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

It won't affect me at all--I quite Adobe at CS5 and I had been with them since the beginning. I don't blame companies for changing with the times and trying to survive (we all do that) but I no longer can afford to support their new direction as a hobbyist.
Murry

I don't mind paying monthly to purchase or acquire something, that is the essence of 'saving'. But it is not the same as renting, period.

I don't rent my computer, I don't rent my camera or lenses, and I'm not going to rent my software.

I work hard, save my money, and when my ability to purchase and needs (or wants) for something intersect - I reward a manufacturer/vendor with my purchase.

It is my belief that I own what I create, and I beleive the law is on my side in this matter.

Now we have a company – Adobe – saying that I can create in their software – which they will not sell to me - but if I stop paying them rent, I will not be able to open my own creations.

To me, this is a form of copyright infringement. How can a company demand payments in the future for me to be able to open something I created in the past?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juM46ny1WhM

: what a corporate piece of joke of attitude of a CEO.

However : With $12.2million compensation and Member of U.S. President's Advisory Management Board, on the board of Dell Inc. and the advisory board of the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley...

hm...makes me wonder if something starts smelling seriously rotten here...

I'm going to quote the best response I've seen on this from CNET. Credit to Stardog2/edited for length.

"I think Adobe ran the numbers and they realized that they have too many of the wrong type of customer and want to focus on serving the less marginal customer from a profit standpoint.

A month ago, Adobe had an enormous client base but was locked into an 18 month update cycle. They had to release a new version every 18 months with enough new features to make most people pay for an upgrade. Some did pay, some stayed put and used the old software, so every time the release of a new version occurred, fewer people paid. But ALL of the customers regardless of the last time they paid Adobe, expected ongoing maintenance and support.

This will cost them market share, but it moves the customer base to those who can justify an ongoing 20-50 dollar a month fee. The number of customers who demand expensive support drops and that pressure to come up with new stuff every 18 months disappears."

While neither an Adobe employee or investor, I think the change to a subscription model is the only way a software company can continue to make money.

Ladies and gents, it's time to grow up! Gone are the days when, every two years, there were enough changes in PCs, cameras, or software to compell people to buy new versions or upgrades. Meanwhile, the subscription model works fine for utilities, transportation, medical insurance, media delivery, and all kinds of public services. Many people obtain autos on lease or with borrowed (rented) money. Most homes are mortgaged or rented. Most employees work for wages, not a one-time bounty. Photographers charge by the job, not by a lifetime retainer. The queerest thing, in retrospect, is how long people bought $500 or $1,000 upgrades of editing products that offer more tools than most people have time to master, and that offer little ostensible commercial advantage over a $100 consumer version.

Who knows how patent rights prevent other companys to do a PS clone?

Surviving in the industry has been tough enough without this display of utter corporate greed and arrogance from a company we'vd all come to rely on- for better or worse. And the spin they're trying to put on it (that it's BETTER for US this way??) is not only disgusting, but insults the intelligence of photographers everywhere.
WE can make a difference here. Keep making your opinions known everyone!

Charles Boot posted "Here is a proposal, which these greedy people would never think of: Let everyone upgrade to CS 6 if they want to at a reasonable price (free for users of CS5.5) and keep ACR updated for CS 6 for say 10 years. Something like this would have earned stars. as it is they are hated."

That would be nice, but it would appear you cannot even buy the CS6 upgrade at the full price anymore.

Looking on the bright side this will save me money. Bye adobe.

harry

Wow just looked at this previously posted video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juM46ny1WhM&feature=youtu.be

This has been the clearest pointer yet to why the financial structures of the world are at the moment. Truly unbelievable that guys like this can be in charge of our futures in that respect. They make politicians look clever and if that is so something is seriously wrong. It is a great video demonstrating the lack of any community commitment to bettering peoples lives and shows pure true unadulterated greed and any kind of trust, truth and honesty.

Over 4200 total comments on this story in two days. Some kind of a record?
From what I have read almost all negative comments except for a few trolls toeing the Adobe line. This kind of crap might work for entertainment software or online gaming but not for business or graphic software. An abysmally conceived idea, doomed to kill the company, 's a shame too. Looks good initially but when the 'net is down and you have a deadline and can't get the stuff to work to finish a project, a pro is out of his business as well. I Always buy a back up disk when I buy D/L software for this very reason.

Like Thom says, if they want to do SAS (software as service) they're going to have to do some massive hiring in their customer service department, and not a bunch of well-meaning but clueless folks in a low-wage country.

GIMP just got serious..

This presents big opportunities for Aperture.

I feel cheated I am an ex pro photographer. Now I do it as a hobby and for charity work of which I will have to stop if the charges go ahead. It used to be when you purchased a program that was it, if you wanted upgrades you paid extra. Now they have gone like Anti-virus, its for a year or in this case a month or week after that it does not work,. Not you have an out of date program but can still use it! no it stops working. its not bringing system up to date, its bring in their (adobe) bank balance up to date! I will not purchase and if enough people refuse maybe there will be as climb down, you never now, and cows might fly!

