Unfortunate change of the business model of Adobe

[v1341539]

Hopefully someone from Adobe management read this forum (and will read this post).

I think that Adobe now following a bad for the customers though likely profitable for Adobe trend:

a subscription only bussines model. I paid for the commercial product and for the upgrades for several years. A few years ago Adobe decided that the only way to have their working product is to enroll in the subscribtion. My answer is big NO this idea. Firstly I would like to have a product working in perptutity , and if, by any reason, I can't/don't want to pay anymore or happen to be offline the product must remain fully functional. Secodnly in the world of ever changing rules I don't want the product to be upgraded the way I don't like and for this I am only willing to trust what I see at the particular moment and right infront of me : the current realease, if something сhanges the way I don't want I want to use what I liked. 

So, I stopped paying to Adobe and found alternatives.

Fortunately Adobe products do have have competitors. 

P.S. Before this new trend Adobe did have options to write and

talk to their customer support directly.

Not anymore.

[JR Boulay]

My answer is big NO this idea.

In our current world this is a very courageous position.

But if you refuse the principle of the subscription, how do you deal with gas, electricity, telephone, insurance, rent, TV, etc. ?

[Highstreet5EAD]

Defending subscription based models? Subscription based models are bad for the consumer. There is no innovation anymore and you are okay with that? That is very intersting to say the least, and I would venture to bet your opinion is unpopular. 

[v1341539]

Well, when you buy gas or electricty you buy some amount of the commodity you consume.

When you rent a car you buy car as a service with certain mileage included and actual warranty to fix car if something breaks while you run normal operations.

When you buy a car you can drive it to till it moves (even if the car barely moves at the end 😉

or smash it into the wall.

Here/now we observe an unpleasent trend: software companies pretend that they provide utilities.

In most cases they do not. The could add a bit of utitilty service (clowd space/CPU processing power), but do most customers need it?  Some sell you time limited subscription (Adobe), some sell you tokens on the amount of the operations you can do (Wolfram online), some have mixed combo of services (Amazon AWS).

Gentle ones provide both options (to buy and to rent per kind of service and per time interval). 

What do we see as a result? Customers become a commodity. A chip & managable one.

Fortunately custmers can resist. Adobe Acrobat for instance has many alternatives:

onn Windows PDF Studio and Foxit only to start.

Btw, you can drop TV cable subscription and buy the same in smaller subscriptions or even separate shows/movies using internet. You can have a electric generator if you live outside the city.  Also when we equate software and car ... just imagine that car manufacturer writes the disclose "you car can blow up or stop at any moment, you accept all responsibilty for anything and in worst case scenario we can give you $20 back" 🙂 

The point is: just because some company said that something is right way to do things it doesn't mean it is right.

[try67]

They didn't say it's the right way of doing it. They said it's the way they prefer to do it (probably because it generates more income for them). As you said, there are alternatives, so why not just choose one of those alternatives instead?

And as mentioned, Acrobat is actually still offered under a "perpetual" license, so your point is even weaker. It is difficult to find, that's true.

[Bernd Alheit]

You can buy Adobe Acrobat.

[v1341539]

I had a purchashed version. I called them (adobe sales) when they swiched to subscription model and said that I want to pay for the regular upgraide. They replied : No, from now on we sell the subscription only.

[JR Boulay]

They replied : No, from now on we sell the subscription only.

It is the Adobe site that prevails, not empty words. See:

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/AdminGuide/whatsnewdc.html

You can download and buy Acrobat Pro 2020 here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/download-adobe-acrobat-perpetual-serial-number-ba...

[v1341539]

Ok,  Thanks! This something I have been looking for. It was not possible initially.

If now Adobe sells again a "perpetual" license it is a route I'll take.