Only 2% surveyed said they want to rent software....

[richardginn]

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/cloud/38...ndard-licences

[ImaNihilist]

"Almost two-thirds stated they’d prefer to buy it in a physical format."

Sounds to me like a survey of 2,000 old people on a Corel mailing list TBH. Physical media for PCs? What is it, 2009?

[kujoe2002]

"Almost two-thirds stated they’d prefer to buy it in a physical format."

Sounds to me like a survey of 2,000 old people on a Corel mailing list TBH. Physical media for PCs? What is it, 2009?

This has more to do with feelings of control than convenience. In reality the majority of the people are non tech savvy (meaning older generation) and the abstracts of cloud computing let alone "software" is difficult for them to comprehend or work with. Unless the individuals have worked in technology or are technology inclined, the majority of people are going to feel more secure with a physical product. Me, I'm fine with cloud computing but I want to have the option of buying a program and be able to not only download via cloud but burn an ISO in case I need to install via hardware due to lost connection, server issues, etc.

[Steven P Jobs]

I still prefer ownership over renting (and even that might be a different situation entirely in the case of a $2k software suite), but physical media? What would I want those for?

[richardginn]

"Almost two-thirds stated they’d prefer to buy it in a physical format."

Sounds to me like a survey of 2,000 old people on a Corel mailing list TBH. Physical media for PCs? What is it, 2009?

That is the article as is. I do not know who was surveyed for this survey. You do not know either.

I think we both would certainly like to know who exactly was surveyed though.

[richardginn]

I still prefer ownership over renting (and even that might be a different situation entirely in the case of a $2k software suite), but physical media? What would I want those for?

For those times the HDD fully crashed although you may have all your install files on a backup HDD though.

[Steven P Jobs]

I have them on Adobe's servers.

I spent some time today calculating out various scenarios of subscribing Creative Cloud for various amounts of times vs purchasing CS6 and upgrading to a new version every x years. You have to think of some really implausible scenarios for the rental model to not be much cheaper for the customers. Of course that's subject to change if Adobe change their prices.

The other main worry is that Adobe might start stagnating the development since everybody keeps on paying them anyway. However they are starting to get some pretty serious competition from much cheaper software so they really have to keep improving if they still want to be the industry standard 5 years from now.

[richardginn]

Having a backup copy may not be a bad thing if your internet is down or their servers as well.


600 bucks a year for the cloud if all you are going to use is a few titles is a waste of money imo unless they are constantly updating each month with new goodies which will not occur.

20 bucks a month for one software title per year after a couple of years is a waste since any real function updates are going to happen only a couple times a year.



You can certainly say adobe is stagnating the development of all the titles they have, but they will never pull out a whole list of high quality everyone is going to use updates a year for Adobe Photoshop. One out of six function updates will be like the key one in an update. That is a key reason why renting the software is a major problem.

Certainly other software is getting a look at due to this move to a rental platform.

[ImaNihilist]

$600 per year or $3,000 every 4 years.
$240 per year or $1,000 every 4 years.

The choice is yours.

Some Adobe products have stagnated, but that happens regardless of business model. Fireworks has barely changed since Fireworks MX 2004, and yet you've still had to buy it over and over again just to get bug fixes and support for new operating systems. I think I've bought it three times now.

At the end of the day "ownership" of modern software is pretty much useless, since the software eventually expires as a result of obsolescence and lack of support. We aren't talking about 10 year cycles either. We are talking about <5 years. In some cases <3 years. It's not like media. An MP3 purchased in 2001 will play in iTunes 11 just fine. Photoshop CS2, from 2005, can't even be installed on OS X 10.8.

[richardginn]

$600 per year or $3,000 every 4 years.
$240 per year or $1,000 every 4 years.

The choice is yours.

Some Adobe products have stagnated, but that happens regardless of business model. Fireworks has barely changed since Fireworks MX 2004, and yet you've still had to buy it over and over again just to get bug fixes and support for new operating systems. I think I've bought it three times now.

At the end of the day "ownership" of modern software is pretty much useless, since the software eventually expires as a result of obsolescence and lack of support. We aren't talking about 10 year cycles either. We are talking about <5 years. In some cases <3 years. It's not like media. An MP3 purchased in 2001 will play in iTunes 11 just fine. Photoshop CS2, from 2005, can't even be installed on OS X 10.8.

Well Photoshop CS2 can be installed on a Windows 7 machine with no problems. For a mac install Snow Leopard on a separate partition to use the software.

[James]

I just don't see the reason I need to be connected to the internet to use the drawing software program I bought and paid for on my personal machine. That makes zero sense to me. It makes even less sense, because once the company is out of business, I can never use that product again. I still have a copy of photoshop 5.5. Is it old and busted? yes. Does it work on every system I install it on? yes. Will I have to worry about adobe shutting down the servers they store the software on because they've closed their doors, gone in a different direction, or decided it wasn't worth supporting anymore? no. Because I BOUGHT THE SOFTWARE.

[ImaNihilist]

I just don't see the reason I need to be connected to the internet to use the drawing software program I bought and paid for on my personal machine. That makes zero sense to me. It makes even less sense, because once the company is out of business, I can never use that product again. I still have a copy of photoshop 5.5. Is it old and busted? yes. Does it work on every system I install it on? yes. Will I have to worry about adobe shutting down the servers they store the software on because they've closed their doors, gone in a different direction, or decided it wasn't worth supporting anymore? no. Because I BOUGHT THE SOFTWARE.

You do have to worry about it though. The activation system is same.
There is no guarantee you will be able to activate a boxed copy of CS6 in 2020. In fact, unless Adobe decides to patch it or release a public, non-expiring volume license key, you won't.

[richardginn]

Yeah... Who know what will happen to this company in 2020.

They still had the CS2 activation servers going in 2013.


All major programs like Gimp and PixelMator will be better by 2020 though.

[ImaNihilist]

Yeah... Who know what will happen to this company in 2020.

They still had the CS2 activation servers going in 2013.


All major programs like Gimp and PixelMator will be better by 2020 though.

Actually, the activation server for CS2 does not work. If you try to install a boxed copy of CS2 with the key that came in the box, you will get an error and will not be allowed to run any applications. A few months ago when Adobe decided to turn off the activation server they released a public, non-expiring volume license key for everyone to use. This is what lead to the "Adobe CS2 is now available for free" debacle.

[Timman_24]

CC is a good thing IMO. Now people have access to adobe products. The very low barrier to entry is great for indie devs or people wanting to learn. Kind of hard to throw down $900 on photoshop when you just want to learn. $20 bucks for a month of dabbling though is great.