Why in the world would they shrink their user base by once again offering high priced perpetual licenses when income of that size is on offer. Terry, I signed up for the Creative Cloud when it was first made available because I had never bought any Adobe software since the first Premiere Pro. I was a beta tester up until CS3 so I got it for free, and then I dropped out of the program during CS4 due to an illness. Quite a few years later, I came back to video editing and added photography. So CC made sense to me since I was used to having the Master Collection and did not want to put out a large sum (over $2500) and then have to justify upgrades as a part time pro and an almost full time hobbyist. That said, I can certainly come up with a reason for them to supply an exit strategy. I have supported such a strategy since the beginning. Yes, I am an Adobe Fanboy, but I completely understand people's fears about winding down their need for the software and wanting to use it only occasionally. But $50 per month (and a lot more in many other countries) can be burdensome for a part time user. Or, worse yet, a user who has changed to another program and sometimes needs to go back into old projects to satisfy customer needs. Yes, it is possible to sign up for a month. But owning the software and locking down a computer with an OS and keeping it off of the Internet is a perfectly sensible desire for many people. If Adobe made it possible to buy a certain release, let's say the current version of CC, right now, at some high, but relatively reasonable price, and gave a discount proportional to the amount of years that the customer had been paying the subscription, then people who otherwise might have dropped out completely, might be willing to add money to Adobe's bottom line one last time. Take me for example. I am retired. I am getting older. I might, at some point lose the ability to hold a camera. Does that mean that I have to pay $10/month from the bed in my nursing home just to see my Lightroom catalog? I can reduce the price of my auto insurance by telling the insurance company that I drive my car less than 100 miles per month. That way, an old pickup truck, that sits in the garage most of the time, is still covered when I need it for something. Adobe could set something up that limited users to a certain amount of hours per month, with carryover, like your minutes in some Smartphone plans. And if you go over, you can then buy more hours. It would only apply to users who have paid for enough months to qualify as "good customers". Or maybe even "loyal customers". I honestly believe that this type of thing could keep a few users around to help fill Adobe's treasury.  It is not for constant users, but it could be an exit strategy, a retirement plan of sorts. Not only would it be fair, but it could likely be profitable. ... View more

You are welcome Dave. It is always a pleasure to see people using the search function and getting the info they need. It makes posting in a forum seem like so much more of a valuable way to spend time. ... View more

who happened to have used computers for the last 43 years and learned to communicate with end users. No offense meant to you my friend personnally.     I was all set to argue the number 43 until I did the math. Crud. I keep forgetting that I really am that old. I started programming in 1971. OK. So be it. I'm old. I am of the opinion that it is a combination of an ego who won't admit they made a mistake, and the fact that they want to have all of the apps use the same color schemes. Blue is a horrible mistake. If they admit it, then they might have to do something about it. To do that, they might have to have someone take the blame. I don't know the Adobe culture, but I doubt it includes the idea that if you never make any mistakes, you are not trying enough new stuff. ... View more

As Jim points out, there is a price break if you pay for the year, but only pay them monthly. But if you only need the program every couple of months, you could theoretically save money by paying for just the months you need it. That is one reason why I question the people who say that if you stop subscribing you will lose all of your ability to ever go back to work on a project. Just buy a month. Simple. ... View more

... they're just gambling that that it won't matter. Truer words were never written. That is exactly what they are doing. ... View more

Two interesting statements made in that article. 1. Adobe is spending 20% on R&D - more than the average by quite a bit. That is to our advantage as users. 2. This statement: "Adobe’s marketing cloud initiatives also yielded good results during the quarter, as revenues grew by 4.5% on a YoY basis to $330 million." Are there negative things in the article? Sure. But do the positive things outweigh the negative? That is up to each of us to decide. My opinion is that the increased capabilities of the software and the rising stock price, are at least somewhat related. ... View more

Just keep in mind that you have to have real, actual, money to buy back your own stocks. Some companies use that "extra" money for dividends, and others to buy back stocks, or a combination of both. ... View more

As the number of people subscribing to the Creative Cloud grows every day and those of us who have subscribed are able to take advantage of the new features. I'll never understand why people come to a company web site and leave messages about how terrible the company is in a User-To-User forum where is does absolutely no good. Looking at the rate that the stock price has increased in the last two years sure shows Adobe is suffering. The price has only gone from around $44 to around $76. How sad for them. ... View more

jstrawn, I have not been complaining about the readability issues, but believe me when I say that we can't drop it until it is fixed. If I can't see it or read it, it means it is broken. And I am not complaining only because so many others have been.  ... View more