Adobe to Stop Making Packaged Software

[Orangutan]

The two best competitors seem to be GIMP and Paintshop. Neither really cut the mustard.

i don´t know how someone can compare gimp to photoshop.

Can you be more specific?  What are are the top three specific features/capabilities that are absent or inadequate in those other products?  Better yet, what would it take to induce you to try them again?  Last I checked, GIMP was limited to 8-bits per channel, but they have been actively working on 16- and 24-bit support, and expect to have it implemented fairly soon.  What other specific features are lacking?

I see this as a moving target: sure, right now there is nothing that replaces PS for photo professionals; but what about one-year, two-years, three-years from now?  What would it take to get there for you?

[emag]

As a hobbyist, I use GIMP but prefer Photoshop.  PS will no longer run on my laptop for unknown reasons, but both PS7 (10+ years old?) and CS2 run fine on my desktop.  I've only started using Lightroom (3.2) in the past year and will purchase LR4, but it looks like my Photoshop days will be drawing to a close.  Frankly, I'll miss it.  Adobe is not the 900lb gorilla in the room....it's the only gorilla, but it is soon to be priced beyond practicality for me.  For pro's and artists, it is the cost of doing business and may make more sense.  I would pay $10/mo. for LR but would prefer an annual subscription for less than 120/yr.  Guess we'll see how things work out, but without any real competition Adobe can do what they want for now.

[pdirestajr]

Lightroom isn't a part of CC.

[aj1575]

This is mostly specific for OS X.
For picture managment I use Apple Aperture which also can do some simple PP task (actually it can do quite a few, but I don't like the UI that much; but watch out, the next version could be much better)

Then there is Lightzone, this software was abandoned a while ago, but it is becoming an opensource project for OS X, Windows and Lunix (www.lightzoneproject.org). I love the way this program works; it is very easy to handle and gives good results in a short time

And for doing some more work, like merging together different pictures and that stuff that is not "traditional" PP I just bought Pixelmator; not really profesional grade, but it has the feature that I need, and it is rather cheap.

I think unless you really are a pro (which you obviously are not, since then you would be out shooting, instead of posting on the Canonrumors Forum [/kenrockwell]), there are many alternatives to PS which cost much less.

[Kristofgss]

Photoshop elements, lightroom and paintshop pro seem to be the most common alternatives although elements and paintshop are more graphic editing whilst lightroom is more photographers tools.
GIMP (tried it, but never really liked it)

For Apple: Aperture or Photostudio (and after working with windows 8 for a while, I must confess that that platform becomes more tempting by the day)

[2n10]

Lightroom isn't a part of CC.

This is what I have read and there are blog post on Adobe about Lightroom being separate from PS.

[pensive tomato]

Lightroom isn't a part of CC.

This is what I have read and there are blog post on Adobe about Lightroom being separate from PS.

Lightroom has always been a separate product from PS. You do get it as part of CC, but it's still available as a standalone product either as a regular license or individual subscription. I understand that bloggers were saying that this will remain the case in the future.

[Hillsilly]

I find Nuance PDF Converter better value than Adobe Acrobat and use that for my business.

I also use both Photoshop and CorelDraw for poster and brochure design. While I prefer Photoshop, I could happily use either.  FWIW, I think CorelDraw is easier to use.

Apart from scanning (which CorelDraw handles as well), the only "photographic" thing I do in Photoshop is colour channel switching for infrared photos (why can't they introduce this into Lightroom?).  I have used GIMP for this and it worked well - but I'm not a big fan of the interface and how the program operates.  I'm sure CorelDraw does this as well.

Hmmm...Corel also have video editing, PDF programs, WordPerfect, web design software, and photo editing software.  Maybe its time to buy some shares.

[unfocused]

Unfortunately there isn't a good alternative to Photoshop right now. But that doesn't mean that will always be the case.

Here is how I see this playing out over the next year:

1) Adobe succeeds in getting a lot of users to buy into the "Creative Cloud" system at the introductory price, but like Canon and Nikon have found with rebates, they soon learn that the reduced price becomes the expected price. Migrating those customers to the "real" price proves a lot harder than they thought.

2) Many Photoshop-only users migrate to Lightroom and find that with third-party plug-ins they can find work-arounds for most photo processing. Adobe's investors start to wonder why the company made a decision that has people migrating from the more costly product to the less expensive product.

