Does Adobe offer any products anymore or just programs you can rent rights to use?

[Smythius]

I have photoshop 7 on both my Windows 7 and Windows 10 Laptops and both run the app great with no internet, no account, no monthly subscription. I bought it. got a serial I own. and after installing that was it. I have a program I can use unrestricted because I OWN it. Now I'm seeing I need an account just to get information about products and see there's a $20+ monthly fee to use photoshop like theres some sort of service they are providing for you? Photoshop is a tool. If I own a tool then I should be able to use it as I see fit. Requiring somone to keep paying for an item they "own" in order to keep using it is more like renting rights to use it! Especially because no actual service is being provided. I don't pay other people for permission to use tools I already own, that's ludacris! Why can't I go to a store and buy a product without signing up or creating a new account each time want to buy something? Why am I forced to register programs I have no intention of using online? The only register should be the cash register at checkout, no emails or phone numbers or addresses, just a one-time purchase! After that I shouldn't have to have ANY ties to Adobe for a product I bought and now OWN unless I want to. Please tell me Adobe still offers a basic graphic editing tool that can just be bought and used, not rented, not subscribed to, not dependent on internet or account or menstration cycles or genetic heritage, I justy want an unrestricted program that I completely OWN the rights to use, and only have to pay for once. Does adobe no longer offer anything like this for the basic graphic designer?

[Derek Cross]

The Photography Plan includes the latest version of Photoshop, and updates as they become available, plus Lightroom and some cloud storage for around $10 a month. Alternatively, there's Photoshop Elements a kind of Photoshop Lite for a one-off payment of around $90 which may suit you better.

There's no restriction on you using the earlier versions, as you imply in your post, it's just that the old versions may not work with newer operating systems – that's your choice whether to upgrade, or not.

By the way, Photoshop is not used "online", the application is downloaded to your computer and used in the normal way.

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Photoshop Elements can be bought for a once off payment

https://www.adobe.com/ie/products/photoshop-elements/buying-guide.html

There's also Affinity Photo, not an Adobe product but worth a look

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

[melissapiccone]

Photoshop Elements can be purchased but most of us here would highly recommend the Photography plan for you for $10 a month. How much did you pay for that Photoshop 7 verson? $800? That is about what it cost back then. $10 a month sounds pretty reasonable in comparison. And - you don't use it online. You download it to your computer and use it there. You only have to jump online every 30 days to verify your subscription payment. 

[Smythius]

Exactly my point... if it's not used online I shouldn't be having to pay for a monthly subscription! I have no interest in having to "check in" each month and continually paying for an app I supposedly already own. Nty. My uncle works for marvel and back in the day Photoshop 7 was given to us and not a penny spent since... and has continued to work for the past 18 years! Never needed to update or go online if I didnt want to. Never did, never will. I will look into that Adobe Elements as a one time fee is reasonable for an average non professional user. Considering my previous install of Photoshop was esentially free and worked for almost 2 decades, No. $10/mo in comparison is not reasonable at all to me! Even if it were $800 at the time over almost 20 years would be about 1/3 of that or about $3.70/mo. Thank you for some clarification. I really appreciate how quickly the community got back to me. I will also have to look into Affinity Photo app. Thank you again

[jane-e]

"I have a program I can use unrestricted because I OWN it."

To clarify, you do not own the software. What you purchased was a license to use Photoshop 7, and you are bound to the End User License Agreement (EULA).

~ Jane

[Smythius]

so basically they changed  their rental policy is what you're telling me.

[Guest]

As with any software, you don't actually own it, you purchase a licence to use it. The company that develops the software owns it.

https://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/OwningSoftware.asp

[jane-e]

"so basically they changed  their rental policy is what you're telling me."

Adobe now offers software as a subscription, if that's what you mean. Other software companies are doing the same thing.

But as Ged says, all you own with any software is the license to use it. This has alway been true and has not changed.

You never own the software itself, and the use is not "unrestricted" as you indicated.

~ Jane

[Smythius]

That's just horrible. It's almost as if one time payments don't exist anymore. Now when you purchase something you have to sign up and keep paying for it? They should market that as renting software, not buying it! I hate how companies are forcing upgrades and updates and disabling perfectly useful software that's already been paid for to go the way of the pharmaceutical companies only offering products you have to keep coming back and paying more for even when nothing has changed! Apparently it's not possible to go anywhere these days, pay for something, and be done with the transaction. There's all these little strings attached now that never used to be, even if the agreement hasn't changed. I don't remember a purchased serial expiring when software first came out. A program would run on a system until the system no longer ran. End of story. Not because software expired... A company being able to disable their product AFTER it's already paid for/ purchased seems really unorthodox to me but seems to be becoming the norm. I can understand cutting off updates and support but rendering the program inoperable as it stands is essentially taking a paid for item back, that's just a new version but just as bad as the term and meaning "Indian giver."