Poll: What concerns you most about Adobe's move to subscription software?

Being enthusiastic about digital photography from the beginnings, as pro / teacher I started using /teaching PS 4.0 to PS 13.0 and lightroom.
Noe, this is a sad, expensive and laborious turning point. Trust is gone.
Would you, lets say, in tomorrows job convert your work to psd or DNG? Really, you would?
Looking forward means, look for possible alternatives. Photographers in fact need a small part of PS. That part could possibly be supplied by a smaller company. Support Ninja, Corel and all the others. And forget about Adobe mayhem like we forgot about Qxpress. And do not forget to make Tiffs from those foul psd´s. I have to check out a possibility to convert a few thousand DNGs to anything but a monopoly standard. It is only about making photographs.
Nobody can´t be replaced. Proof is your nearest graveyard.

Adobe Corporate Management takes the reins for the highest risk gamble:
At stake is the new corporate SW strategy. for Others to follow..

BUT Adobe created THE best opportunity for OpenSource SW of this decade.
what remains to be, which route wins in the next 12-24 months :-)

I work for a design agency and this move is similarly unwelcome amongst professionals. It's seen as a way of the company keeping a constant revenue stream at a maximised level - the pricing represents the equivalent of purchasing the suite at each full upgrade and at the gradually [and greatly] increased rate the company has established over the last decade.

Many if not most smaller agencies have adopted a policy of skipping upgrades - particularly as in most recent years the number of really useful new features has gradually decreased as the software is now very mature.

Unfortunately the new model, whilst it squeezes a currently struggling industry ever harder also takes away much of the incentive to bring on further innovation - if the revenue stream is guaranteed - there is no pressure to entice upgraders to recommit.

I've appreciated Photoshop over the years and upgraded through most, if not all new versions.
But listen carefully Adobe: continuing my investment in your product over those years was always a choice. It was my choice. Just as now , in the face of your newly announced marketing madness, I'll choose to walk away.
These days, with a wide variety of quality editing software available and suitable for even the most discerning professional, you need me more than I need you. Thanks for the memories.

In medieval Europe feudalism flourished, is this the beginning of modern feudalism?

A nonsense poll.
You are being soft on Adobe!

Here, I will make the correct poll below:
Concerns:

A. Adobe is being greedy as heck.
B. They are being evil AND greedy as heck.
C. Regardless, I will not give a single cent more to such a company, be they evil or not, out of principle!
Spit on your long time loyal customers, and it is sayonara time!
D. All of the above
E. None of these

I pick D, all of the above.

I am still using Photoshop CS3, this version will work for me as long as I use XP, or Windows 7. I do not need the latest features of CS5, 6 etc., I can convert RAW files with other converters and use my older Photoshop version to work then on the tiff files.
The idea to constantly pay to a software company for having access to their software - just like kindle ebooks that you only can use as long as you have the Amazon account - is quite unacceptable for me. I cannot imagine to do that.

Sorry. But I can imagine to go on using my old PS version forever...

This poll is inadequate, IMO. It would be better to allow us to assign numbers to them since all 4 of them are of concern to me. I could order them, but I am not going to choose just one so I will not participate.

To anyone like myself..a retired Art teacher, it's now simply unaffordable. End of story, end of Adobe.

It now makes it completely unaffordable for amateurs.

If I can find any reasonable alternatives, the "CS6 Creative Suite" I own now, will probably be my "thank you and goodbye" to Adobe...

Adobe has made a huge error and they will pay big time. I expect a real competitor will come up with similar software and tens of thousands of us will switch just on principle..to be blunt I am ticked off. as well., what I tried to say here was refused I guess one cannot even say pxxxxd off in America? lol

I wonder if this new policy will fly in EU. The EU has given Microsoft some hard time and perhaps they will look into this as well?

Adobe has done a wonderful thing here .... for their competitors.

I look forward to seeing what pricing and new features they bring to the market for the serious amateurs and home enthusiasts. Pros might be able to justify continual payment, but I'll bet most won't and will look elsewhere.

Nice one Adobe!

