Adobe To End Applications, Subscription to "Creative Cloud" Coming

So we will no longer have an application on our desktop to run local, we'll be dependent on the cloud based application (and a decent internet connection and a good server by Adobe) to create in Photoshop/Illustrator/etc. Adobe there will be no more Creative Suites released and all users will be required to buy a $50/mo subscription to the cloud. While it gives you access to all Adobe apps, what if you only ever use or want to use say Photoshop and Illustrator? No a la carte?

What will this mean for the future of Filter Forge?

According to this news from Adobe on 6 May this is not true

John knack on Adobe - New FAQs about Photoshop, Lightroom, & Creative Cloud

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New FAQs about Photoshop, Lightroom, & Creative Cloud •Photoshop and Camera Raw: Photoshop CS6 (non-subscription) will remain available for sale alongside CC, and it will get free updates that add new camera support (though not new features). •Creative Cloud: You don’t need a constant internet connection (in fact, yearly subscribers can be offline for up to 3 months at a time), and you don’t need to store your data in the cloud. If you’re really going to Antarctica for 6 months or work in a disconnected environment, please call customer service & we’ll get you taken care of. You can keep running older versions alongside the CC versions. •Lightroom: LR5 will be included in Creative Cloud, but you won’t have to subscribe to Creative Cloud to get it (that is, you’ll be able to keep buying it via perpetual (non-subscription) license).

ONLY the new Photoshop CC will be ONLY available for Adobe Cloud subscribers, Photoshop Creative Cloud (CC)

Considering the two posts above I can now answer to Thrash, and I recommned and suggest to read them and the included links before continue reading this post below, although of course that you are free to do what you want.

Also this other one from the famous DPReview website with more information

Adobe heralds subscription-only future for Photoshop and Creative Suite

And it seems that this bad news is not shared as there is about 1 million happy Adobe subscribers

Survey: Customers happy with Adobe Creative Cloud so far

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Thrash 1 - So we will no longer have an application on our desktop to run local,

This is not true because ALL the adobe cloud applications ARE local and run from your desktop computer, they are exactly the same as the ones you already have, and you do not need to have internet connection active always, they are not cloud based, you download and install them in the same way as before.

I can tell you this because I am already a Adobe cloud subscriber as I have put in this other thread

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Thrash 2 - Adobe there will be no more Creative Suites released and all users will be required to buy a $50/mo subscription to the cloud

This is not true that you will be forced to make a subscription to the Adobe cloud because from now on, you will have 2 subscription options, you can have Adobe Cloud subscription, BUT if you do not want it you can also make a separate monthly subscription to any application you may want and is not required to belong to the Adobe Cloud.

And if you already own your Photoshop (bought one), you will not be forced to subscribe to either of this 2 options, if do not want to, and they will continue to support you, and will be able to keep using your desktop applications, and you will still be able to buy Photoshop CS6, BUT the problem is that you will be forced to subscribe if you want to have any new possible updates that there may be available, as all of them will be only for Photoshop CC

And from 31 December 2013 you will NOT be able to upgrade to CS6 from CS3 or CS4 and only be possible from CS5, so if you do not want to make any subscription you must upgrade to CS6 before 31 December 2013 or buy Photoshop CS6 Box or download version before they take it out.

And also on 31 July 2013 will end the offer discount upgrade from CS3, CS4 and CS5 to Adobe Cloud offer and will be ONLY possible to upgrade from the CS6 version.

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Thrash 3 - we'll be dependent on the cloud based application (and a decent internet connection and a good server by Adobe) to create in Photoshop/Illustrator/etc.

If you subscribe to the Adobe Cloud you are NOT at all dependant on internet and even you can be offline without internet to be able to work with the Adobe Cloud applications as you can see already in my other post above here.

I am a Adobe Cloud Subscriber and I can tell you for sure that ALL the Adobe Cloud Application are really DESKTOP APPLICATIONS They are NOT CLOUD BASED at all, and they are NOT online based, they are exactly the same as the one you would buy from Adobe website or in a software shop.

What is true is that you need to have a minimal decent internet connection to download just ONCE any of ALL Adobe applications that are included and available for you to download them

BUT WHAT IS VERY IMPORTANT is that the download is NOT done in any way as any other download you could do from the internet, you have the Adobe Cloud Download manager that will do all the work for you and you will not be dependent on any browser or have fear that the connection would be lost and loose the download, I can tell you that it works smoothly and very well.

And Adobe have shown that they have very powerful and strong new servers to be able to supply all the needed to Adobe Cloud subscribers, and I have the proof from my own experience.

In general I'm not a fan of these subscription or licensing models but will have to see how it shakes out. I once took some 3DS Max classes and they were early proponents of 'licensing' the product rather than owning it. The plan was cheaper so I got it, took my classes and then the license expired and I couldn't afford the $3000 for the new product. If I had purchased the product the usual way I would have at least had an older version product I could continue using.

Personally, I feel it's a money grab. It doesn't benefit the midlevel user, professionals who have forgotten what it was like when they first started out at the bottom will argue that its good for everyone, but the truth is- no, its only good if you use it to generate income and really-really need up to moment updates... if you are like many others who buy it and keep that version for a couple of years, you lose out.
I believe this is just the start of a sickening trend in software. Just to get anything done you'll need subscriptions for everything... this will over time this will seriously reduce the hobbyist market.
I'll hold on to my copy of CS until my OS no longer supports it and in the mean time I'll familiarize myself with Gimp... Adobe can go ride their cloud.

Subscriptions are a nice option for some and if I were wealthy or had a good stable income I would rather do that. But it should be just that, an option. The other option being a perpetual license.

I like the run out of money and you can still use your software option that a perpetual license provides. VS run out of money and have absolutely nothing option that a subscription is. I like to buy outright the rights to use it via a perpetual license while I have known money rather than to commit more monthly payments in an unknown future.

