Goodbye Adobe

[GraphicsGeezer]

You have ruined my day for the last time. I've worked with you for 20 years and I've had enough of programs that are bloated, slow, crash prone and simply don't do what they say they're going to do. I am getting rid of Creative Cloud. There are alternatives to Adobe and here is an article that shows you many of them. http://mac.appstorm.net/?s=alternative+apps+to+everything+in+adobe+creative+cloud&blog=mac&term=revi...

I hope this lazy, greedy company gets the fate it deserves.

Have a nice day!

[D Fosse]

Oh yes, you bet they did

[Szalam]

GraphicsGeezer wrote:

Do Adobe products work well on PCs? If so I'll buy one!

Yes. In fact, one could get the feeling from reading these forums that Windows works better than Mac these days.

You certainly get more for your money.

At my freelance studio, we just put together a PC for around $800 that is more powerful than the highest-spec brand new Mac Pro you can buy. Granted, that was partially with used parts from eBay, but more power at less than 10% of the cost is pretty nice! I still use my 2011 Mac Pro when I need to work on the go and I haven't had any big issues with it either.

[R Neil Haugen]

The new nvidia 1080/1070 cards are going to be a kick in the posterior ... huge increase in capability at the same price as their mid/upper current cards. I've already seen a couple post-houses which are mostly Mac saying they are at this point considering the here-to-fore Unthinkable ...

They will ​so​ be able to power stuff for X dollars on PC, needing X times 3 to 5 on Mac to even compete ... that it makes no sense to continue buying Macs.

[Eugene Tyson]

GraphicsGeezer wrote:

Do Adobe products work well on PCs? If so I'll buy one!

Absolutely. I don't know why everyone is so hell bent on buying a Mac to do design work. I use both PC and Mac and the PC is a lot cheaper than a Mac.

I guess it's a layover from past years when Macs were very powerful compared to the desktop computer that PCs were, they were designed to be office workers, not design workers. But PCs have come into their own in the past 20 years.

Stick to OTF for fonts and you won't have an issue.

[darlab36484518]

Well, I'm using a PC and after that last update Adobe CC is not working well on mine.  It's sucking down memory big time.  I noticed last night after closing both Lightroom and Photoshop that memory usage by Photoshop actually went up and that was after it was closed for 15 min.  Neither of those programs still should have been showing up as an active process, but they were.   Something is definitely wrong.

[clauderozsa]

Hi Neil,

We have a say in French " Never say fountain I Wont drink your water"...

Moreover hostile takeovers have sometime results unpredictable. I personally was taken in the middle of one when the bank, Paribas, I worked for in 1999 was taken over by Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP). We were in the middle of a friendly merge with Société Générale. Suddenly BNP realized the danger of seeing our bank and the SG becoming an important group both in the field of Merchant business (Media (we co-financed the movie Cyrano de Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu in the leading role) and in the usual deposit business. The share price of our bank proposed for the merger by BNP was very interesting. Paribas had 75% of his employees abroad and they considered worth making the move and sell their stock not being concerned by the 130 years history and successes of the group and its culture. BNP got us but not SG whose trade unions made a huge campaign against the merger with BNP. At Paribas the culture was so that we were never influenced by trade unions. To join the bank it was mandatory to be fluent at least in English, and if you said you spoke Japanese or Chinese it was the red carpet. Self initiative for proposing a project was a rule from the beginner to the top level etc...That's how the company worked and had important successes like being part of the building of the Transiberian railway, the first to make deals in ECU before the Euro was created, etc..We were proud to be in such a company and the merger was a real and very depressing shock joining a group still having all the defects of a former nationalized institution.For instance I was asked to merge the two training centers, at the first meeting I proposed for my BNP colleagues to use the familiar "tu" expression instead of "vous" (equivalent of respectful "you" in English); A guy from BNP raised his hand and said "I have to get the permission from my boss"!!!!! If I had agreed we would have had to wait a week for the whole hierarchy to give its green light!

This little example shows how difficult it is to predict the outcome of a takeover. the soundest of companies may have great surprises and very nasty ones. I would personally consider a merger of Adobe with Apple a disaster for the customers considering the way Apple is geared with a total lack of consideration for them, we have seen recently the case of Quicktime security problems resulting from its attitude. I don"t always accept some of the ways Adobe treats its customers but in general there's nothing too serious about it and the problems could be solved quickly if the top management accepts to follow the rule that in the end it's the customer who is right because he is facing the market and his clients. A top management should always be aware of the danger resulting of being too proud of one's successes and take as a rule to show a humble and low profile instead of bragging which is in the human nature of behavior...

[jblo]

Little late on the reply but I thought I'd add this.

I started non linear editing on the original mac quadra Avid Media Composer system. I distinctly remember when Apple came out with the new (MacPro, I think) chassis, it did not have enough slots for all the video hardware and was useless as an editing system.

I remember the announcement from the then Apple CEO saying that "Apple sees ZERO future for Apple in the video post production world." Anyone else remember that?

Avid had to build their own "Pizza Boxes". Expensive hardware add-ons to accommodate all the extra cards. They also started porting to PCs.

