JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Software may not "wear out" but it certainly evolves. I have always felt Photoshop gave good value in their major upgrades, offering very useful new features, such as the content aware tools.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

I largely credit (blame) Microsoft for this attitude that software should be free or very inexpensive. Microsoft let people use and or steal the software they used at work on their home computers in the early years of PCs becoming more common at home. This practice set an idea into peoples heads that they could steal software and share it around and never have to pay for using it. Eventually it got so bad that even Microsoft had to clamp down and threaten companies with lawsuits for using illegal copies of Microsoft software to get thngs back under control. I remember working at EDS/General Motors when this became a huge issue and we had to spend a lot of time and money getting everything compliant. But besides helping Microsoft corner the commercial software market this gave people the idea that software should be very inexpensive. It was hard to find very many people who were willing to spend even $100-$150 for a piece of software for their home computer. And if they did by it they wanted to use it on a half dozen computers for one purchase price.

I could go on and on with this discussion but the fact is it is really hard to make money in the applications software business...especially outside of commercial applications. The best selling software for home use is probably for gaming and even those applications went to dedicated machines pretty early on in most homes. So, when you think about Adobe wanting $10 a month for CC realize how many customers you have t have using that each month to pay even one software developer $100,000 a year. Let alone all the overhead that even one software engineer costs. If you don't believe me go into the software business and let me know how that works out for you... If I try hard I could maybe name a dozen really successful software companies...

Best,
Todd Ferguson

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

I hate paying my monthly fees to Adobe. OTOH I'd hate buying new software every few years because the old one gets obsoleted so fast. I had to trade in my laptop before I was ready because it just wasn't up to new software and Internet requirements. And it was only 10 years old! Last car I had was almost 20 years old before it bit the dust. Durn technology, anyway! Let's all go back to when you had to get up and walk over to the TV to change channels. I remember when 9600 baud on my modem was FAST!

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Software also becomes a commodity in many cases. In 1995 I worked for an Imaging company and we were selling our image viewing software for over $1,000 per seat. When I left that company in 1999 that software with improvements was being given away for $50 per seat down to free. We we happy to get people to pay a modest support fee for each seat and the sales people even wanted to give that away.

Think about internet browsers. At one point in the 1990s these were the hottest and most profitable software products on the market. A few years later virtually nobody would even think about paying for a browser. It was free or included for free when you purchased a computer or operating system. This happens to most software products in their lifespan. Think about it....word processors, spreadsheets, presentation creation tools...most are free today. When i was in college in the early 1980s I remember on professor saying that the computer companies would give away computers to sell software in the future. He had the right idea but didn't realize that the software would largely be given away to sell the computers, tablets and phones...

Best,
Todd Ferguson

jmvaugh Loc: Albuquerque

I recently retired from an IT job. I’m pretty old school and gleefully moved out of an apartment to buy my first home in 1983. I’ve alway bought my vehicles and started paying it off and buying cash for cars and trucks in 1992. I’m used to buying the software up front and getting free patches when needed. When I needed software for web graphics at work I saw PhotoShop’s price and instead bought PaintShop Pro and taught myself to do what I needed.

Now I see MS Office, PS, LR and all the Cloud storage options are leased by the month. It indeed reminds me of Comcast and Verizon, which IMHO are a scourge on humankind....and I’m a reluctant, annoyed customer of both services.

I know renting and leasing are much more popular options for housing and vehicles because you don’t have to save for a big down payment and it’s easier to get out of a lease than sell but it’s just not as palatable to me. And there’s really nothing wrong with me because I prefer to own not lease, but I’ll just have to suck it up I guess.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

I suggest something simple to all the complainers:

Go back to the stone age. Progress is never free there is always a cost and not only in $$$.

You don't like paying? There are free GOOD alternatives like GIMP. You don't like MS? Use Linux. (mac is way too expensive for you too - you pay a premium for that ' cool junk'*)

Paying is a choice, not a requirement so complaining about YOUR own choices is rather odd, is it not?

The OS driving the changes? No. It is the hardware. CPU and graphic cards are more performing demanding than ever from 8 bit to 64. Communication, network, wireless or connection to internet also demand newer equipment. None of these are free yet most of you demand that the OS does not change so that you can use old software that is basically useless in this new environment. Speaking of OS (MS in particular) are the complainants here aware that there is a 'compatibility mode' that allows the use of 'old' XP software???

