Alternatives to the Creative Cloud

Report · May 07, 2013

With Adobe's decisions to force users to go to subscribe to the creative cloud, I thought it might be a good idea to get a list going of some alternative programs. I'm a designer working mostly in print with some web - anyone know of some good alternatives for these?

Photoshop -> Gimp

Illustrator -> ?

Indesign - Quark

Dreamweaver - ?

Flash - been moving away from that anyway

What programs are you going to look into to replace the creative cloud?

Report · Jul 04, 2013

ReactionAtWork wrote:
Corel DRAW Suite easily replaces Illustrator and Photoshop. I used Corel for years until a marketing department (with a fat greedy Adobe sized budget) said I had to use Adobe products. So we coughed up 6x the cash for the Adobe suite and ended up with programs that looked very creaky, despite being the 'industry standard'.
Have you ever used Illustrator's Arc tool? Possibly the most laughably appalling 'tool' I had ever used. You can't even enter start and end angles, instead having to work through a complex construction of circle and intersecting lines just to get, say, a 60 degree arc. I was using tools 20 YEARS ago that allowed you to enter start and end angles, and of course Corel can do it.
How about Photoshop's appalling gradient tool? For years, in Corel Photopaint, you can interactively drag and adjust the gradient on screen and see the result instantly. No ridiculous modal dialog box and entering numbers, click OK, oh no that's not right, open dialog, enter number, click OK... oh no that's not right... open dialog...
People who have never used anything except Adobe don't really how much better things can be elsewhere - for a tiny fraction of the cost too.

This is what we learned the hard way. After getting used to Adobe software, we thought there was nothing as good out there, until the forced creative cloud sunscriptions started and we started to really explore other software. Not just explore, but really test it and give it a good spin with an open mind.

Our creative team worked hard at exploring many other options and we were very surprised at what we found. There are very good alternatives available TODAY.

Corel, Xara Designer Pro, etc. just to name a few.

We also learned that Adobe software is very bloated with extra usless features for us and that most people only use about 10 to 30% of the tools with Adobe software. They never really use everything. This allowed us to really look at our needs and just focus on good software that meet those needs for us to provide our clients with quality work. We don't need any extra features if we are not going to use them.

Another thing we learned is that with our MAC computers, we can easy use good "windows only" software using products like Parallels Desktop for Mac. This made our choices even greater! The testing we have done has been fantastic!

I am sure many software developers are working hard to make their existing products better and others will be introducing newer products to offer. They all want to take advantage of this opportunity to help people that are not happy with Adobe at this time. Its just a metter of time. This is good news for us (the consumers) since it will always give us many choices for years to come.

Report · Jul 04, 2013

Thanks for this helpful answer. Gives me hope as I leave Adobe far behind to use things like Corel, Avid, and maybe Quark.

Report · Jul 04, 2013

ReactionAtWork wrote:
Corel DRAW Suite easily replaces Illustrator and Photoshop.

Not for Mac users. And no, running Windows on my Mac is not an option.

Report · Jul 04, 2013

Danny Michael wrote:
Not for Mac users. And no, running Windows on my Mac is not an option.

Why not? People seem to doing it successfully, via various methods. Regarding the response to Adobe switchers.

http://corelblogs.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/you-can-run-coreldraw-on-a-mac/

Report · Jul 05, 2013

W_J_T wrote:
Danny Michael wrote:
Not for Mac users. And no, running Windows on my Mac is not an option.
Why not? People seem to doing it successfully, via various methods. Regarding the response to Adobe switchers.
http://corelblogs.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/you-can-run-coreldraw-on-a- mac/

Because I despise Windows almost as much as I despise Adobe. I know I "could" run Windows on my Mac, but I won't. I'll just stick with CS6 and when it no longer works for me I'll look for other options. I figure I have 5 years left before I have to worry about it. Adobe will probably be in bankruptcy by then anyways.

Report · Jul 08, 2013

Danny Michael wrote:
Adobe will probably be in bankruptcy by then anyways.

I think the best we can hope for is a humiliating U-turn and a return to [grossly overpriced] CS releases/updates.

Anyway, for a breath of fresh air and positivity after all this Adobe talk, have you tried Blender 3D? It represents everything that the obese Adobe company cannot hope to achieve, ever:

A small team of fast, responsive programmers.
They listen to their users needs carefully.
They issue major updates every 2-3 months (not 2 years!), with new features often equivalent in magnitude to a full version $xxx CS 'upgrade'.
Bugs are often fixed in days, not years.
No nasty licence restrictions or phoning home to catch you out for being a loyal user.
It doesn't cost a penny. NOTHING. Zero dollars.

