such a big deal. First and foremost Adobe as a company are in the game to make money. Say Ford had a monopoly as a car maker, think their prices , service and what you got would be as it is now. OK it may not be great, but no competition would make it a great deal worse. Amateur photographers are probably not important to Adobe, but corporate and business users are. This model of paying a monthly fee is actually common in the corporate world e.g. Microsoft. I use only a small fraction of CS6's functionality, and I guess using CS6 and maybe at a future date a more advanced Lightroom and Elements will prove perfectly adequate. Adobe are going to continue with these products, so I don't feel hard done by. Its an opportunity to seriously consider what full fat Photoshop actually offers that you can do by other means and save money into the bargain.

Since my country (Croatia) is not on the list of countries supported by this cloud service, or at least this was the case some months ago when I tried to subscribe, this effectively means I will have to stay away from Adobe.

Obviously Adobe was having difficultly adding enough value to products to compel users to upgrade to the latest and greatest every 18 months. I guess they feel they have enough of a monopoly on the industry to force people into a subscription model. I am sure this simplifies their sales channels and distribution model and offers a steady revenue stream. As others have said this opens up a huge opportunity for the competition.

Microsoft was at least smart enough to only force it's corporate clients into a subscription base model. It only is now testing the waters for users. Adobe and MS can hold hands together and jump off the cliff into oblivion.

I do hope someone steps up to the plate in a big enough way that plug-in providers like Nik (Google) migrate their software. I hate to loss my investment and use of those products.

I wonder how many hits for "Photoshop alternatives" Google is getting today?

Since Adobe stuff was the main thing holding me on windows, I guess this means I will just eventually switch to linux completely and use things like darktable.

Could have interesting knock on effects in cameras that are supported. Thankfully there are plenty of good choices in RAW processing outside ACR. I'll have to give capture one and DxO harder looks but if I have to lose an integrated workflow I will give competitors a big chance. Sad thing is if people worked together for a year we could have something better than photoshop with GPL free forever.

Greed. Please make this is a huge FAIL for Adobe. I hope they go under.

Goodbye Adobe. Shove your $29 a month where the sun doesn't shine.

Guys, hold the line!!!.... MSFT just announced that it will bite the bullet with Windows 8.. MSFT being a lot bigger and more arrogant than ADBE
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/3-tech-titans-making-noise-apple-earns-einhorns-praise-microsoft-bites-the-bullet-on-windows-8-and-adobe-douses-fireworks.html/2/

ADBE is a public company, they HAVE to GROW every 3 months. I worked for a similar company few years ago, there is NO way they can survive 3 Quarters of never mind decreasing, just flat revenues will start questioning the CEO and Board. Hold the line! you will see a wave of lay offs from ADBE in 9 months, including the genius who came up with this dumb idea of adding a monthly bill to everyone. If there ONE thing most people hate is a monthly bill....

If Adobe actually cared about me as a customer, this is what they would do.

1. Skip the monthly rental/cloud nonsense and go back to owned software.
2. Unlock ACR and offer updates via yearly subscription.

I would happily pay $50 a year for unlimited ACR updates as long as I could continue to use my existing version of Photoshop.

Maybe Adobe is running out of new ideas to improve their product. Currently users have no reason to spend the money to upgrade unless valuable new improvements are made. With their new business model there is no incentive for Adobe to improve the performance or capabilities of the software. Just keep charging for the same old thing. Thank you very little.

Thinking about selling my shares of stock as well.

the program doesn't reside in the cloud it resides on your computer. I just signed up under teacher/student (legitimate) for $19.99/month and it's every adobe program under the sun. I have CS6 and LR4 on my machine and have added my plugins and actions. I probably won't use the cloud space for files.

You also get 2 computers mac or windows. Now I can install the mac version on my daughter's macbook, which before I couldn't do with stand alone CS5.

I can see the pitchforks and torches for adobe and agree with folks, vote with your feet.

A_B_S_O_L_U_T_E_L_Y__N_O___W_A_Y == GOODBYE Adobe - time to move on to more sensible solutions, which are a plenty !!!

CS5 is fine for me and it does everything my limited touchup ability needs. Cloud anything can kiss my butt, ive got perfectly good SECURE storage at home on my pc thanks. If i want any other device to use it then i *gasp* plug it in to the pc!

Wow..I don't remember more comments on a news item in DPR ever. Especially so quickly. I don't understand what happens to third party plug-ins and actions in the Creative Cloud. It seems to me that software plugin development will now be aimed at the "cloud", so programs like Gimp and Corel's Paint Shop will be left in the cold (since they've been able to use Photoshop plugins). This looks to me like a marketing move by Adobe, rather than a striving for excellence move (as in their previous efforts) to limit and monopolize photo editing.
I jumped off their treadmill a while back. My version of Photoshop still does OK by me, even if I do have to develop Raw files in something else..Like Aftershot, Raw Therapee, or Lightroom and then transfer them in 16bit to Photoshop. Far as I'm concerned I may not purchase any more Adobe software.

