Forced to buy new computer

[David32069713fn01]

There's got to be a law to protect photographers being forced to buy new computers (usually consting $3,000 or more to edit photos) just because adobe and photoshop forces us to upgrade thier software (that works fine on our sustem), even though it's no longer compatable with the OS that we''re currently running, and our computers does not support the newer (required) OS version.  Give the the days when we bought the software, and used it until it no longer did what we needed it to do.  I used the last version of Photoshop I purchased on CDs for over 5 yeats before I needed to upgrade, because my new compter wouldn't run it.

[Branched by moderator from unrelated post]

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

There's got to be a law to protect photographers being forced to buy new computers

By @David32069713fn01

Adobe and Photoshop do not force you to buy a new computer. Your old version will continue to work on your old computer and OS as long as both continue working. It's only when you change your computer and/or OS that you need a newer version of software.

Subscriptions to Photoshop include future upgrades.

“Give the the days when we bought the software”

What you bought was a license to use the software according to the licensing terms. 

Jane

[Walter_Varela]

seriously the gaslighting needs to stop. we can no longer use features used by all when these features worked just fine before the updates. defending thi behaviour doesnt benefit anyone . you might have bought a lisence but you could use it for years and years this new system only makes them more money and limits creatives of lower financial status. 

[davescm]

Which feature can you no longer use? If the computer does not meet the current requirements then turn off auto-updates and use the working software without changes.

Dave

[Chloe Cor]

Rubbish. I was forced to replace my iMac because the software didn't like my OS and my iMac couldn't upgrade. I had MNO SAY in this upgrade. The whole saga cost me over £3k. It's complete daylight robbery and no-one does anything to compensate us. 

[Chloe Cor]

NO SAY that is. I'm so cross I can't type

[davescm · Accepted solution]

'.......adobe and photoshop forces us to upgrade thier software.....'

No-one forces you to update. Turn off auto updates in the CC desktop application and your subscription will run the currently installed version until you decide to update it, or until you update your operating system to an OS version that requires a later Photoshop version. 

Dave

[Chloe Cor]

Yeah? ??? No one warned me that I needed to turn that option off. Adobe could have at least given me warning and the option to decide to turn it off instead of automatically upgrading me to something that wouldn't work on my machine. I'm so sick of this Tyranny of Upgrade, it is Daylight Robbery

[davescm]

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/creative-cloud/help/creative-cloud-updates.html

In addition to turning off auto upgrades, if an upgrade does cause issues you can uninstall it and download the previous version. Adobe make the both the current and previous versions downloadable from the CC app.

Dave

[Chloe Cor]

Thanks, I know NOW but it's too late now! I went ahead and bought a new Mac because I have to keep working. Of course Apple decided to discontinue the 27" iMac in favour of ridiculous candy coloured range and a SMALLER SCREEN!! So I'm working WITHOUT UPDATES on an inferior Mac Mini with a cheaper screen because Apple's screens are eyewateringly expensive. All this because some idiot somewhere decided that this upgrade was what I needed - when I didn't - and failed to warn me that without unchecking that stoopid box I would lose all my annual profit to buy new kit. Unbelievable. 

[D Fosse]

What makes you think perpetual licenses were any different in this regard? You said it yourself.

This works both ways: Adobe is forced to develop their software for new operating systems and hardware.

The whole computer business is the Red Queen: you have to keep running just to keep in one place. Like it or not.

[Walter_Varela]

it truly is a digusting habbit in where they feed each other money by neutering us. only creatives with money can use their software. it makes me angry and am currenly unable to use the AI fill because theyre forcing me to buy a new computer. i hate them for this the stress its causing is insane. 

[davescm]

New features tend to be developed for current hardware. That always was, and will always be, the case regardless of the licensing model. Restricting developments to those which will run on older hardware would mean some would never be released.

Dave

[Lumigraphics]

If you want new features, you might need a new computer. Things we couldn't do in the past, with legacy systems:

Real-time video conferencing

AI

Video editing (at all, let alone HD/4K/8K video)

Streaming music

Photo-realistic gaming

Storage of multi-megabyte files

And I'm sure you can think of many more.

[Lumigraphics]

Oh and my personal editing system is a US$800 M1 Mac mini with two $20 thrift store displays (I lucked into some really nice wide-gamut monitors cheap.) If you pay attention and look around, you don't have to spend huge amounts of money to get something reasonably current.

[Park Street Printers]

All the most current Adobe software still works great on my 7 year old system. If that stopped tomorrow, I'd probably just say that I got 7 good years of staying-current CC apps out of it, and keep using it as-is for another 3-5. Upgrades and replacements are a fact of life. Want new features? Well, older hardware may not support them. Want a faster system? You'll have to upgrade or replace things. This isn't some kind of conspiracy. Adobe and other software providers are just keeping current with support for newer hardware. Would it make sense for them to penalize people who buy newer machines, by ignoring the improvements that come with them? No. Would it make sense for them to fork all their apps to provide perpetual updates and support for multiple major generations of hardware feature sets? No. If your system doesn't support the latest OS or update, either invest in new hardware, or keep using the older software. My coworker is still using a 2015 iMac. It crashes occasionally, and can't use the latest OS or Adobe software, but it still functions fine for most things. He just doesn't try to run the latest CC apps, and it's pretty much fine.

[bellevue scott]

Technology moves fast, and sometimes in order to make new features you need to have newer hardware. But that doesn't mean you need the updates. I have in my small business 7 Macs and two PCs, all running Photoshop. A couple of those machines are old Mac Pros, 2013 edition, and we still use them. We can no longer update the OS or PS on those two machines, but we still use them for a lot of day to day things in PS. In most cases we don't notice that they aren't up to date, and we don't care. They work fine. Every year or two we rotate one of our machines to a lesser used workstation and buy new ones, and the new ones are for our most intensive day to day editing. But the old ones still work and we have no need to throw them out. 

If you don't require it, there's no need to be on the latest version. In many cases you're not missing much.