And yes, it runs equally well on Windows, OS X, or Linux...

Report · Jul 05, 2013

because then I'll have to hire a full time IT guy to keep viruses off of my windows partition, and that will cause more downtime and financial loss than just going to Creative Cloud haha

Report · Jul 08, 2013

Craig Curtis wrote:
because then I'll have to hire a full time IT guy to keep viruses off of my windows partition, and that will cause more downtime and financial loss than just going to Creative Cloud haha

I'm just waiting for the Wah-wah-wah-waaaah of the trumpet there. Ironically, all you have to do is install Adobe Flash Player and you get McCrappy installed whether you like it or not! xD

Report · Jul 12, 2013

I am sure that Adobe has a boxed up upgrade ready to ship out when they tally up how many customers they have lost and are losing, the only test then will be should I still support a greedy company that tried to take advantage of their once happy an loyal customers.

Report · Jul 12, 2013

They can come out with what ever they want.

They were adobgant (arrogant) silent for so many weeks now.

They killed the CS family that rashly and quiet and radical.

They are in the Ballmer Family for me.

They lost all the trust they had (from my side).

If they come out now with a CS7 or what ever - I will not come back.

Already invested many thousands of Euros to competitors. And will do in future.

That´s it.
I am quitting my dependency in Adobe file formats for the moment.

Employees & I learning to walk new ways.

In some cases these ways are better. Sometimes they are harder to walk.
But I think, with it´s CashCow decision, Adobe made competitors strong. Half of their former users are searching for alternatives. Big market ; )

Only Photoshop is the last thing, we don´t yet know how to replace 100%.

But we OWN the right to use CS6 MC for many, many years.

So it will become the XP of Adobe.

----------

CC = Cash Cow = Terminating the word "Archive" in digital future = Lifelong dependency = NoGo = Never

Report · Jul 12, 2013

Well said. The huge multi-national company that I work for (sorry, can't say for obvious reasons!) has many CS users. One country's department upgraded to CS6 which caused all their CS6 InDesign files to fail to open on CS5.5 or CS5 installed in other countries (Adobe seem to have engineered a hopeless lack of compatibility between versions). So our CS5 users will now have to fork out approximately THREE TIMES the cost of an entire NEW CorelDraw Suite for another completely unnecessary 'upgrade' to CS6, just so we can share files created a few months ago!

CS6 will keep us going for a few years, after which the accountants will be looking at better value alternatives.

Adobe CC will not be tolerated, in the same way that such a dangerously binding agreement would not be tolerated with any other supplier.

CC = Cash Cow, agreed. I suspect it might also stand for 'Cloud Cuckoo (land)', if Adobe thinks this will gain them lots of happy new customers.

Report · Jul 12, 2013

Salmon River wrote:
I am sure that Adobe has a boxed up upgrade ready to ship out when they tally up how many customers they have lost and are losing, the only test then will be should I still support a greedy company that tried to take advantage of their once happy an loyal customers.

They are gaining new customers almost daily using mobile devices and these customers out-number people like you still using desktops and laptops in the 21st century. Even Microsoft is investing heavily in developing products for mobile devices and this means cloud based applications.

You guys have to move on and takeout the subscription to CC and enjoy. If you can't afford the subscription then clearly something is wrong with you. Everybody is earning a fortune in this world and the evidence of this is the number of people getting obese despite exercising more because they are eating too much. You can only eat too much only if you have money to buy food. You can only have money to buy food if you are earning too much. If you are earning too much than you can afford to take out Adobe subscription to CC. If you can't afford to take out the subscription to this wonderful thing called CC then there is something seriously wrong with you.

Get over it.

Report · Jul 12, 2013

Professional.Pirates wrote:
They are gaining new customers almost daily using mobile devices and these customers out-number people like you still using desktops and laptops in the 21st century. Even Microsoft is investing heavily in developing products for mobile devices and this means cloud based applications.
You guys have to move on and takeout the subscription to CC and enjoy. If you can't afford the subscription then clearly something is wrong with you. Everybody is earning a fortune in this world and the evidence of this is the number of people getting obese despite exercising more because they are eating too much. You can only eat too much only if you have money to buy food. You can only have money to buy food if you are earning too much. If you are earning too much than you can afford to take out Adobe subscription to CC. If you can't afford to take out the subscription to this wonderful thing called CC then there is something seriously wrong with you.
Get over it.

Hahahahaha. Spoken like a true republican. I have mine so screw you.

Not everyone who uses this software makes money with the software.

Not even going to comment on "if you can't afford the subscription then clearly something is wrong with you" hate speech.

