The vast majority of people who use these tools to earn a living are going to be using reasonably current software and reasonably current hardware, for the simple reason that time is money and a small investment in tools saves much more through more efficient use of that time. If you have a well established workflow, you risk breaking it with certain upgrades. Adobe is notorious for changing/removing functionality without asking anybody. If you have a good workflow, jumping after every pointless upgrade might actually cost you more time. Upgrades might also hurt your other investments related to the software. I'm still using CS4 on one machine, because my expensive AE Trapocode plugin pack doesn't work on 64bit software. If people are using this software for business purposes then we are talking about a positive/negative difference in cost (depending on what your upgrade shedule is like) amounting to a couple of dollars a month averaged over time. It is absurd to suggest that such a small difference is going to impact adversely on the future of a business. You probably spend considerably more a week on coffee than the sum total of that averaged difference. You can make that same ridiculous argument for just about anything. I could easily afford paying 10 $ for a cup of coffee. It doesn't mean I should do that. I could easily pay 100 $/month for software and spend less on something else. Doesn't mean I will ever do that. An advantage of the pricing structure of the cloud is that you can buy access to the software on a monthly basis as well, which makes it financially very attractive to a production house where the need for the software varies significantly over time. I give you this point. If you are running a large house with tens of employees, each of which are skilled in Adobe software, but usually do something else in their workday, it might actually make sense. But how many operations like this do you think there is? In a normal work environment people are focused on their small subset of skills and it's not like everyone will be able to do professional Photoshop work when there is some huge project. Do you think many companies will say: "We have a big project now, let's rent 20 x more Dreamweaver so that even the video editors and marketing people can code with it". Seriously, I don't see this happening much. A major factor many of you are overlooking as that the pricing structure of CC makes the software MORE accessible to a wider customer base since it eliminates the upfront investment that might otherwise be too much (this was true in my case, for example). Only if the customers are stupid enough not to calculate the yearly/long term costs. it would still be much cheaper to fund a perpetual license with a loan or a credit card. Especially if you used Production premium or Design premium. Or ESPECIALLY if you did not think every upgrade had enough merit to be worth buying it and decided to skip some versions. So this is only true if the customers are idiots who cant't do even the most basic math. In summary, CC creates flexibility for Adobes loyal customers, and it makes the products more accessible to a wider range of potential customers. Funny, why is it exactly the loyal customers that are complaining if there is all this great flexibility? Do you think they don't understand what is being offered here? The ugly truth is that Adobe wants to take away the most important flexibility customers can have: the ability to vote with their wallet and decide for themselves if the upgrade is worth the money. Maintaining both the subscription model and the perpetual license model will increase the support and development overhead Adobe would have to deploy, since each of those models would have to be dealt with separately. This is costly, represents duplicated efforts and is not efficient for Adobe. As was already pointed out, this is just not true. The software stays on the computer and Adobe could easily let it stay functional for a fee if they wanted to. One further advantage is that the subscription model will be effective in combating piracy. Not the sort of piracy where the software is hacked to circumvent its protection, but the piracy where someone buys the software then installs it on their computer, their brothers computer, their brother's girlfriend's computer, their brother's girlfirend's hairdresser's computer and 30 other random people. Buying one license and installing it on every computer in the company (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more, say no more). CC will put a stop to all that, and that is the REAL reason for the outcry. Sorry to end like this, but the above statement really shows you have no idea about how Adobe software actually works. That really takes out your credibility on the issue.
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