A short time later Apple released FinalCut and completely changed the world of Post Production costs.

Never believe a CEO when he says never.

I have several Macs and several PCs, so I really have no loyalties. I do see Apple discontinuing desktops. Every release of their software "Decontents" or "Dumbs Down" the power (Final Cut X and the Apple office suites are often heard complaints). The only explanation I see is that they want you to be able do all your work on an i-device.

My 2 cents.

[Guest]

Since I find the prior post pertinent and finding that this forum is without any place to actually ask a question - "just spend a few MORE hours browsing irrelevant issues and forget about ever stumbling across a text box which is labeled 'ask your question here'," here's my reply -

I purchased the original CS(1) in 2002 and used it for many years. When I attempted to either do a Windows System Restore, or to upgrade Adobe Acrobat, about 2009, all my CS applications became inactivated. I contacted Adobe & I was offered a copy of CS2 as an internet download. I successfully downloaded CS2 and until recently used it. (Mainly Photoshop) I have now had computer hardware problems & it appears that my hard drive will have to be wiped clean, or replaced and all programs reinstalled. The Adobe forums state that old authorization codes will no longer work. I am interested in the old versions of Adobe Photoshop & I would like to know if a license may be purchased to activate CS2 (with no tech support needed)? I see numerous CS2 software collections listed on eBay. I purchased a license for CS(1). Has this expired? Or can I use CS2? Or do these Software collections expire? I would be happy to purchase a CS2 Collection and even to pay Adobe for a license to use this software (legally). The prospect of having my programs and my data 'in the Clouds' is not very appealing. - This refers to MS XP and I'm not going to upgrade to any other OS.

[R Neil Haugen]

The activation info would need more staffer-type assistance ... RameezKhan​ or Kevin-Monahan​ perchance?

As to the other part ... neither the programs or your media would be 'in the cloud' with the CC programs ... which is one of those things that confuses many people about the way Adobe named this style of product lines. The programs are downloaded to your computer, and of course all the media is on your computer ... so for basic operation it's the same.

What there is available over 'the cloud' are other assets like stock libraries, viewing/using the Behance system, with all the various creative people posting projects & stuff there to view, and syncing your work-spaces & keyboard shortcut setup so if working on another machine, you can 'sync' that to your usual working manner.

You can if you choose store a small amount of info on 'your' library out there ... but that's about it for 'cloud' data use. Well, if you really get into it, there are more options ... but I don't think most people use them that much, while some really DO use it all.

Neil

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi jp14jp28,

I've replied to your DM.

Thanks,

Rameez

[Terri_Stevens]

Upgrading to Creative Cloud is not an option for you as it will not run on Windows XP, I'm sorry to tell you.

As for buying CS2 on Ebay simply don't. Anyone can download Photoshop CS2 because Adobe has not put into place any checks to ensure the downloader was a legitimate owner of CS2 before the activation servers were switched off. This means literally anyone can download. You are supposed to be an existing Photoshop purchaser and the download site makes it clear that the download is solely for purchasers and is not a free download of an old version of Photoshop-the copies on eBay are therefore always pirated . I would say you've been very open with Adobe here. You paid a great deal of money a few years back and just want to reinstate the copy of Photoshop you paid for, as Adobe don't make anything earlier than CS2 available for download, I think it would be fair for you to download that to your computer. It is a very grey area legally whether you actually should do that, but as you have the previous version and CS2 is eleven years old , Adobe would not demonstrate a very good attitude to its past customers if they complained.

[Nancy OShea]

With very few exceptions, all Adobe software distributed from the Creative Cloud requires a modern operating system (Win7 or higher) and 64-bit computer.

As Terri said, CS2 activation servers were taken offline several year ago.  Which is why they set up an activation-free serial number to accompany the download on their web site.   It's free for Adobe product owners providing they have an older computer that can still support it.

Error: "Activation Server Unavailable" | CS2, Acrobat 7, Audition 3

Just so you know, there are countless reports in these forums of pirated software being sold on eBay and by some so-called online re-sellers.  In some cases people get fleeced into buying a trial version only to find out later that it's infected with spyware or worse yet,  malware.  Buyer beware!  The waters are infested with sharks.

Good luck!

Nancy O.

[darlab36484518]

I feel your pain.  I've used Photoshop for many years and Lightroom for about 1.5 years now.  A couple months ago I took the plunge with the Creative Cloud version and while I like some of the new features like Dehaze in Lightroom, the performance has been terrible. The latest update that I installed 3 days ago has made the situation much worse.   It is sucking down 74 - 95% of the memory, pretty much locking up my PC.  I cannot get any work done.   Seems to launch a number of CEPHtmlEngine processes that are taking up this memory.  Also, I've noticed when I close lightroom lightroom.exe still remains in the processes sucking down 2 million K of memory.  And it won't die if I try to kill it in task manager.   I have to reboot to get rid of it.  Insanity.  I'm not a fan of cloud applications and this one makes me even less of a fan.  Never had these kinds of problems with the non-cloud versions.