---------
* No, it is not an attack on mac users, just that it is way more expensive than a regular PC feature for feature.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

AND, with a car or other "complete purchase", the ONLY time that they do a "fault fix" is if they are afraid the government is going to force their hand or that they are going to get sued for negligence. My headlight burned out on my Kia. Kia wont fix it for free. My headlight issue is ACTUALLY a faulty wiring harness that will cost $460 to replace and repair the issue (assuming it isn't a computer glitch in the car). Kia still won't repair it for free, they want their $460 to repair and if they end up doing a recall, they will "accidently" forget to return my $460 for the repair. Adobe rents their "Photography" package for $9.99 per month and it can be installed as many times as you want as long as it is only "currently" active on 2 computers at a time. I have it installed on 4 computers but two are laptops and only make Adobe active on those when traveling. I Deactivate one or both "home" desktop Adobe in order to "activate" one or both laptops. None of the car dealers will allow you to posess 4 cars for free and only pay a small "rental fee" for the 2 that you chose to drive at any given time. I have now upgraded to the "Complete" Adobe package now and I pay $49.99 a month for the ENTIRE Adobe library. Again, I have everything installed on all and only use 2 computers at a time. In the meantime, Kia did a check up on a recall and then told me that my tires needed to be replaced. They had a set of "Kia" brand tires that they wanted to put on for about $500. I asked who made Kia tires as I was pretty sure that Kia wasn't a tire company. They weren't sure said it was probably Goodyear or somebody. Kia tires are manufactured and warranted by Hankook. The tires are reputed to be soft and the warrantee is supposedly (according to online sources) about as worthless as used toilet paper. Kia told me that my (brand new Michelin) tires were "dry rotted" and that I needed to immediately purchase their Kia Tires. I asked him who made Kia tires and he responded, "Kia makes the best of everything". I said that Lowkey Kia needed to look at Takata then since Takata made Kias "best of everything" air bags.
My point is that just because you paid $20 or $30k for a car, that isn't the end of the purchase... there is the interest on the loan, the gas, the oil, the tires and everything else. With Adobe, you pay one monthly fee and then all you worry about is storage for the images.

leftj Loc: Texas

The difference is tha MACs work. PCs have to be constantly tinkered with and don't last nearly as long as MACs. When I used PCs over ten years ago after a couple of years you needed a new one. I am now on my second MBP and over 5 years on each.

thewags Loc: Phoenix

I know that some like it and others don't. But that's the beauty of the free market. Unlike the cable company or the electric company where you have only one or two options, competing software developers will look at the Adobe "rental plan" as an opportunity. If enough folks balk at paying the monthly fee, other options will start appearing on the market. Competition is a beautiful process.

d3200prime

Dump em all and learn GIMP!

Rongnongno Loc: FL

The stand alone price for Photoshop was out of the pocket of many of the whiners here, over $1,000 if I recall correctly. Add periodic paying upgrade and the bill was really high. When Adobe switched models all those who drooled over the software went for it: It is a bargain. Now some of the same folks are complaining so...

Let's all complain and go back to a Yugo.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

***Keep the service bill, just in case they ever do have a recall in the future. They are suppose to refund your basic expense with the proof.

tdekany Loc: Oregon

You complain about threads not being started in the “right forums” all the time on a free forum where you are a guest and you have the balls to call people out on how and what they should spend their money on?

You are the biggest hypocrite I have ever seen on a forum.

Mind your own business. Don’t worry about how other people spend the money they earned. Do you like to be told how you should spend your money? I didn’t think so.

Stop sounding pathetic. Don’t you have a personal life? I guess you don’t, who in their right mind would want to spend time with you, right?

I am going to remind you again, that this forum is not yours to control. You are simply a guest. Try to act accordingly. You are embarrassing yourself.?

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Off your medication... AGAIN?

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

I am not sure what I wrote that's not true, as everything you say lines up with what I see. I intentionally avoided the topic of planned obsolescence to avoid appearing cynical without facts, but I certainly believe it exists. On the other hand, I have also seen justifiable revisions and upgrades that also include workarounds to vulnerabilities in OS and runtime libraries in some cases. Planned obsolescence is really bad with software that supports I/O interfaces, such optical scanners, printers, and audio interfaces. The decision by manufacturers not to upgrade drivers is why I keep a perfectly healthy Win XP machine for certain pieces. I don't downplay the work it takes to write and revise drivers and applications to properly use new OS APIs, but with tens of thousands of perfectly good and costly, well engineered pieces of gear out there, the decision not to recompile drivers for a newer OS certainly appears like planned obsolescence. (Burkephoto would certain have a more informed view.) Recall how Microsoft was successfully sued for telling only their own application developers about certain Windows APIs and their behaviors. It was not the same as planned obsolescence, but it was an example of subtle software trickery to gain market share, ultimately at the expense of the customer. Amen about good software that happens to be old. Adobe Audition 1.5 is favored by many over subsequent releases. Fortunately, it's too old to contain code to force it to be on line and require more quarters to continue using.
By the way, if I were shooting and printing every day and could make good use of newer software, I would have no problem paying monthly license fees. There is nothing inherently wrong with either the one shot or periodic lease models, whether or not upgrades come with a fee. It's about overall value for each customer and having choices.