[itsallgoode9]

I guess I'm the only one that likes the subscription service. Yeah, you don't technically own the software but I'd much rather pay a little per month and always have the newest versions rather shelling out a large chunk of money at once to keep up to date. I've been doing the cloud membership since day 1 and couldn't be happier with it. $50/month for access to every single adobe program...maybe i'm a sucker, but i think that's a great deal.

[Mihai]

Justin I agree with your view as well, it just feels much more comfortable this way. You have a LOT of applications and tools for that $50 per month. For professionals there are many non negligible advantages in the way Adobe set up CC (it's not just about access to all their apps, there are many other tools which are pretty efficient/convenient). I think it may also reduce piracy for freelancers and smaller studios where lets face it, maybe they have one or two main apps they pay for, but the rest that they use not so regularly, they don't. Maybe the convenience of CC will make them rather pay a monthly small fee and always having every app and every update, and it's a small investment on their part.

Jeremy has a point though, they are missing an opportunity to ease the main worry people seem to have with this - that their files are also tied to the subscription.

[Polyxo]

Jeremy has a point though, they are missing an opportunity to ease the main worry people seem to have with this - that their files are also tied to the subscription.

CC therefor is different from a renting procedure, the word is inaccurate in this context.

Terminating a rental contract for a house or a car has the mere consequence that one can no longer use these facilities.
That fact has no impact whatsoever on your professional or private life at all.

When ending the CC contract one loses access to content creation tools as well as access to all content one
may have created over the years. Content which is deeply nested and externally refernced in projects created with a variety of other
digital tools as well.

It is somehow as if a craftsman rented a nail gun for a month from a Rental Service for Tools and hands it back.
A month later the customer calls and has an additional wish actually only required him to use the jigsaw he owns himself.
But as soon as he starts his work he figures that he needs that nail gun again as it has suddenly become a requirement
to change the blade of the jigsaw.

Yeah there's some formats like .psd which can in its basic features be read by third party programs but most content
stored in propritary formats renders entirely useless when you don't have access to the source program any more.
What can one do with an indd. file without Indesign? Nothing at all. Is there a way to output some sort of exchange
format which retains most of what makes an Indesign-document useful? Nope. The same is true for most CC-products.

Bottom line is that you are tied to go on with your subscription.
One can no more leave Adobe and instead use the products of another firm even if that highly made sense.
The situation is even more crass if one started doing computer graphics with CC and has not at least an older regular
Adobe Software box on the bookself.

[Half Life]

This is the reason I dropped Adobe and refuse to pay for use of their CC service -- I was already pretty tied into their products and feeling very restricted in my options, CC makes that situation intolerable. As of now the only CS6 software I use/own is Audition, and I won't be "upgrading that to CC". I was giving up alot in dropping Photoshop in particular -- I've been using that program since version 4 (back in 1996) and was a "Adobe Certified Photoshop Expert". The way things went with Adobe is part of the reason I don't bother with certifications anymore, the other part being that many softwares have lax standards in the certification process... which makes the certification meaningless.

For the record I have found usable alternative options, and I think as others feel the need to seek alternatives the field of options will become more diverse.

It is inconvenient to not be using the leading software in the field, but they are only leading because so many people use them. If people choose to use alternatives they would lose their place of preeminence.

Best,
Jason.

[rusteberg]

Jeremy has a point though, they are missing an opportunity to ease the main worry people seem to have with this - that their files are also tied to the subscription.

CC therefor is different from a renting procedure, the word is inaccurate in this context.

Terminating a rental contract for a house or a car has the mere consequence that one can no longer use these facilities.
That fact has no impact whatsoever on your professional or private life at all.

When ending the CC contract one loses access to content creation tools as well as access to all content one
may have created over the years. Content which is deeply nested and externally refernced in projects created with a variety of other
digital tools as well.

It is somehow as if a craftsman rented a nail gun for a month from a Rental Service for Tools and hands it back.
A month later the customer calls and has an additional wish actually only required him to use the jigsaw he owns himself.
But as soon as he starts his work he figures that he needs that nail gun again as it has suddenly become a requirement
to change the blade of the jigsaw.

Yeah there's some formats like .psd which can in its basic features be read by third party programs but most content
stored in propritary formats renders entirely useless when you don't have access to the source program any more.
What can one do with an indd. file without Indesign? Nothing at all. Is there a way to output some sort of exchange
format which retains most of what makes an Indesign-document useful? Nope. The same is true for most CC-products.

Bottom line is that you are tied to go on with your subscription.
One can no more leave Adobe and instead use the products of another firm even if that highly made sense.
The situation is even more crass if one started doing computer graphics with CC and has not at least an older regular
Adobe Software box on the bookself.

blah blah blah.... at $50/mo. it's a hell of a lot cheaper than the annual overhead of what it has cost in the past. plus with one subscription, i can have access to all products both in office on pc and home/on the go on mac and link between the two if i wish to store crap on the cloud when i'm out of town.

i don't understand what all the fuss is about.