What Adobe might NOT be considering carefully enough here too, is that today's corporate budgets are not what they were 10 yrs ago, everything is cut, cut, cut and they're likely to lose more corp clients than they counted on.

What if their latest update one day suddenly requires say Windows 8/9 and you don't want/like Windows 8 and want to stick with Windows 7 until maybe Windows 10 comes out. At least with the current model you could use your current Adobe versions until you were ready.

Wouldn't that be Adobe forcing you to upgrade to Windows8/9 on top of the whole nasty mess? EVen if you run it as an extra boot you'd still have to buy the latest Windows and it would be a pain to have to re-boot to that OS each time you needed to use something from Adobe.

Oddly a lot of people will just make CS6 Photoshop their last update (or CS5 or CS4 how much do we need anyway). We can all save money by stop buying updates. Thanks Adobe.

For a raw converter, use another software, there are lots to choose from from Capture One, DXO Optics Pro, Aperature, Lightroom, Corel Aftershot (formerly Bibble), Capture NX etc.

Then again, hoping these guys do not follow suite with monthy rates as well!

I think Adobe software will just keep selling. There's just too much apathy and not enough alternative products/suites for me to see it any differently.

If I am right, here's the future trend:

Companies who employ creative personnel can just deduct the $50 from paychecks. If paid twice per month, just deduct $25 from each paycheck. Employers can call it the "Adobe Surcharge"; kind of like how your health, accident, and life insurance premiums are deducted from your pay.

Or maybe "BYOS" will become the norm. Creative personnel can purchase their own licenses and bring with. Construction crews and mechanics do that already; bring their pickup trucks and tools to the work site or shop.

If you are a freelancer, then you just have to make sure you are working enough each month to cover the $50. Put it on your invoices, just like how locksmiths and plumbers put their "gas surcharge" on their invoices.

Not in favor of all this. I just see this as being the bigger possibility.

Simple remedy: stop manipulating your photographs. Just use out-of-camera JPEGs or use the converter supplied by the camera maker. Back to basics.

It is also possible and even probable that there will be PS replacements form other companies quite soon, if Adobe really goes through this. Market will decide.

As an occasional user of the Photoshop product I will not be able to afford, nor justify the use of the new subscription-based licensing model, and will instead opt to seek out free or less costly alternatives. Shame on Adobe for turning away and alienating hard-won evangelically loyal customers. They will either be content with diminishing PS product revenue from inevitable loss of scores of similar customers, or, more likely, be forced to make up the losses by charging the remaining customers more, precipitating additional customer base erosion: not a good business direction.

Sad that all the meticulous work contained in my PSD files from many years of editing will eventually become hostage to Adobe's misplaced greed. GIMP's PSD handling is surprisingly robust, but not quite perfect, yet.

The only way to make companies like Adobe understand that they should follow the users' wishes and needs, not vice versa, is if sales would simply break down. People just not buying these products. I hope that is what will happen.

Adobe will push more people to get their piracy copies of new suite. Designers, who is using Photoshop/InDesign/Illustrator/Acrobat — will be paying more than before, and many of professionals will stay on CS6 version as long as computer systems will be supporting it.

Very ugly move by Adobe — first purchasing and killing concurrents like Macromedia, and now doing this rent/cloud stunt. I have no problem to use my CS6 Photoshop and Illustrator, also my main layout program is Quark. But what scares me — many people will be pushed to go for a new deal, and how fast Adobe will kill comparably and legacy between newer version of the programs and older stuff (CS6). I remember the nightmare with earlier InDesign versions.

And while your at it, contact NAPP and let them know that your subscription will not be renewed. Contact the makers of your plugins too.

By the way, if you need a Photoshop-like program, check out GIMP. Runs on Windows, OSX, Linux and others.

Also, FREE! Link: http://www.gimp.org/

This is horrible news. I fear this and Microsoft's move to the Cloud will have us all paying as we play. this is bad for all users everywhere. I predicted this a year and a half ago and was laughed at by friends. I said, "Soon we will be paying to use our software on an on-going usage. It will be like old long distance. the more you use, the more you pay." Watch. It will happen.

What photo editing software should I consider to replace Photoshop? I may as well start learning something new.

