Will you subscribe to Adobe?

[Helen B]

I've been a subscriber to the full suite for a while. It was a very difficult decision at first ( though it made financial sense, I was wary) but now I am happy with it and have no desire to go back. Whatever happens, I'll always have the CS5 Master Collection, which isn't so bad - except for lack of full InDesign compatibility and big improvements to Premier Pro. As I understand, CS6 will remain available for outright purchase, it's only the later versions that are subscription only.

 

[texkam]

I won't be making due with other products since I already use superior other products. I will continue to teach Photoshop and LR at the various colleges where I work since that's what they'll want me to do,

I was employed by a Dallas, TX college to teach a DTP course, specifically "DTP using Adobe InDesign". Most of the students at this urban design school didn't have the financial means to afford a personal copy of InDesign, not to mention Illustrator or Photoshop. Educating them and exposing them to the fact that other options existed enabled these students a way to produce design projects outside of school. It's amazing how many folks don't know the alternatives that exist.

 

[Helen B]

Right, now try working in a team with something other than InDesign.

 

[usayit]

Interesting reaction... I am working on a software project related to deployment in a cloud. I personally think this model is good and provides access to a wider audiience but it highly depends on pricing structure. i will most likely subscribe... depending on needs and what I find when I reseach it.

 

[Helen B]

Given the amount of misunderstanding, including 'Cloud' in the name might have been a mistake. It isn't really cloud computing for most of us, just a subscription/leasing service that is very similar to what we have been used to for other types of software.

For those of you who teach, could you give some typical examples of the financial advantage of outright purchase over subscription for a recent graduate, given that graduates pay the student subscription rate for the first year after graduating? What would you now recommend for those graduates? Stick with CS6 outright purchase or buy something else altogether?

 

[Ysarex]

Given the amount of misunderstanding, including 'Cloud' in the name might have been a mistake. It isn't really cloud computing for most of us, just a subscription/leasing service that is very similar to what we have been used to for other types of software.

For those of you who teach, could you give some typical examples of the financial advantage of outright purchase over subscription for a recent graduate, given that graduates pay the student subscription rate for the first year after graduating? What would you now recommend for those graduates? Stick with CS6 outright purchase or buy something else altogether?

I agree buying in is the best option for those who need the entire suite and those working or hoping to enter the field of graphic design. There's no other real choice especially for students hopeful of employment. The education institutions will all buy in as they should because they're responsible to teach to the industry. And I'll continue to hold up my end when teaching Photoshop because I want my student's to succeed.

As for financial advantage it's the same as the phone schemes and the cable schemes and the ISP schemes etc.. Sign up for a two year contract and this phone which costs $169.00 retail ($89.00 discount outlet) is yours free! Yay! It's short term financially advantageous. Long term it's not. The best long term financial practice is buy what you need when you need it and pay for it. If you can't do that you will pay more. Adobe is simply removing that first option for everyone and then making it feel better by giving you the phone. In this case the phone is regular, frequent and annoying product updates -- we are so lucky. So, yes, I'll advise my students they need to tether their wallets to the cloud, but I won't tell them it's a great deal or that they should take it smiling, and I won't join them.

I'm just a photographer and do not need the rest of the CS products. I started to move away from Adobe years ago as I explored various raw file converters. When I process a photo now I almost never select ACR for that job. Once my raw file is converted I do finishing work using Photoshop, but that's the secondary after the fact work. I have adequate and vastly less expensive alternatives for that, and I'm excited that Adobe has created a terrific incentive environment in which I expect we will soon see even more excellent alternatives.

Joe

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P.S. The related topic here is the market dilemma created by all software in general. Software doesn't fit the market economy model and it never has. You buy a banana, you eat it and later you want another one -- a sustainable model. You buy a pair of shoes and they wear out (in six months now) and you need a new pair -- a sustainable model. If you have adequate software then from what source does that software vendor's future income derive? Up until now it's been a cycle of constant improvement and new features. That model has begun to strain. Adobe is basically acknowledging that but knows full well they can't just come out and say it. Eventually the subscription/lease model is the only sustainable model from their perspective. How many more species of cats are there after all?

 

[HughGuessWho]

Subscribed months ago. Tax write off, guaranteed up to date software, just about everything they make, and able to use it on multiple machines? YES PLZ.

Ditto

 

[amolitor]

Institutions that use Adobe products will probably be saving a bundle on the new scheme. TCO is king at large institutions, and this could easily be the driver for this change at Adobe. Changes like this often result in:

- more money into the vendor pocket
- at less expense to the customer
- because the customer reduces staffing needs and other expenses (which typically boil down to other staffing needs)

So someone's getting screwed, it's just not the vendor or the customer. It's the guy whose job just got replaced by a computer.

 

[sm4him]

Will you subscribe to Adobe?

Or make due with other products you can buy?

I won't be making due with other products since I already use superior other products. I will continue to teach Photoshop and LR at the various colleges where I work since that's what they'll want me to do, but personally I'll become Adobe free and won't mind it a bit.

Joe

Joe, out of curiosity, what do you use--actually, what I'm really wondering is do you use any "equivalents" of InDesign and Illustrator, or are you just talking about photo processing software?

My problem is that I don't just use PS. I could get by just fine on PSE or LR or Gimp, or something else for my photo processing needs.

But I do a little design contract work on the side--mostly helping people set ads that they already have the photo and text for, they just don't know how to put it all together and get it to the printer, and don't want to bother. I also have a couple of bigger jobs each year that are pretty intensive; one takes about two months, the other a few weeks. It's JUST enough that I generally need to use Illustrator and InDesign at least a couple of times a month. I *could* go to something else, but I have to admit, I've used most of the others, and I just love Illustrator and InDesign.

I guess I understand why Adobe's trying this. But I guess I'm in the camp of not liking the fact that subscription is the ONLY option, and the idea of "leasing" my software. Sure, I may get immediate upgrades, but if I stop the subscription, all of sudden instead of an outdated version, I have no software at all.

This has REALLY been a dilemma for me, because when my Macbook died last December, it took my CS5 with it. I considered buying a new Macbook, but really needed a desktop--in the end, I decided it was less expensive to buy a PC desktop AND the CS6 software at upgrade pricing. Just got the new desktop about two weeks ago, and now...this.

For now, my solution is going to be to BUY the CS6 software immediately. Then I'll wait till at least next year, see how all this pans out and decide what to do after that--I won't say I'll *never* subscribe, because of my need for more than PS, but this way at least I'll have a copy of CS6 to use no matter what.

 

[tirediron]

My heartache is that I ONLY use Photoshop and LR - I have no use nor desire for any of their other software, and therefore, even looking at it from a 'write-off' POV, it doesn't make sense to me since I typically only upgrade every second-third full version (I'm still working on CS4).