Is there an alternative to Creative Cloud?

[Chaostheory66821]

Basically, I want access to a editing software that is easy to use, up to date, that isn't  subscription based (which I totally detest), and that doesn't require a constant Internet connection - so that I can use it anywhere, anytime, without worry. Unfortunately, it appears that Adobe no longer offers such a compelling and trustworthy option anymore. Am I wrong about this? From my perspective, customers trying to stay up to date with the latest features are being slammed with a very un-consumer friendly push from Adobe, and met with a bunch of legalese that basically strips them of ownership of their content and their right to privacy.

Personally, I don't find anything about Creative Cloud compelling. It is restrictive, subscription based, and cloud based. I want a product with an upfront, non-reoccurring, cost. I have plenty of storage options (If I want cloud storage, there are plenty of options there, as well), so that is not something that interests me. I want to be able to use it on the go, as I have in the past, without worrying about Internet availability - sometimes for days at a time - a common situation for both myself and many people I known that are interested in these types of programs.

What options do I have available outside of CC? Do I have to stop using Adobe products altogether, eventually?

I won't switch to a subscription based, cloud centric suit; does that mean that Adobe has made itself irelevent as a company from my standpoint?

Please help! I don't want to switch to a competitor to stay up-to-date, but at this point I see no alternative. I can wait until what I have is outdated and no longer relevant, and then switch to a competitor -- which would put me at a disadvantage for a time -- or I can go with a competitor now, and spend that time learning their platform, while still using it along side this program,  until this program is no longer needed. The ladder option, unfortunately, seems like the alternative I am going to have to lean toward.

So, any alternatives to Creative Cloud, that is still Adobe based, that will continue to be updated and improved for years to come?

P.S. - This question is not only for indesign, but all of Adobe's Creative Suit programs. Thanks in advance!

[Eugene Tyson]

It's about $9 a week per employee.

If they do 9 jobs a week, tack an extra $1.50 to each job to pay for the software and your admin costs.

[amaronee1]

Mikey, thanks for expressing it so well.

[RickGroff]

Not a fan of the subscription model, either, but in the long run I think it's much less expensive and it's nice to know that major upgrades will just be there without any extra cost beyond maintaining my yearly subscription. Even though I've subscribed to the Creative Cloud and have all the InDesign CC versions, I'm still planning on continuing working predominantly in CS6 (down-saving the CC files that clients send--as long as they haven't used a feature that doesn't exist in CS6--and "up-converting" them when I'm done) because I prefer the way it looks and I like using the numeric keypad for editing, which capability the CC versions have dropped.

There are numerous little infuriating UI bugs in all the CC versions of InDesign, but they're not deal-breakers and I would imagine that eventually they'll be addressed. So all in all (and after much trepidation), I think I can live with the Cloud arrangement.

[Steve Werner]

Your option is to buy a copy in InDesign CS6 with what's called a perpetual license. It may never be updated. As newer versions of the operating system you're using come out, there's no guarantee that there might not be problems with it.

This issue has been debated endlessly for the past year. This isn't really an InDesign question, and if this thread degenerates, it will be locked.

[Sandee Cohen]

You have asked for an alternative to the Creative Cloud that "will continued to be improved and updated for years to come."

Obviously you have not been using personal computer software for 25+ years as I have or you would know that nothing can be relied on to be improved and updated for years to come.

When I started on a Macintosh computer there was a program called SuperPaint that did amazing things for its time. After a while the people who made SuperPaint stopped supporting it. And when I moved to a more modern OS, I couldn't use SuperPaint. All my SuperPaint files were worthless.

Now I'm no lawyer, but I know for certain that the company that made SuperPaint never contracted with me to keep improving and updating the software for years to come. So I switched to a different company's product.

Just like the company that made my favorite salad dressing stopped making it. It's gone. Over. Finished. There are no more bottles to buy. Do I have a right to protest that they have to keep making it? No. There is no implied agreement that I can have that salad dressing for the rest of my life.

Or the electric toothbrush manufacturer who stopped making my favorite electric toothbrush/irrigator combination. So when mine broke after 5 years, I couldn't buy another. There were no new mahines on the market. Nada. Nenio. Bupkis.