Google recently bought NIK. They immediately gave everyone was a registered purchaser of a NIK product a free upgrade to the whole suite. In addition they reduced the price from several hundred dollars to $149 for the whole suite and they refunded the price difference to anyone who had paid more within a certain time period.

What a very positive way to do this. Everyone wins and is happy and Google comes out smelling of roses with tons of good will.

Now look at what Adobe has done and there is 99% negativity and animosity towards this company and rightly so. I am a fully paid user of lightroom and CS5 and have been for for many years. I feel totally cheated and abused by these people. Once bitten twice shy.

Here is a proposal, which these greedy people would never think of: Let everyone upgrade to CS 6 if they want to at a reasonable price (free for users of CS5.5) and keep ACR updated for CS 6 for say 10 years. Something like this would have earned stars. as it is they are hated.

I read a comment on another site that I think sums it up quite well by a Paul Wright "This forced upgrade [is] punishing the individuals and small businesses that form the backbone of Adobe's client base...Goodwill and credibility are hard won over time, but can evaporate in a heartbeat."

Lightroom is the Trojan Horse, beware everyone!!

Adobe has carefully created a dependency on lightroom and also on their other products by using proprietary formats which also include the DNG format as no one else used it.

I do not believe that this was unplanned. Rather it has been a hidden agenda from the very beginning.How deceitful and underhand.

As someone has written, if I fall on hard times and cannot pay the subscription they take away the tools of my livelihood.This does not happen with purchased software even if it is outdated I can still use it.

Voids do not exist in nature.. something always fills them. And so it will be with the void that Adobe has so "intelligently" created.

Google recently bought NIK. They immediately gave everyone was a registered purchaser of a NIK product a free upgrade to the whole suite. In addition they reduced the price from several hundred dollars to $149 for the whole suite and they refunded the price difference to anyone who had paid more within a certain time period.

What a very positive way to do this. Everyone wins and is happy and Google comes out smelling of roses with tons of good will.

Now look at what Adobe has done and there is 99% negativity and animosity towards this company and rightly so. I am a fully paid user of lightroom and CS5 and have been for for many years. I feel totally cheated and abused by these people. Once bitten twice shy.

Here is a proposal, which these greedy people would never think of: Let everyone upgrade to CS 6 if they want to at a reasonable price (free for users of CS5.5) and keep ACR updated for CS 6 for say 10 years.

I purchase PS so I have it to use on those few occasions I need it. I don't need it terribly often and there are plenty of other options that do what I need to do. I will not subscribe to PS, or any software for that matter. I really like Revel, but I uploaded ALL my photos in the free month and will manage my uploads with the free version. I will not subscribe to that either.

I have been using the Cloud subscription to PS for over a year. Due to the on-hand cost of the subscription, it works for me because I never seem to have the $600 or so to purchase outright. And having the latest version of PS gives me some great retouching tools like clone, patch, content aware (extremely useful) and some others. But Lightroom is powerful and inexpensive and I have a purchased version of that. But once Adobe makes you license that one too, then the monthly fees will be unreasonably high and I'll have to look at alternatives. This is why, even with Lightroom, I still use a hierarchy of folders for a day when I might lose all those keywords, collections, etc.

I've happily bought Photoshop and Lightroom and upgraded through the years. My most recent upgrade was to CS5. I then joined the CC subscription for a year on their half price special offer, mainly so I could learn the different products, but to be honest my good intentions didn't materialise and I have barely looked at anything other than PS and Lightroom.

Once my subscription runs out I will buy the upgrade to CS6 and then stop. It will be some time yet for other products to meet the niche with such high functionality, but CS6 will see me well for many years to come.

Now compare the Adobe route with that taken recently by Google when the bought the Nik plugin suite. I never thought I would say this about Google, but they have done their customers proud in this particular product, cutting the price and bringing it to many more users. Now if they could only get round to paying some tax in the countries they operate in....

WOLLT IHR DIE TOTALE CLOUD!!!

Seid Ihr von nun an bereit, Eure ganze Kraft einzusetzen, die Menschen und Software zur Verfügung zu stellen, um die Adobe Cloud zu besiegen?

Adobe behauptet, die Kunden wehren sich nicht gegen die totale CLOUD.
Sie wollen die totale Cloud, sagt Adobe.
Ich frage euch: Wollt ihr die totale Cloud?
Wollt ihr sie, wenn nötig, totaler und radikaler, als wir es uns heute überhaupt erst vorstellen können?

Glaubt ihr mit Adobe an den endgültigen, totalen Sieg der CLOUD?
Unter Aufnahme auch der schwersten persönlichen Belastungen?

Ich sage NEIN!!!! Wir wollen keine totale Cloud!!

WIR WOLLEN ENTSCHEIDUNGSFREIHEIT!!!