3) Corel suddenly finds itself a hot prospect for acquisition. Google buys Corel. First product is "Word Perfect by Google" which replaces Google Docs in the real cloud and a full version is offered for download at a deep discount. Microsoft starts scratching their head wondering "what did we do?"

4) Google's puts some cash behind Corel's graphic suite products, merges the NIK and Corel teams, promotes combined products at deep discount and uses the next year to upgrade the offerings to pro quality.

5) Adobe watches its share price plummet and under pressure from investors revises its Creative Cloud plan. They announce that they have decided to offer permanent licenses on select products.

[RLPhoto]

What happened to the days where a craftsman made an excellent product and then sold said product for cash? Oh yeah, pirates. :|

So to stop pirates, (which this CC won't) they will rent you said tool and if you make thousands of files with that tool and don't pay, instantly those are thousands of useless files. I don't like that idea, I'd rather just buy the tool.

Am I strange?

[RLPhoto]

Buy a copy of CS6 and only pay for LR thru CC or if they continue to use retail copy's. you can convert your RAWs to DNGs later on to continue editing in CS6 for years.

That's my plan anyway.

[RGF]

What happened to the days where a craftsman made an excellent product and then sold said product for cash? Oh yeah, pirates. :|

So to stop pirates, (which this CC won't) they will rent you said tool and if you make thousands of files with that tool and don't pay, instantly those are thousands of useless files. I don't like that idea, I'd rather just buy the tool.

Am I strange?

Stoping the pirates is a laudable goal.  Thief should not be tolerated.  However for me (and I suspect many of us) the issue is cost.  If I could get LR and PS CC for $150 /year with a long term commitment from Adobe that they would hold that price I could live with it.

[RGF]

These big companies almost ask to be pirated.

Does a large department ask for shop lifters?  Do rich people ask to have their homes broken into?
Should carjacking of Porsche and Mercedes be condoned?

[lilmsmaggie]

TV is the thing this year, this year
TV is the thing this year
Radio was great, now, it's out of date
TV is the thing this year

1953, Dinah Washington "TV is the Thing (This Year)"



Fast foward to the new business model of the 21st Century of Software as a Service and Cloud based computing.

I hate to be the harbinger of bad news but its not just Adobe.  It didn't start with Adobe and probably won't end with Adobe.  Enter Microsoft, Apple, Salesforce, Google (downloaded Nik Collection recently?), state government and private IT datacenters, Drop-Box, etc. etc.

I work in the IT depart of a large California agency.  Not only is our data center moving to a Software as a service (aka Cloud) model -- but we offer similar services to our direct customers for a flat rate fee, i.e. email, application development, hosting, etc. 

We've become a captive audience but instead of TV its software and other services. 
The 18 month software update cycle, licensing and revenue models have changed.

Fasten yer wallets boys - its gonna be a bumpy ride.   They are the Borg -- Resistance is futile.  You will be assimilated.



The Cloud is the thing this year, this year
The Cloud is the thing this year
Perpetual licensing was great, now, its out of date
The Cloud is the thing this year                                   

[RLPhoto]

What happened to the days where a craftsman made an excellent product and then sold said product for cash? Oh yeah, pirates. :|

So to stop pirates, (which this CC won't) they will rent you said tool and if you make thousands of files with that tool and don't pay, instantly those are thousands of useless files. I don't like that idea, I'd rather just buy the tool.

Am I strange?

Stoping the pirates is a laudable goal.  Thief should not be tolerated.  However for me (and I suspect many of us) the issue is cost.  If I could get LR and PS CC for $150 /year with a long term commitment from Adobe that they would hold that price I could live with it.

Lets suppose you decided to stop doing photography and designs. You have all those files neatly organized on LR and all those thousands of PSDs and you decide not to pay for software anymore. Well, you can't open those files and if you do need to just open one or two, you will have to pay the more expensive monthly fee for the month. Then you don't pay, then you need to open another file. Another monthly fee.

So you decide to just pay the yearly fee, whilst you not even in the business of it anymore, to save $$$. Then you make more files with the new version of CC and the cycle begins again.

This subscription scheme is just ludicrous. It puts the company in power, not the user, weither or not they want to use the tools provided.