[Polyxo]

Non of the candy you mention is a logical consequence of the introduction of a subscription scheme but just part of a strategic decision.
Adobe wants to make it as attractive as possible to switch to subscription.

They without any additional effort could offer the same cross platform-ness to traditional licenses as well.
The same goes for online storage and point-updates which they sell as "we now can move faster" with the "Cloud".
Thats BS of course, but you may not care.

One finally needs to mention that CC costs considerably more than 50$ in many parts of the world.
Here it's not cheaper than buying traditional updates.

[glebe digital]

First step is get you signed up. Then -perhaps- a new doc format [.psdx] & bingo you're tied-in after one large Pshop project.

My AE7 & CS2 still have a lot of life left in them.

[Mihai]

How would that happen? How would any apps continue to work that can open and use .psd files, like render engines. Would also mean PS suddenly has no other export options like layered tiff/exr, or older .psd versions.

[Polyxo]

How would that happen? How would any apps continue to work that can open and use .psd files, like render engines. Would also mean PS suddenly has no other export options like layered tiff/exr, or older .psd versions.

I also don't consider a change of format likely.
But it's sufficiently bad to no more be able to read the full content of normal .psd's after letting a CC contract end.
Also today there is no way to read a complex psd completely with all it's embedded information from outside of Photoshop, period.

One can read layers and blend modes and maybe Alpha Channels, yes, very few programs try to even transfer some Adjustment Layers, Photoline does that and maybe also Nuke or such.
One can not transfer Layer Styles and more importantly no other program can deal with smart objects and smart filtering.

If one opens a raw Maxwell render in Camera Raw or Lightroom, does an considerable amount of nondestructive editing operations here and then brings this into PS as a Smart Object the raw file
actually gets embedded alongside with its sidecar file. Now add some adaptive wide angle or similar smart filtering, maybe even mask this filter and add a bit of text with some layer styles
and you have the guarantee that no other app can read your psd properly.

With CS6 on has write and read access on these advanced features for many years to come. Everything relevant is on 64 bit.
For its successor Adobe employees now think aloud about offering read only access for expired versions so that one may save out flattened tifs -wtf?

[Half Life]

Anybody who doesn't see the danger here doesn't want to see it... but just to be clear, my POV is not just some anti-Adobe screed, any software that moves to "subscription only" will be dropped by me as well.

Best,
Jason.

[rusteberg]

[Hervé]

https://www.change.org/petitions/adobe- ... e_petition

[wfstecko]

Once everyone is on CC, how much incentive is there for Adobe to add features or improve functionality? It's nice to have the latest and greatest, but personally I like to know which features will be updated before I hand over my money. If an upgrade includes only features I have no interest in, I prefer to bypass it.

[Hervé]

Once everyone is on CC, how much incentive is there for Adobe to add features or improve functionality? It's nice to have the latest and greatest, but personally I like to know which features will be updated before I hand over my money. If an upgrade includes only features I have no interest in, I prefer to bypass it.

well exactly.. I want to have the choice to upgrade or not.. they are doing it because they know PS is now a pretty mature app, and all they can now add is more gadgets than features, so their point is to keep the money coming in their pockets.. nuff said..

I still found a link to buy a full CS6 ps, but they cancelled my order.. lol

[mtripoli]

I scanned the responses to this and I didn't see anyone mention one very critical aspect of all of this; your pipeline to the internet, your ISP connection. If you have a crappy connection the whole idea of "cloud anything" is moot. The people pushing these online subscription services act like everyone has an always up, T1 (or better) dropped right into their living room. Most don't. Many people have to use DSL, and crappy DSL at that.

I've been having an ongoing battle with my ISP. These are all relatively new cable lines, coming from a fiber optic node 100 feet from my house. I was paying for 25Mbps, and usually got about 22-23 Mbps. Not bad, in fact, really good. In the low 90%. However, some of the files that I work with are upwards of 1G. Add to that that we use a Roku for streaming Netflix, Amazon Video, etc. as well as Dropbox and it can suck up a bunch of bits real fast. I was getting dropouts, so I upgraded my service to 50 Mbps. Hell, I'll pay more if it will take care of the problem. The throughput was only about 32-33 Mbps. Huh? Dropped to 60%. Why? Ongoing "discussions" with them have revealed nothing as of yet (they tried at first to tell me it was my equipment. Wrong. Brand new DOCSIS 3.0 modem). Going back to the original point; try being in a town where they are still running POTS or "old" cable and see how much you enjoy using these services.

Regarding the "pen and paper" analogy in the video (I only watched a small part of it). There is an inherent problem with using a tablet like this. You notice the "pen" device tip; it can't be smaller than 4mm and typically about twice that size. Any smaller and it will not be recognized by the capactive sensor screen. It must also be conductive down to the tip. I have a pen, not unlike the one he shows there with the same "mushy" tip. I hate it for drawing, even trying to take notes. The lag and the responsiveness sucks. It will get better in the future, but that doesn't help us now. BTW; if you want to "mess around" with creating your own writing styli anything wrapped in tin foil will work...