This cloud solution is not feasible for countries, where internet is costly. Also, I like my privacy and I like to have my photo on my hard drive. With recent events happening across the world, I do not think my data is safe on Internet. I am going to find an alternate solution. True I will miss quality but I value my data more than cloud. Thank you adobe for your earlier products.

Photoshop CC is a glitchy, unreliable product that crashes constantly and malfunctions on a regular basis. Does anyone know any other products we can move to since CC is the only thing that is available now?

  I believe the company is trying to focus on the professional market and maximizing profits at the expense of non-pro and start business consumers who can't afford the hefty $70 per month, and don't feel comfortable losing control of their content.  I fear security issues will plague this new cloud system in the future. Adobe has the legal work covered, so consumers are on their own.  There are other software alternatives to Adobe Suites but I hope Adobe hears the cry of long time customers and allow consumers to make informed choices.

I understand the following:

Adobe's move to stop piracy of their software.

Adobe's desire to stop iterations in updates, and have a constantly-updated suite.

Many of the features they want to offer to customers.

While valid, what disgusts me is the pricing system.  I'm a teacher and have a need for photoshop for personal projects or for my classes maybe once or twice a year, tops.  I don't make money on these projects.  In college, Photoshop was sold at a deep discount to students, which I purchased and learned to use, and used for about six years before the version wasn't compatible with my new Windows XP computer.  I bought another version, I forget which, that was better, again at a teacher discount from an educational institution.  When that version was no longer functioning properly, I was shocked to hear Adobe was basically saying that now, they would be charging you forever and no new versions would be made, aside from Elements.

I have a few projects coming up that I will want Photoshop for, but I will likely only be using the software for a month or two.  I only need Photoshop.  I don't need cloud storage of my files, syncing across dozens of devices, special fonts, stock photos, special features, website creation, web-space, or literally any other bell or whistle Adobe wants me to have.  I looked at the $9.99/mo feature, and thought "Hey, that's perfect.  $10 and I can do a few projects and won't be throwing money at Adobe for the rest of my life.".  Except, it's not really, $10 a month.  It's $120 a year on a contract.  It's basically like a mobile phone company.  If you cancel, you pay a pro-rated amount to half the leftover time.  So if you use it for a month, then cancel, you're paying $70 and you can only use the software for 30 days, after which you can not access your files.

Adobe's reaction?  "Too bad."

So, now I'm feeling thoroughly abandoned by the company, and felt like I should go look for Photoshop CS6, which I found to be the only stand-alone version you can own forever.  That's an absurd $700 for the one piece of software, particularly one that the company has now utterly abandoned and won't support anymore.  The suite of software is a ludicrous $2600.  Even Corel is in the $400 range.  It's like if you went to a bicycle company you'd been buying lightweight bikes from for a decade for a hundred bucks or so, except when you show up they break your bike, tell you you need to buy a new bike, and the only bikes they sell are Cadillac Escalades for tens of thousands of dollars.

Businesses are now spending up to three times as much for software they need, and people like me are utterly left in the dust with no really good options.

Some people have said "Well, Microsoft is doing the same thing with Office!".  True.  But I'm now never paying them for software again either.  If they had Office for sale for around $100 for 2016, I'd have purchased it.  As it stands, I'll be using my older 2010 version and not budging, or alternately using OpenOffice.  I refuse to be charged for the rest of my natural life for a piece of software, even one that I use frequently.

Both Adobe and Microsoft, because of their desire to put money first, have lost me as a customer for the foreseeable future.  I would have even done a $9.99 for one month purchase, and continued to do it on occasion as I needed the software, but Adobe refused me even that.  Elements is mediocre, and I'm going to try and find my old disks of old Adobe Photoshop CS and try to hack them into functioning on Windows 10.  The bottom line, Adobe will not be getting a single cent from me again.

Cloud may be the way to go, but there are a lot of us out there who have spent a fortune already on Adobe.

We have loved and cherished the products and now feel totally let down.

I have Dreamweaver - 12.0 Build 5861 and Photoshop CS6 Extended - 13.0 x64

Which I can no longer get updates for. 

Which means fixes too.

I paid a lot of money for these products and I really feel gutted that I am forced to pay $50 per month, if I want to keep these products up-to-date.

Does this now tempt me to look at alternatives such as ON1 Photo 10, Macphun suite or Affinity ? Of course it does. I really cannot afford $50 per month

‌Well personally I think cloud based things are fantastic. They are quick to down load, regularly updated and fun and easy to use.  Even BBC 3 is cloud based and I suspect it won't be long before the rest of the BBC follows suit .  The best thing about subscription based software is that it allows for small incremental updates rather than having to wait for two years and relearn the new system.  Also at least 90% of communication is done online now so why on earth would you want to miss out on so much?  Most of John Lewis purchases are done online.  If you go into one of their shops now there is not the full range availble and often just a display model.  If you ask they say " order it online".  Even my dad who's 83 listens to his music from Spotify which is online based as we managed to find all his old records, for which he no longer had a record player to play, and many many more on this subscription based program.  How do you think news and news photos are produced now? Not sat at a desk at a huge computer, but on the hoof using a mobile to send items to a cloud based storage or by email.

If you feel that no one wants this method and would rather fork out £600 or so every year instead of £34/m then you are very very much in the minority.

My problem is that I am doing a one-off within the volunteer sector. I will receive no payment for this so don't really want to spend a lot of money.

It's a shame as I love Photoshop but it isn't really good enough for vector drawings for the logo I'm going to create.

I have an old Corel Draw package too that can't be used.

I really think when you purchase something that it should be usable or freely upgraded when operating systems are upgraded.

Boooooo.

Not happy.

While I would like the option, to lease my software and get new updates all the time, that does not mean that I will always be financially able to do so.  There have been times I have had to cut all cost just to scrape by due to reasons that life tends to throw at you.  So I could see where I could get all my photos deeply involved with the cloud and something happen and I no longer be able to afford the subscription.  Then were would I be?  Adobe does not like poor people.  I know, no company does but if I happen to run out of money now, my LR4 will work forever.

Its a lousy decision to not give a choice but hey, they were going broke.  /s

I agree with the general concensus in this thread but am a realist and understand there is no alternative that can match PS. Adobe knows it and they are strong arming us all. Over 8k for a lifetime subscription sounds a bit steep for a $700 product that MIGHT be upgraded a few times in a lifetime. Adobe is getting greedy and you know what happens to greedy empires...

My biggest complaint about subscription software is this: We're all beta testers now! I've been a late adopter forever. I avoid anything that says Version 1 on the box. Best example ever, Windows 8. CS5 became CS5.5 very quickly, for a reason. Now, YOU get to find the bugs, not Adobe.

The analogy to buying/leasing a car isn't perfect, but everyone's had the experience of buying a car and discovering that you can't get the upgraded GPS or whatever unless you also pay for tinted windows. Same with CC - I have to pay the full freight for things I'll never use just to get what I need. Per-app pricing is deliberately extortionate, and $600/yr forever for the whole package is twice the amortized cost of incremental upgrades. The only thing hurt by my going from CS2 to CS4 to CS6 was Adobe's bottom line.

But then, if I owned the streets, I'd probably charge you a buttload to drive on them too. Yeah, capitalism.