[Terri_Stevens]

that process is the worse bug currently in Photoshop and I think Adobe should hold their head in shame for not bringing out a patch for it by now. Six months with a bug that ubiquitous affecting CC is really not acceptable. You will probably find the problem improves if you close and keep closed the library panel in any Creative Cloud application that uses libraries.

[darlab36484518]

In an attempt to resolve the issue, I thought I'd install the latest Windows Updates.  Well, they wouldn't even download.  Had to go through some rigamarole just to get them to install.   However, after I did all of that, the performance improved slightly.  At least it wasn't totally locking up.   But what I did was take screenshots of task manager showing the cpu and memory usage after doing certain operations.  I found that I have to change the way I work in order for the PC not to lock up.  In the past I might adjust 10 or 12 photos in Lightroom and export them to Photoshop, then work on further adjustments there.   Now, just one or two pics a time.  I think what I may do is not have it automatically bring up the photo in Photoshop.  Just export them all to the disk drive and then when I am done with Lightroom, close it an open Photoshop to continue my work.   What a royal pain!  I'm going to contact support this week with my documented findings.

If you are looking for an Adobe alternative, I suggest Corel's Paintshop Pro.   It's almost as good as Photoshop and it's fairly inexpensive.  At Christmastime Amazon usually has it on sale for $39 - $59 and it's quite a bargain.

[Terri_Stevens]

Did you try closing the library panel? CEPHTML is directly used by libraries, virtually everyone here with your problem has found performance returns to normal when you don't have a library panel open.

Paintshop Pro is more comparable with Photoshop Elements in my opinion, its very good at what it does as you'd expect as it is acknowledged as a Photoshop clone, but lacks the feature set of the Photoshop program itself. Try doing something very taxing with it involving multi GByte sized files and memory and its limitations will quickly be revealed to you. Corel Painter is a much bigger contender as a Photoshop rival as it will do 95% of what Photoshop can and has the sophisticated disk and memory management that design professionals demand. I'm biased maybe as I worked for Fractal Design before it was acquired by Corel but it is a terrific app and simply blows Photoshop away when it comes to any kind of digital sketching or painting. I'm soon starting as a beta tester on an app called Affinity which is two products Design and Photo. The Mac version has been shipping for some time, but the Windows version is just coming out of alpha testing. I love Photoshop and will not desert it but Affinity is really going to challenge Photoshop in years to come. Take a look

Affinity Photo - Professional image editing software for Mac 

[darlab36484518]

I didn't think I had the library panel open since I was in develop mode in Lightroom.  But last night when I first booted up, I went into Photoshop directly and I still had CEPHTML pop up in the task manager.  I'll have to go back to look at my documentation as to exactly when that occurred.

I checked out that Affinity link, wow, that looks great and easier to use.   Let me know when it's available for Windows.

[kimsforum]

Would you consider using CS6 instead of Creative Cloud?

[darlab36484518]

I would have preferred to buy CS6, but I'm not going to plunk down $400 without guarantees that Adobe will continue to update and sport it.  I had CS5 and Lightroom, but couldn't apply the latest Lightroom update or camera raw without having CS6, so couldn't get support for my new camera.  So, I didn't want to get stuck if CS6 is their last release for their non-cloud software.  And at this point I don't know if CS6 has all the same features or not.  But I do hate cloud software.  Haven't used one yet that is any good.

[Michael J. Hoffman]

CS6 is in fact not being updated beyond minor things. There are already quite a large number of new features introduced in the CC versions that will never be available in CS6.

The CC versions are not cloud software, however. They are regular programs that are installed on your machine, the same as any other. The "Cloud" branding refers more to the connectivity and integration of the products.

Mike

[c.pfaffenbichler]

The "Cloud" branding refers more to the connectivity and integration of the products.

And that the programs verify the validity of the license over the web at intervals.

[Ocean 11]

I understand your frustration. It happened to me, too.

You are on a deadline and something doesn't work.

My tips to check your system (I'm on a Mac, too)

1. What's your operating system? If you are still using a very old OS X version like Snow Leopard, you are prone to run into problems.

2. Take your computer to the Apple store and check the RAM. I remember once having bad RAM on one of my systems. Also, I once had a malfunctioning graphics card.

3. Generally check if you installed all of the updates (Apple and Adobe)

4. If you are having a particular problem that hinders your work, I suggest you describe what's happening, and include your system info (OS version, RAM, computer type, etc.)

I also think that the subscription model is a temptation for Adobe to slacken off - as the payment comes in anyway each month. I hope they get a hold on that temptation, and include smaller updates that take care of the bugs.

System stability and reliability is much more important than new features (who has the time to study new features anyway - here's the tip to Adobe to include a section where they have workshops that introduce the new features in detail - I wouldn't mind getting an email to tell me about it, as long as it doesn't include a sales pitch).

[Scott Bremner]

I did the same today. I've been a user since 1993/4. I absolutely hate the subscription model they now use and the pricing associated. The software is old fashioned in comparison to Affinity and the service is rubbish. It was time to leave.