It’s hard to verbalize the disappointment I’m feeling from yesterday’s announcement from Adobe.
The company has decided that, starting with their latest release in June, their programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Acrobat to name a few) will be rent-only. Meaning, you pay the rental fee every month ($49.99 if you pay for an entire year up front), and as soon as you stop paying, the program goes bye-bye. No more holding on to your old physical version for a couple of years because you can’t afford to buy the new one just yet.
So those of us who make too little money in our freelance designer and illustrator jobs already, who go broke splurging for the latest Creative Suite package when ours has aged so ripely for two years? We are the ones who will be left in the dust.
Ashes to ashes, I suppose.
I’ve spent money on Adobe products for years. I bought them separately before they were packaged in a “Creative Suite.” I bought them when they were Aldus and Macromedia. I bought CS1, CS3, CS5 and, last December, CS6. On all my sites I’ve added a colophon singing the praises of the Adobe products I love and use so much.
CS6 will be my last software purchase from the Adobe line.
I’m not a developer. Coding is still a relatively foreign language to a designer. This morning I started my search for alternative WYSIWYG HTML editors to replace the Dreamweaver that made my website designing so much easier.
I think I’ll leave the colophons on my sites, but add a strikethrough over the Adobe titles until I’ve found, purchased, learned and begin using alternatives.
Adios, Adobe amigos. You used to be very good to me.