You've insisted that your editing software come from Adobe. Why would you want to do business with a company that imposes such arbitrary restrictions on how you use its products? I truly suggest that you purchase the latest version of QuarkXPress as well as some of the competitors to Photoshop and Illustrator. These companies are obviously treating their customers better than Adobe.

Of course if you are open to understanding how many mis-informed facts you have regarding the Creative Cloud, especially how often you need to be connected to the web, there are more than enough people to help you.

[Eugene Tyson]

There's a free trial isn't there?

[BobLevine]

There most certainly is. You get almost everything for a month. Doesn't

include DPS SE apps and a few other thing as well.

I wrote this blog post last week and the numbers released today confirm

my opinion. Creative Cloud is here to stay:

http://boblevine.us/why-creative-cloud-subscription-software-is-here-to-stay/

[Sandee Cohen]

Chaostheory66821

You've got me very confused and concerned.

Do you mind telling us which part of the Creative Cloud license agreement your lawyer said that would give Adobe the option to own the rights to your product?

I need to ask my lawyer for her advice.

[Eugene Tyson]

As soon as you creat something - you own the copyright.

If you work for a company - then they own it.

End of.

[ArizonaNorse]

I would like to add that I have been an Adobe product user for many years, and the move to cloud based only with no support for downloaded versions (I own CS 6 for both Mac and Win) is extremely disheartening.  I too am now looking at alternatives since when the time comes to upgrade, I won't be going with Adobe's Creative Cloud.

[BobLevine]

CS6 is still sold and supported by Adobe.

[ArizonaNorse]

Ok that's good to know.  I am trying to locate the download to re-install on a computer.  Do you know where that might be? All links for CS 6 seem to go to CC...

[BobLevine]

http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/cs6-product-downloads.html

[Dov Isaacs]

Please read some of the previous postings.

The newest software is not running in the “cloud.” The software is still downloaded and installed and run on your local computer. What is different is that it is licensed by subscription.

          – Dov

[rob day]

the move to cloud based only with no support for downloaded versions (I own CS 6 for both Mac and Win) is extremely disheartening.

I've found the subscription model to be so much better. I  use Acrobat, Bridge, Indesign, Photshop, Illustrator, FlashBuilder almost every day for less than what I spend on coffee. Unless you are going to steal the software, you're going to pay for  upgrades at some point in the future—none of us are using Photoshop 3—this just makes it easier and less stressful.

And, you don't need an internet connection to run the programs, you only need to be connected once a month for validation. If you think something evil is happening on Adobe's servers there are plenty of alternatives to Adobe's cloud service for file storage and sharing.

[BobLevine]

Dropbox!

[rob day]

I'll sell you a 1TB hard drive for $49.95

[BobLevine]

Already have a 4TB drive but I love DB's versioning capability. File goes corrupt? Back up on save and get on with things? Deleted a file by accident? Just restore it. Need to share it? Piece of cake. Computer caught fire? No problem there either. Just install DB on the new machine and everything syncs right up.

[Andy Greenwood]

I'm afraid that in this thread Adobe is once again muddying the waters by picking up on other spurious and easily rebutted issues in order to mask the major problem.

Which is:   If a designer subscribes to CC then every file they produce, from that point onwards, can be held to ransom by Adobe.

  If at any point in the future you decide that you no longer want to pay Adobe every month (say if Adobe decides to quadruple the price!), or you want to switch to a different software, then all the files you've produced on the CC will be effectively locked from you.

  With the current perpetual licensing system you could simply still open them up, using the license which you legitimately purchased, and either amend and re-print them, or copy and re-purpose the content into whatever your new software of choice is. You could do this forever (i.e. perpetually!), even if you had to keep an old machine running an old operating system.  If I so desired I could still be opening files created in Aldus Freehand 1 on my Mac IIcx with 2Mb of RAM and 80Mb HD. But it would be my choice!!

  With CC as soon as you stop paying the ransom then you will no longer be able to open your own work files.  That is not situation that I, as a designer, can allow myself to be put in.

Adobe is in very real danger of exactly mirroring Quark's downfall which led to Adobe having such an extensive user base.  With their decision to ride roughshod over the feelings of their users in pursuit of regular, predictable income (and hence a larger stock market valuation!!) rather than the peaks and troughs of the traditional upgrade model, they are showing the kind of arrogance that precedes cataclysmic downfalls.

