Quark and Corel make a comeback

[becusa]

Having purchased and used Adobe products in our creative agencies for almost 20 years, I cannot emphasize how incensed the CC only model makes me. Yes, I know that CS6 is still available, but I guarantee that once the storm over CC has settled that too will go the way of the dinosaur - call me cynical but I have a feeling it has only been retained temporarily to provide the forum staff something to quote in an attempt to appease the rightly infuriated masses.

The creative cloud software and delivery system is buggy and glitchy - just check the other Adobe forums - we cannot have 'downtime' where our software does not or will not function due to logins / incessant updates / accessibility.

The cost for 'leasing' access to the Adobe software is considerably higher in the long run - $X per month forever and never own anything, rather than $X as a one time cost of ownership and a reduced cost upgrade path.

You can guarantee that the price will increase once 'box' versions are no longer available / updated / supported and the masses have been forced to convert. Especially as the longest 'pre-pay' term is currently only 12 months.

Many people do not need all access to all of Adobe's software applications, which is why they offered various versions of the Creative Suite in the first place.

We do not need cloud services, we work with massive files, have multiple backups - and have remote file access where necessary - the last thing we need is CC monopolizing our available bandwidth.

In other words, we will not go the way of the cloud.

Adobe have always made great software, but the CC business model may yet bite back.  At one point in time QuarkXpress was No.1 and all but unassailable - and then due to reknowned poor service and an overwhelmingly arrogant attitude to its customers they suffered huge market share losses to InDesign.

History repeating?

[DeadDead13]

You can already imagine what the future with this subscription only Adobe Creative Cloud aka The Adobe Price Gouging Smoke Screen has to offer: It goes like this. Adobe updates programs with a few new features (some totally useless) then decides these features warrant them raising the monthly fees by $5-10 every update cycle. Adobe has not guaranteed a maximum subscription fee limit it will charge on future updates in writing. It has only said $49.99/month in online quotes. Where is the guarantee in writing that this price will not increase?

[Phillip_M_Jones]

But that is only for the first year its an introductory offer plus its doesn't say what that is for whether its for one or two items, or every creative suit application that exist.

[becusa]

If we don't make a noise, Adobe won't hear it.

[Guest]

becusa wrote:

If we don't make a noise, Adobe won't hear it.

You can make yourself heard loud and clear by switching to Corel:

http://corelblogs.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/corel-is-all-about-giving-users-choice/

[DeadDead13]

Good to see a company is taking the open opportunity to capitalise on Adobe's greed.

[scut farkis]

If Corel/Quark really want to cause Adobe some pain, they'll offer a discount for licensed Adobe customers.  If Adobe sticks with this policy, I'll be gone by year-end.

[gmetrail]

We are working on something and should to have it ready sometime next week - Gerard @ Corel

[scut farkis]

I've looked at the link posted by Johannes below - great work!  I use Mac for all of my photography work though - any possibility of Paintshop Pro for Mac?

[Guest]

@scut farkis

The actually did exactly that 🙂

http://www.corel.com/corel/pages/index.jsp?pgid=14900014

They even hav it on their start page www.corel.com

COREL GIVES ITS SUITE TO CS USERS FOR THE UPGRADE PRICE!

[scut farkis]

Thanks for the line Johennes!  Great news, just need Mac.

[Guest]

[ abusive content removed by forum host ]

[Adam-C]

And I would if Corel were available for Mac. Not going to re-kit to Windows cos of this, and working in a VM is not seemless enough.

Mac users: Contact Corel and tell them all we need is a Mac version of Corel Draw and then we start having some options again.

[stylish_athlete15B9]

Funny I just check to see of Corel and Quark are still around. Thank You Adobe for making me look at your former rivals who will soon be gaining market share again thanks to the CC. Anyone know a good replacement for Photoshop?

[Phillip_M_Jones]

If you’re a PC user. ADC (formerly Deneba Software makes something)  Corel Probably does  but Mac is limited.