As a hobby photographer I have been using Photoshop since 1996, and have updated to the newest version whenever I felt the upgrades were worth the price. I currently have CS6 but I usually skip every other version as I can't justify the cost for the incremental improvements. The monthly subscription price seems way out of line, and if at any time you cannot justify the payment you will have nothing at all for all the money you have spent. What the ?? I am not interested in going down that road at all. I am very happy to purchase software at a fair price, but then expect it to be mine to keep.

Any recommendations for alternatives would be greatly appreciated.

Given this development, I wonder whether the major camera manufacturers will come to the understanding that in addition to the camera body and lenses, the software component is the third and crucial leg on which digital photography stands and that they have a major role to play on this matter.

While developing a software such as Adobe Photoshop is beyond the capabilities of these camera manufacturers, their adoption of a common RAW file standard (definitely not DNG!) just like what they are doing with JPG will go a long way in helping other software companies to provide alternatives to Adobe's offering.

Adopting a common RAW standard and doing away with the need to constantly update the RAW converter (essentially, ACR for Adobe) every time a new camera model is released will mean that the user will have more money to spend on camera gears rather than spend it to update software to be able to make use of new model releases.

The price is too high. It's simply too rich at $50 per month for a single seat. At least Microsoft Office's subscription model is only $100 per year and allows up to 5 seats. Subscription models are like alimony: open-ended, meaning you pay until somebody gets married, dies, or the end of time.

So cost rises, period.

I hear a lot of grousing and complaining here. But I see NOTHING happening to correct this latest decision. For example, this forum is burning up, but Adobe's own forum has almost no complaints. You're all whining here and not THERE.

500,000 have already been suckered into the subscription model, with over a million currently in trial. Perfect reasoning for Adobe to make it permanent for all!

Adobe users are among the loudest whiners, but also among the MOST APATHETIC (as a group). By default, apathy encourages more of what you have not discouraged.

Here's the upshot:

ADOBE THINKS WE LIKE THIS BECAUSE THERE IS VERY LITTLE ACTIONABLE EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY.

Adobe has had an interesting co-dependent relationship with pirates. Most are kids who cannot afford the exorbitant price for the software; but those same kids later grow up and enter the workforce where they become evangelists for Adobe products, which translates into huge corporate sales for them.

It will be interesting to see what happens when this cycle is broken.

I wonder if companies like Corel dream of having their products pirated at the level that Adobe products are.

Think of this scenario, your job is going well, you buy a piece of software with surplus money, you lose your job, you at least can delay an upgrade and still use the old version. With a subscription model you either have a monthly bill your locked into and can't afford, or you have nothing you can use not even an older version.

There's nothing that pirates can't beat, even subscription based software. They did it with Office 2013 and they will do it with Adobe CC. This is not about piracy, this is just greed from a company that wants to milk its customers. Bye Bye Adobe.

Will Lightroom go this same route? I will be extremely depressed if that happens. I have 7 years of investment in that software :(.

:( Maybe they will hear the backlash....we can only hope

1500 comments in 24 hrs. This must be a new record.

And 99.9% seem to be against Adobe's new pricing scheme. As someone else already notes, this much agreement on DPR must also be a first.

Professionals who make their living from using these programs - using them daily - won't likely have that much of a problem with the scheme (or at least may ultimately find that it works for them). Those who are most affected are the amateurs and enthusiasts who take pictures when they can and play with them when time allows.

I may go for months without taking a picture or having time to review and fix them up on PS, Lightroom or whatever. I suspect that many other people fit this same profile. For us, this model makes no sense and will ultimately drive us to other solutions that aren't a constant drain on the bank account.

It's sort of like cable or health clubs. There comes a point when one realises that they are not really using the subscription enough and forego it all together.

As others have stated, good bye Adobe. I wish you the worst.

Greed is a strong motivation and often the beginning of an quick death... Goodbye Adobe... Hello GIMP, hello Pixelmator, welcome Photoline, hi rest of the world :)

This is not about piracy, no way, this is about monopoly and greed. Well, you can count me out, boys.

For those planning to use the Lightroom in lieu of ACR (which is only available through subscription) to process RAW files from future camera models then port the file to Photoshop, be advised that Adobe can "upgrade" the future versions of the Lightroom output so that it will be incompatible with CS6 to pressure the user to subscribe.

The user does have an option to output a DNG or TIF from Lightroom as an intermediate file and use this in Photoshop but this will slow the workflow and take up storage space.

At best, the LR + Photoshop (CS6) should be seen as a temporary solution that will work until such time that Adobe makes the underlying ACR engine in LR incompatible for use with Photoshop. Because of this, I am now on the lookout for another software that will replace LR and Photoshop.

How about a voice of reason crying in the wilderness???

"If you're going to complain about Adobe CC, at least understand it!"

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/51422317

wow 4 digits!