Adobe commits suicide

**mwenz** · 24 May 2013, 03:29 AM

Originally Posted by jon404

So what's your recommendation -- if Ventura's gone, and InDesign's too costly, is there a good DTP program out there that can output decent PDFs, and can handle, say, a 100-pg document? What are people using for DTP if we rule out InDesign, Word, OpenOffice Writer... and Framemaker? Is Microsoft Publisher still around... and is it worth using?

Serif PagePlus. Other than running heads/feet (ID sucks with this too), image captions (VP was so good), and a few other niceties, it does a really good job. Like with Xara where I will do as much work as possible even if I need to eventually return an AI file, if at all possible I will use PagePlus. New version out pretty soon

Mike

**jonazen** · 24 May 2013, 03:51 AM

@Jon - another thought - since you're building PDF's...do you have access to a copy of Acrobat Pro (or the equivalent)? You can load up any number of files (PDF's, Word docs, image files, etc.) and have it stitch them all together into a large single PDF. Would that help? Just one more option in your toolkit...

**jon404** · 24 May 2013, 05:31 AM

Mike -- will check out Serif PagePlus. Noticed that Publisher 2007 does not have auto-TOC or auto-indexing, oops. Guess DTP programs are like cameras -- each one does something neat, but none do everything well. That's life.

Jon -- yes, I have Acrobat Pro. Which, along with my old Photoshop 7, I conveniently ignore during my sporadic rants against Adobe, the bloated commie-fascist bloodsucking corporate vampire. Acrobat's so darn good.

**Albacore** · 24 May 2013, 11:05 AM

Still use an up to date copy of Page Plus works pretty well for small to medium publications. Has a super Mail Merge which can be used for tickets as well as the office stuff. Gets a bit lost in the packaging for export in larger illustrated books and mags for sending to the printers as all that you get is a PDF. If you have an a Adobe account you can still download InDesign CS2 for free from their site as it is such an elegant bit of software that work well from biz. cards to very large publications and is worth having on your H/disc.

**Cloud** · 24 May 2013, 02:37 PM

The two greatest things adobe have created as far as I am concerned are Photoshop and the PDF format.

**Know1** · 24 May 2013, 02:39 PM

This is insane. Just insane. No more future Adobe software for me if they don't offer a perpetual license system. We are walking $ signs to Adobe. No one in their right mind should think of joining this subscription scheme.

You can't just alienate your customers like this and force us to pay forever or leave with NOTHING to open our files with. It's simply unacceptable. No matter how awesome the new features might be. We need to have a safety net to fall back on. And that is a perpetual license. With this scheme Adobe will OWN us for life. They got us by the balls if too many of us agree to this madness...

We cannot trust Adobe. That's why I don't want to chain myself to them forever. But I would still use and buy their software if I think it is of value to me. With the right upgrade price, and the ability to skip a version if I wanted to.

But a Cloud hostage situation is unacceptable and the worst possible case for the end user.

If I have a perpetual license and Adobe does something I don't agree with in the future. Well... I know I can still use the current version to work with. With the Cloud that safety net is gone for us. *POOF*.

This is a deal breaker no matter how good the software might be.

**handrawn** · 24 May 2013, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by Know1

If I have a perpetual license and Adobe does something I don't agree with in the future. Well... I know I can still use the current version to work with.

in fact that is exactly what adobe has just done: somthing you don't agree with

so now you stick with the current version... right, just like you say you would do in the future...

so where exactly is the difference between somewhere in the future, and right now?

we are at the end of the road when it comes to new releases with great new tools - very few want to upgrade anymore just for the sake of it, and the money isn't there for the innovation any more; what else is adobe supposed to do?

**Know1** · 24 May 2013, 03:33 PM

Originally Posted by handrawn

in fact that is exactly what adobe has just done: somthing you don't agree with

so now you stick with the current version... right, just like you say you would do in the future...

so where exactly is the difference between somewhere in the future, and right now?

There is a big difference! I cannot stress this enough. Imagine you do join the Creative Cloud and in the future Adobe does something you don’t agree with. You can’t just walk away then. If you cancel your subscription you will be left empty handed, no way to open up all the files you have created during your Creative Cloud period. But You do still have clients who expect to be able to get updates. So you are forced to pay and be chained to Adobe forever.

So you do realize that you don’t actually get to keep the latest version of the software when you quit right? You don't get anything. All your PSD/AI and other files become essentially useless.

**Know1** · 24 May 2013, 03:57 PM

Ckh:
You think of it as "rental", I think of it as paying for the software over a period of time instead of all at once. The first year, I paid $30/month, now I'm paying $50, so $600 per year. Still beats the price of upgrading for me and to boot, I have all their software I can try out.

And when you stop paying how are you going to open up your files in the future? Just keep paying forever and ever for that privilege to do so? Because you won’t have a license to run the software anymore. Have you really thought this through? How can anyone agree to this?

There are some excellent opinions and summaries about how users feel on the Adobe Creative Cloud forums.

Jon404:
For example, can XDP import the latest CC .PSD and .AI files (if that's what they're still calling them) without errors?

No. One slightly older Adobe version may even complain about compatibility issues.

**Know1** · 24 May 2013, 04:29 PM

Originally Posted by handrawn

We are at the end of the road when it comes to new releases with great new tools - very few want to upgrade anymore just for the sake of it, and the money isn't there for the innovation any more; what else is adobe supposed to do?

Quote from Shantanu Narayen - President and CEO of Adobe (December 2012):
"I'm pleased to report we delivered record revenue of $1,153,000,000 in Q4. This performance helped us achieve record revenue of $4.4 billion in fiscal year 2012."