[BobLevine]

If you don't want to subscribe, don't. But you've hit one myth after another in your comments.

Adobe offers month to month subscriptions so you can stop and start any time. And quadrupling the price? I already commented on that earlier.

Feel free to read my blog post that linked to earlier. The only thing that's changed is that subscriptions now stand at close to 3 million.

[Andy Greenwood]

Bob,

  As you say "Adobe offers month to month subscriptions so you can stop and start any time".  Well this is kind of my point.  You can only open your own work if you pay them again. You can never open your files without paying yet again in some way.  With perpetual licensing (and, just for the record, I've been a loyal, paid up Adobe customer with every upgrade since the original Photoshop) I paid what a flat fee for a good solid product which I could use 'in perpetuity'. And I could also decide if and when I wanted to upgrade to suit my company's cashflow.

  Also, when a company really does have a great offering, its customers recognise the fact and respond by purchasing from them.  The company does not then need to resort to repeatedly quoting how many people have signed up to a product as some kind of a half-cocked selling point.  This attempt by Adobe to switch licensing models has nothing to do with benefits for its customers and everything to do with a greedy corporation wanting to increase its own stock market valuation.

[rob day]

Adobe is in very real danger of exactly mirroring Quark's downfall which led to Adobe having such an extensive user base.

Quark lost its user base because it refused to upgrade the software for OSX until it was too late—didn't have anything to do with price or quality. In 2000 I switched to ID because OS9 was unusable, not because I thought Quark was good or bad. They gambled that their users would switch to Windows en masse and lost. For professional users Adobe has effectively lowered the long term cost of the suite—thus the 3 million subscribers. You're right if they quadruple the cost it might invite competitors to develop new applications. If that happens I'll welcome the competition.

[Andy Greenwood]

Rob,

  I was comparing Adobe to Quark to illustrate that point that Quark lost what it thought was an unassailable market share because it grew complacent and arrogant and felt that it could ignore the wants and needs of its loyal customer base.  A stated in my previous post I've been a loyal Adobe customer since the original Photoshop and I too swapped to ID from Quark about the same time as yourself and yes, I too agree that the Creative Suite is a fantastic collection of integrated software (well apart from Illustrator being vastly inferior to the incredibly intuitive Freehand [RIP] but that's a whole different discussion).

  My point is that Adobe is very much in danger of not learning the 'Quark lesson'.  Their new model cares not one jot for the customers' requirements.

  Once Adobe has everybody signed up to a rolling licensing model the customers' needs become superfluous.  Adobe could decide that it could change the price to whatever it wants (after the promised discounted rate expires), it could also decide that it's poor shareholders require even larger dividends so it could shed half of its developers and maybe not bring out quite so many 'free' upgrades this year.  Or how about stop developing all together.  Because it's customers can't complain.  They have to keep paying if they want to access any of the work they've created during the two year "get 'em hooked" discount period.

  Of course I'm not saying that this is likely, just that it's possible and creates concerns which wouldn't exist with perpetual licensing models.

  I guess my main point is this. If Adobe really believe that this licensing model is ideal for their customers base, why not offer both licensing models and let the customers decide for themselves.  Believe me they will always go with the best option for them.

[BobLevine]

I don't work for Adobe so let's get that out of the way.

I've read your points from countless others worrying about Adobe getting its

users hooked and then quadrupling the price. I get that CC is not for

everyone, but it's laughable to think they're quadrupling the price. Adobe

has never taken advantage of its market positionŠNEVERŠto gouge customers.

The fact is, CC is here to stayŠwarts and all. This is what works for

developers today. You can't sit on the same versions and features for two

years anymore. This isn't just about InDesign. It's about the entire

package.

You can accept that or start looking for alternatives but there's a better

than 50/50 chance you'll run into the same situation. Subscription software

is becoming the norm.

[rob day]

My point is that Adobe is very much in danger of not learning the 'Quark lesson'.  Their new model cares not one jot for the customers' requirements.

Then the market will take care of that—we can still buy Quark. For now the software is cheaper and better, I'm not going to stop using it because it might get too expensive someday. I have annual reports that don't exist anymore because they were archived on tape, and Quark 3.11 files that probably could be opened with some heroic effort, but they are effectively gone.