So for me I grabbed an Adobe CS6 Web Design Premium Suite Student Teacher version with my student discount for about $450.00 USD and I'm calling that good enough for the next four or five years. That gives a perpetual license that can also be used on commercial projects. Student versions can't be resold so if I get poor I won't be tempted to sell it. And I'll be looking for alternative non subscription software as needs for other future software inevitably arises.

As Microsoft goes the same subscription route I've already done this with Free Open Office Suite rather than upgrading my 2007 Microsoft office suite.

Photoshop CC: Adobe responds to reaction

Interview with Adobe

A lot of people think that Adobe's stuff is "The end all / Be all" of graphic design software - which is erroneous. In my creative pipeline - I use The Gimp, Paint.Net, regular old Microsoft Paint, Inkspace, Wings 3D, Blender, and a host of other free / open source software. I haven't used Photoshop in years, and I don't miss it.

If Adobe is indeed going away from allowing their customers to permanently own software - and instead is moving towards a perpetual rental kinda thing (so I'm guessing here), then it's time to wake up from the brainwash, and look into other alternatives. I am really puzzled as to why there aren't more competitors vieing from Adobe's clientel base, because the whole situation kind of reeks of MONOPOLY? Adobe has been running the game for WAAAYYYYY too long (oddly) - and it sounds like they've finally caved into the "drug pusher's" mind set - i.e., "The first sample is yours to keep - but afterwards - your going to have to pay through the nose to get your fix." Their ego's (and their greed) - from what I am gathering here - seems to be running in overdrive.

The "rental model" is what a lot of companies seem to be pushing for lately anyway - not just software. It's like the whole world is throwing away the concept of permanent archivable property and is instead, going "TIVO" on everything. NOT a good move - especially when fewer and fewer of us can afford eternally renting everything that we own.

There are a lot of companies that have actually moved towards relying less on high cost software - and have incorporated a lot of free open source stuff into there production methodology in order to save on expenditures. Disney / Pixar, and a and a few other companies have been known to use "Cinepaint", which is a free open source application originally developed for Linux / Unix systems - but was ported to Windows in it's post beta days, for example.

Adobe is NOT the "Alpha & Omega" of graphic design solutions kids - trust me on this one !

From the great controversy risen with this I have an interesting and clever article that explains better the bad reaction many people have got after Adobe switch to subscription.

10 Reasons The Haters Are Mad About Adobe Creative Cloud

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Adobe started moving everyone to the cloud months ago and we’ve covered it extensively on Photofocus. From the very beginning, there’s been weeping and gnashing of teeth that has bordered on hysteria. In fact, in some cases, it’s mostly faux outrage based on greed, silliness, stupidity, disinformation, mob mentality, entitlement issues and misinformation. Let’s set some ground rules. Adobe is in business to make money. How they choose to do it is up to them. If you don’t like their business model, move on. Nobody is holding a shotgun to your head making you buy their products. There are lots of alternatives. If you’re unhappy switch. But don’t cry like a 13-year old girl claiming you’ve been wronged. You haven’t. You have free choice. But for people like me, the switch to the Creative Cloud has been a Godsend. I personally couldn’t be happier about the plan. I get more frequent updates. Switching computer platforms is now easier than ever because Adobe’s license doesn’t say I have to use a certain computer. I can authorize or reauthorize as I need to. I can get updates automatically, etc.

Read the 10 good reasons in the link above

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Skybase The serial numbers don't activate the software, they only let you install.

Sorry, surely your are right and have written this without checking if this was true or not, as when putting it here, I already thought that most probably it would not work, but as someone said that this was a special version that was without serial number requirement, I thought it was true, but could not bother to test it myself.

So, please, do not download it and waste time to find that it will not work. Sorry for putting things without knowing if they really work.

More articles I found about this

Readers Respond: Suggestions for Photoshop Alternatives and Switching Pros and Cons

Adobe Moves to Subscription Pricing for Creative Suite

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Bill Roach It's a shame that Adobe isn't offering their older, more outdated software like CS2 and Premiere Pro 2.0 for free

I know only a few of companies that give for free their old versions of softwares, and sometimes this is to encourage and tempt you to upgrade and pay for the latest version.

But none of the bigger important software companies are included in the ones I know, as Adobe, Corel, Microsoft ... have never given away any free version, at least that I know.

About the topic of Photoshop CS2 FREE, I have just got an email saying that it is still available, and the news is from 10 July 2013.

see here Photoshop and CS2 FREE…Don’t Miss This!

I have not tried to see if this includes a serial, or if it works right, I am just putting this news here if anyone could be interested in it.

Same story above. The blogger here caught the misinformation wind... quite late. The links in the post show that they're not free. Looks like bad research. I also hate how that blog article just doesn't admit it was wrong, like it's now just sitting around for clicks and page views.

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Adobe's statement: Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products, including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago, do not run on many modern operating systems, and are no longer supported. Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. The serial numbers provided as a part of the download may only be used by customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products.

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A lot of people think that Adobe's stuff is "The end all / Be all" of graphic design software - which is erroneous. In my creative pipeline - I use The Gimp, Paint.Net, regular old Microsoft Paint, Inkspace, Wings 3D, Blender, and a host of other free / open source software. I haven't used Photoshop in years, and I don't miss it.

Someone pointed me to an image editor called PhotoLine that I just bought for around $60 usd. It is quite mature (version 17), is cross platform, and It has most of the features of Photoshop, along with some of its own. So yes, there are definitely alternatives.

I definitely use the specific features that I don't find in alternatives. I would never have even considered moving away from Gimp if it wasn't for them. Plus there are much, much, much more resources out there for PS to enjoy.