[OldBob1957]

Phillip Jones wrote:

but Mac is limited.

Not really. Mac has many options for running Windows software. Head over to the Corel forums (for just one example) and see how many users are running that "Windows only" software on  Mac systems. And quite successfully too. The software for doing so has come a long way in a few years.

--OB

[WBoswell]

I always liked Corel's graphics suite.  I would have stayed with it, but I had to move to Adobe products for college since they were the industry standard.  I have upgraded all the software I use to CS6 and don't intend to upgrade after this because I figure perpetual software is on its way out.  The only Adobe software I would continue to upgrade is Acrobat.  Switching to CC is not an option for me because I don't profit from Adobe software and I'm not paying for software I don't own.  The same goes for Microsoft Office.  I'm still using the 2007 version and I plan to stay with it until it no longer works.

[Phillip_M_Jones]

Check with MS. there model is different than Adobe's. You may have to pay more but for the forseeable future you can still get Office as a DVD or Download. And unlike Adobe Office365 is $99 per year not Month. That includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.  If I were you I would upgrade to 2013  that way you can go many years to come without the Rubber wearing of the tires.

[scut farkis]

Philip - I agree with your point about $99/year.  While that would be more than what I typically pay for my Adobe Tax (usually upgrade about every 2 years, so arount $50/year I think), it would still be reasonable.  $240 per year for my Adobe Tax just doesn't seem worthwhile - and it's almost 5 times what I've been paying in the past.

[stylish_athlete15B9]

All this leasing software is going to ignite the open source world. There is not a thing in MS Office that I can not do with Open Office. What we need is a Open Creative Suite now. I am tired of software companies playing games.

A company I use to work for is infurruated over this desiction. They are a photoshop only design and print shop. they have 130 designers and only upgrade software every three year. So instead of spending $91,000 every three years they now have to spend $351,000 dollars to use Photoshop in a three year period! I know when I was there we were looking at GIMP. I can assure you GIMP will be looked at again.

[Silvercat22]

I'm an independent... but for bigger studios, these fees must be absolutely over the top...  yikes!

[ChicoCDM]

I've been a loyal customer since CS3 Master Collection and have upgraded every year. Adobe said mater of fact "change is painful." Let me tell you how disgusted I am with Adobe. I can't even stand the sight of their name and logo right now. I never thought I would hate a software company but I am thoroughly disgusted with Adobe. I am willing to buy substandard software than rent Adobe software.

[DeadDead13]

Have been eyeing the Corel site many times since this Adobe nonsense. Looks like CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 might be my new friend.

[Silvercat22]

I've been an Adobe customer since the 1980's and I have been upgrading every year or two since then.

But I refuse to work with the Cloud...   and the latest announcement re offering future updates to Creative Suite only via the Cloud/subscription model has got me considering jumping ship...  Adobe has me backed into a corner, so I'm seriously considering going back to Quark XPress and/or other alternatives.

Adobe seems to disregard loyal customer's workflow and buying habits, and, in recent years has had TERRIBLE customer service.

It feels like a business case sorta like JC Penney... looks like they might learn the hard way. I sure hope it doesn't come to that.

[Guest]

THE COREL TEST

STEP 1: COLOR MANAGEMENT in Parallels Win7 on Mac

So maybe Corel-Suite is an option.

Therefore I have to know if my Mac color management will work in Parallels Desktop with Windows 7.

Dual screen in fullscreen mode is also a requirement.

And guess what?

IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM

after 15 minutes of trying.

My hardware calibrated NEC LCD2690 shows exactly the same perfect print colors in Win7 and OS X simultaneously in fullscreen and coherence mode.

full size: http://s1.directupload.net/images/130516/glpkjvmj.jpg

Ready for

Step 2: Testing if Corel can establish a professional print publishing workflow.

Maybe in two to three weeks I will test that 🙂