Thing that concerns me most actually is not in the poll :
- This moves empowers the company way too much against the customers who are buying into it, it's too one sided. Okay, professionals and amateurs alike can all walk away... It is not like every single business in the graphic design and photographic industry were using Adobe products as an industry standard! Oh, wait...
Yes, they all do...

Market research for Adobe?

Time for the rest of the competitors to create something robust and new.

Companies like Apple, Phase One, DXO, etc. certainly have the knowledge to create beautiful and powerful RAW converters which feature quite advanced image editing capabilities.

So, the imaging proficiency is there, perhaps it’s time for full blown image editing software to compete with Adobe.

I love Photoshop but the way it goes, I would jump ship in a heartbeat.

A subscription model is based on trust. I have to trust that the prices wont go up considerably, that their politics will not change, that they will continue to develop the software etc etc

How can a person sign such an agreement? Adobe just backstabbed their users changing all the terms that we should now sign up for! And they are still selling PS CS6 extended for $999 knowing that there will be no updates in future!

Also if I buy a perpetual license I can still see my photos, edit them, print them etc. The model is totally flawed from the users perspective but, of course, brilliant for companies like Adobe. No Way!

I agree with previous posters: if I stop paying, the software should "freeze" and continue working "as is", just like a purchased version would.

Who wants to get locked into a subscription service for software? Apple in comparison are very smart, lots of inexpensive APPS. I'll stick with FCPX and buy ready to use FX from rampantdesigntools.com Roll your own expensive effects via subscription? Bwah ha ha ha... So passe.

I got an E-mail from Adobe, inviting me to join this "cloud" thing. For 60+ euros/ month. In Romania, where the minimum you make is less than 200 euros, and "medium" is about 400 euros i think. And prices are rougly the same as in the "more civilised" countries. Made an effort and bought Photoshop Elements 10 when the pricing was good at Amazon, but that's about as far asa i go regarding Adobe. Unsubscribed from their list and wish them luck.

I would have understand if they were sending me an e-mail with "Dear customer, you are poor so f**k off, we're not going to bother sending you info about our products!".

The subscription model holds customers hostage, that's why I don't like it.

i agree with midou. when we comfortable and dont want an upgrade anymore we should still retain what we have especially if we have paid a one year subscription where monthly or as a one off payment

What about all the professionals using one or the other CS software for designing/developing future products? Most of them work on offline workstations to minimize the risk of industrial espionage. I'm curious what would be Adobe's answer to that.

Adobe will join the ranks of the backstabbing bottom feeders like telecom service providers. Monthly charging systems are numbing, bloodsucking rackets that should be completely revamped or abolished completely.

Less than 5% of people who answered the poll think that "it might work for me." Good job, Adobe!

From a marketing point of view, if there's a product with features/modalities so many people dislike, at least that opens the market for other software developers to easily please the crowd by eradicating the flaws of the other product. Adobe does not own the world's only graphic software developers!

And if this is all about to get rid of the millions of illegal CS copies floating around or this is all about to control their products/market, I'm pretty sure that nowadays with sooo many talented crackers/hackers out there, they will again find a way to illegally provide Adobe products for download. Because CS is just too popular and these "kiddies" definitely want to show what they are capable of. In the end this will be a typical catch 22. (look what is going on regarding online games...there's not a single game which hasn't been cracked)

And btw, I'm using CS legally because my company payes for it^^ ...and so far, my bosses clearly reject the new Adobe concept. We will see...

I think that at least three of your questions are redundant :
Having to pay a monthly fee to retain access, the price is too high and uncertainty over future pricing : all these three questions are linked, they revolve around pricing and becoming a captive consumer.

I have always found the price of Adobe softwares to be too high and particularly unfair toward non US consumers. If there are so many pirates, this is because the price is too high. I bet they have less pirating with LR or PSE which are much more affordable.

What is disturbing is that you don't own the software anymore, you rent it. You don't know how much you are going to pay in the future. And existing owners get a rebate, but only for one year. .

Personally I don't think that I will update to the CC version. LR is enough most of the time and I haven't tried it yet, but the improved local brush correction of LR5 may be all what I need. That plus Niksoftware or other similar products like onOnesoftware..