This is like Toyota or GM saying you will always lease a car and never own it. You will always park it in their garage and always use their mechanics. It will always be an expense to you that is focused upon their budget and not yours. If you go out of town for a while or decide to do more walking or simply want to not use the car for a time to save money, don't leave anything of yours in the car because you'll have to pay to get it back. They can spin it however they like, it still boils down to taking ownership away from the user.

Adobe made their name when a software application ALWAYS cost $500 and they were the only game in town. They established their customer base and continued to soak them for upgrades. This just makes the business model more favorable for Adobe ... if their customers will buy it. Have they gone a step too far or will their core constituency determine that whatever advantages Photoshop etc confer is still worth it?

...and what about the 20% regional price differences?

Adobe will be charging 20 dollars per month in the USA and 20 Euros + 4.60 VAT (sales tax) = 24.60 Euro = 30 dollars per month in Europe for Photoshop CC.
In the past they said the extra cost in Europe for physical products was the cost of transportation. Well theres no difference when the products are delivered electronically, so why is there still a 20% (+ VAT) price difference for Photoshop CC in Europe??

Hi, I am a part-time fine art photographer, restorer and retoucher on a tight budget. As a NAPP member, I have been upgrading Photoshop every other version for $160.00 every 3 years. A subscription would now cost me over $700 which is unacceptable. Yesterday I purchased the CS6 upgrade for its full price (I couldn't find it at Adobe, Amazon, B&H). I will stick with it and wait to see what Adobe's competition will do. I already use dxo optics pro with very good results so raw conversion is not a problem for me. I am also considering the Google NIK suite offer for $149. It would be the right time for Adobe to further develop Elements but I don't trust their sales and pricing policies anymore. I believe I will drop my NAPP membership too. I try to accept my gut feelings but act with my brain and both are telling me that the good times with Adobe are over.

Hitler’s Reaction to Adobe’s New Creative Cloud Model
Read more at http://petapixel.com/2013/05/08/hitler-reacts-to-adobes-new-creative-cloud-model/#SbM6oxpTodZUkz4R.99

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=67Iw9q2X9cU

FACTS

- PS is very expensive for most users.
- Outside USA- IP restrictions make PS very difficult to legally obtain.
- Most of the world population does not have credit cards or credit.
- Largest PS usage is outside US market
- Virus free pirate PS copies readily available.

Result 1) too expensive or 2) impossible to buy legal copy

So what does non-US world do? They use the easily download-able, update-able pirate copy of PS. From my world travels I believe at least 75% of PS users are using pirate copies.

If Adobe would offer broader access tobuy PS at a world price- US$100 - the whole world would jump on board. The pirate market would reduce greatly, profits increase.

There are so many other roads that would increase profit and market share. Adobe could become a "Google" of images. Instead they look for short sighted money gains.

Adobe has shot them selves in the foot. They will lose many paying customers and pirate usage will increase.

Stupid is as stupid does.

You gotta laugh. I've never seen so many shout with the same voice.
I would like to think their is a board room somewhere where all heads are looking at some guy and saying "I thought you said this would be a good business move for us".
I hope he slams the door on his way out.
Get real Adobe, you have always been a rip off company, lets hope you get the message this is a step to far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Iw9q2X9cU&feature=player_embedded

Sony should take advantage of all of this uproar and bundle software with PS layer type functionality with its Alpha line. This would give them the push they need to capture more of the professional and enthusiast market. Just a thought, Sony :-)

Vote with your money and say NO to greed.

I'm not clear whether a user has to keep updating* their software.

If you dont want to update what happens to your subscription. Will I end up paying more for the software after X years of use than if I had paid for it outright at the start?

*I generally hate updates as they rarely add anything useful and sometimes make interfaces worse (CS6, adobe!).

I don't give a monkey's about clouds. Take 'em or leave 'em.

I don't rent software. If I stop paying them I lose access to all my images saved in their format. Not going to happen.
Sadly Ps 6 will be my last purchase from Adobe, and I'm sure that they won't care. Annual updates (actually Bi-Annual for the past 10 years) works well for me as I don't need the latest feature and the cost of annual renewal was too much for my hobby. Looks like I get to save a bundle over the next few years.

If they want lease a service, so I may lend them money.

Tom Hogan had an interesting point that the commercial users would be happy with cloud pricing. It's the individual user who won't like it. I personally plan to get the latest boxd version of Photoshop - not the entire CS suite- and that will be my last Adobe purchase. If the functionality won't work in three years it would be time to move elsewhere Gimp or Apeture.

Leave it to these overpaid CEOs to screw up a company, some years ago I worked for a small software company in Tucson that was growing and had a great product then of course the new CEO started hiring lot's of top managemt personel that where completly useless and cost an arm and a leg and of course the company floundered and had to be sold. CEOs should not be allowed to wield so much power there should be a way to put these guys in check.

Tax implications: Some ADBE troll (Stu 5) has been spreading lies about the Tax implications. In Canada (Don't know in the US) SW purchases and Upgrades are treated as Capital Expenses of Class 12 (100% deductible) . A rent is an expense that will receive ONLY a non-refundable tax credit of 15% of the total.