Report · Jul 12, 2013

You guys have to move on and takeout the subscription to CC and enjoy. If you can't afford the subscription then clearly something is wrong with you. Everybody is earning a fortune in this world and the evidence of this is the number of people getting obese despite exercising more because they are eating too much. You can only eat too much only if you have money to buy food. You can only have money to buy food if you are earning too much. If you are earning too much than you can afford to take out Adobe subscription to CC. If you can't afford to take out the subscription to this wonderful thing called CC then there is something seriously wrong with you.
Get over it.

I don't think these comments help anyone and sound a bit closed minded and immature.

Just because we CAN afford it, it doesn't mean that we have to agree or participate in the FORCED CC software model. This is about the consumer having choices and not being forced into something they don't want. This is not about the money.

I can afford many CC subscriptions if I wanted to, but I choose not to. I don't believe in it and I want nothing to do with it. I would rather move to other software. Is that simple.

All Adobe has to do is GIVE PEOPLE A CHOICE. That simple! Then everyone is happy.

The folks that want the CC subscriptions will be happy and the folks that want the perpetual license (not CS6, but with future updates like it has been done for many years) will be happy too. This is not rocket science.

p.s. Let's try to be polite and civil to each other. Offending others accomplishes nothing.

Report · Jul 12, 2013

Huh?

Huh?

Not necessary to comment...

Does itself.

Report · Jul 12, 2013

Don't know if anyone saw this cNet news Item:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57593433-92/dislike-adobe-subscriptions-xara-updates-its-design-sui...

Report · Jul 12, 2013

Don't know if anyone saw this cNet news Item:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57593433-92/dislike-adobe-subscriptio ns-xara-updates-its-design-suite/

Hi Phillip

Yes, Xara Designer Pro X9 is a great alternative to Adobe. You can't beat the price for what you get. It has very powerful vector tools as well.

Report · Jul 16, 2013

Now that there will be no CS7 release, I've switched to Corel. They have an upgrade offer going on now through August 30 offer to users of Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, or Premiere Pro (version CS4 or later).

Report · Jul 16, 2013

Kopoos wrote:
Now that there will be no CS7 release, I've switched to Corel. They have an upgrade offer going on now through August 30 offer to users of Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, or Premiere Pro (version CS4 or later).

that is the best news I've gotten in a long time. Definitely on board with this!

Report · Jul 16, 2013

Kopoos wrote:
Now that there will be no CS7 release, I've switched to Corel. They have an upgrade offer going on now through August 30 offer to users of Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, or Premiere Pro (version CS4 or later).

And where are the cracks for them? Adobe comes with cracks. I don't like cloud.

Report · Jul 17, 2013

I realize it's only been a day, but how do you find working with the Corel software. Currently I use photoshop a ton on my site and was thinking of upgrading to creative cloud, but after looking at this thread...maybe not

The price is definitely great for COrel, but how does it compare to Photoshop?

Report · Jul 21, 2013

DouginTO wrote:
I realize it's only been a day, but how do you find working with the Corel software. Currently I use photoshop a ton on my site and was thinking of upgrading to creative cloud, but after looking at this thread...maybe not
The price is definitely great for COrel, but how does it compare to Photoshop?

Some getting used to but works well enough for my needs. They have a free trial available (as do most of these other programs) so you can test it out before deciding to switch.

Report · Jul 17, 2013

Kopoos wrote:
Now that there will be no CS7 release, I've switched to Corel. They have an upgrade offer going on now through August 30 offer to users of Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, or Premiere Pro (version CS4 or later).

That's a sweet deal! What a great opportunity.

Report · Jul 19, 2013

One of the things that is quite obvious from threads like this is that Adobe doesn't seem to care one way or another about our rumblings on this site (unless someone from Adobe would like to comment otherwise).

However, Adobe surely can't be so arrogant that they ignore other sites as well. Looking at customer reviews in Amazon, for instance, reveals that the hatred for cloud and the latest generation of CS is wider spread and is starting to be endemic within Adobe's customer base. That should raise their heads, if it doesn't then they're fools.

Report · Jul 19, 2013

Of great concern is that Adobe's two-yearly CS releases gave them an unavoidable target to aim for to ensure the next tidal wave of cash would roll in. With a move to Cash Cow, that incentive disappears. They can sit back, relax, play a few games, take a holiday... and still watch a mountain of cash roll in every month regardless of how little work they have done.

Cash Cow is a perfect recipe for increased corporate laziness and inertia, which is the last thing on earth that was needed to improve Adobe, from the customer's perspective.

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Alternatives to the Creative Cloud