I really hate monthly subscriptions. If Adobe lowered the price of there software there would be way more legal users of it. I bought a legal copy of Photoshop CS6 when it was selling briefly for $250 and hoping to upgrade to CS7 when it came out. Now I guess I will not have that option. I seem to remember when OCR software was selling for $1000, now it sells for far less. This should give Corel and other software makers a chance to grab market share.

As a pensioner with a fixed income increased costs are not an option. I do not want any involvement with subscription based software or 'The Cloud'. I feel badly let down by Adobe, having used Photoshop since Photoshop 4.

If they could bundle this with match.com into an image editing/dating service I might bite.

I don't like the "cloud" I'lll use CS6 for awhile until a competitor enters the market because I will not upgrade to the Creative Cloud. No subscription based upgrades for me!

I find it interesting when the end of an era can be pin pointed to a single event. If Adobe goes through with this, then I believe this decision will be such an event for Photoshop. Can't say I'm surprised though, it comes from the same company that tried to stop people from using the term "photoshopped", without realizing how much free publicity it was giving them.. Obviously, they must hate their product and are prepared to do what ever it takes to kill it.

None of the options truly express how I feel about it. And none of the three articles on Adobe's move are in any way critical or reflect how users feel. But I'm not surprised. Let's just be honest here, DPReview isn't a journalistic based news source, it is a marketing tool for a very large reseller (Amazon). It's purpose is to generate traffic and get people interested in buying products. Negative reporting doesn't get people in the mood to buy things. Don't expect to see actual journalism here, don't expect hard questions or truly critical articles. This site doesn't serve users, it serves Amazon.

Very few people actually need Photoshop. For most, it's bloated, over-priced, overkill. There are numerous alternatives that are more than good enough for the kind of photo editing that most people do.

Shame you can't choose all the first 4.

Most of my work flow for stills was done using a combination of LR and PSCS5 using plugins. So as I now don't trust a word Adobe say I don't want to get too reliant on LR so I installed Aperture last night and configured all my plugins to work with that. I'll keep CS5 till it no longer works for whatever reason and then I'll see what has developed, but I won't be spending anymore money with Adobe.

For video well I went to FCPX a while ago as it seems to work better for stills photographers who want do the occasional video piece.

It's no drama Adobe are acting as if they are the only game in town, but really they aren't and while consumer sentiment is decidedly anti Adobe at the moment one of their competitors will step up and try and monetarize that sentiment.

Creative Cloud reminds me of Obamacare

I also like to own what I pay for. Are we reaching the point in product development where improvements/new features are so minimally incremental that we can skip a generation when upgrading. My hunch is that Adobe realizes this and seeks on-line subscription as a way to maintain cash flow, but this quest is disguised around sales optics emphasizing earlier access to all these new incremental features. Its all about maintaining cash flow.
I have never liked that Adobe does not maintain backwards compatibility in ACR for say 1-2 generations. For example, why do I need to buy CS6 just to get ACR to support a new camera? Why aren't current ACR upgrades workable with CS4 or CS5?
The subscription model is likely to inspire/accelerate development of other software.

Adobe's plan is like the state forcing people to rent their homes rather than owning them.

I could live with paying an annual fee so long as it was $50/year or less. I realize that seems really low, but it is about the max I'm willing to pay. I don't use Photoshop all that often but I sure do like it when I need it.

It's quite obvious that this move in response to piracy concerns. I can't remember where I read it, but an Adobe manager was claiming recently that this move was driven by more by software development cost concerns than anything else.

Words to the effect that their new cloud strategy would make it cheaper for them to deploy software on the lines of Google's server side changes.

But when you look at the details, the software still downloads and installs on your machine and periodically goes back to Adobe servers for updates and license management. They also claim that it can run up to some 90 days without needing internet access.

If that is the case, it's really just the regular installation on your machine, with some internet access.

As an Aperture user who was considering Lightroom, I'm now planning to stick with Aperture. Apple's App Store model is much more convenient and reasonable.