Adobe moves to Creative Cloud, Cancels Creative Suite

This smells like Netflix/Qwikster all over again. Here's a hint, Adobe: people don't like to be controlled. They don't like to be forced into things. And they definitely don't like someone sticking a hand into their wallets perpetually.

Had you made CC an option you'd be receiving universal praise. People could have it both ways. But by making it mandatory you're driving customers away.

Good luck with that. But I will no longer be a customer.
 
Well said Barry.
If Resolve 10 (FREE update by the way) turns out to be a halfway decent editor, I jump the Adobe ship and never look back.

And I was a happy Premiere user since 1994.

Side note: It works exactly the same as CS6, only difference is, that the software phones home once a month, just to make sure you paid the rent. Calling the whole thing "Cloud" just to make it sound novel and modern is such a lame obvious marketing buzzword BS bingo.

And yeah, all calculations are mute - if you read the fine print, it says that Adobe can rise the monthly prise any time as they please.
 
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I posted this elsewhere, but -- considering how Adobe capitalized immensely on Apple's FCP7-FCPX fiasco -- I really don't understand why they decided to create their own version of it with this CS6-CC mess.

With MC7 hot on their heels, FCPX straightening itself out, and new competition like Resolve10 and Lightworks coming into their own... what moron(s) thought it would be a good idea to polarize and restrict their user-base, alienating a potentially large percentage of them?

For crying out loud, they *just* announced Premiere had obtained the #1 spot in NLE market share and then some 30 minutes later they announce this. How does such a glaring misfire occur?
 
I've been sitting on CS5 for quite awhile (primarily for After Effects) without any hitches and I won't mind staying that way. I do like the subscription service in the sense that getting multiple stations with legal software is more affordable. Before, your cost for 4 total stations would be ~$2000. Now, 4 stations is $1200 for a year ($50x12x2). That cost is alot easier to stomach in increments over the huge chunks.

But IMO, people should give FCPX a try. Some many people jumped ship without giving it a shot, and it is wonderful to work in. Does it have quirks? Yeah, what program doesn't. But is it fully capable of all you need, cheap, and the quickest video editor available? Yup. One cost of $299, free upgrades. $49 for compressor and literally you've got all you need. I produce 28min HD TV programming (720pMPEG2 with CC) weekly using FCPX and compressor exclusively. No problems, great workflow, quick edits.

Not trying to be an add for FCPX or anything, I just see it as relevant to the discussion at hand to view available options if Creative Cloud doesn't interest you. I think Adobe did the jump, and overall, I would guess that this will be a good move for their product. It's essentially more affordable than before, and though in some ways it might "feel" more constrictive, in the end what's gonna be different? Connecting to the internet once a month? Is that really a big deal?
 
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Postmaster said:
Well said Barry.
If Resolve 10 (FREE update by the way) turns out to be a halfway decent editor, I jump the Adobe ship and never look back.

And I was a happy Premiere user since 1994.

Side note: It works exactly the same as CS6, only difference is, that the software phones home once a month, just to make sure you paid the rent. Calling the whole thing "Cloud" just to make it sound novel and modern is such a lame obvious marketing buzzword BS bingo.

And yeah, all calculations are mute - if you read the fine print, it says that Adobe can rise the monthly prise any time as they please.
Click to expand...

Yeah, much like a cell phone contract, if you read the
fine print you see they leave their options open to raise
their prices.
 
Postmaster said:
And yeah, all calculations are mute - if you read the fine print, it says that Adobe can rise the monthly prise any time as they please.
Click to expand...

And to add to that point, if Adobe does raise the price, and you balk and refuse to pay to pay up, then your copies of Premier, Photoshop, etc. cease to function. All of the money you had invested in Creative Cloud up to that point goes down the drain and you're left with nothing - vendor lock-in at it's ugliest. It makes perfect business sense for Adobe, but obviously bad news for the users, especially if Adobe maintains its current strong market position.

Unfortunately, this sort of thinking is not limited to Adobe. Microsoft has been floating the idea of switching to a subscription model for Office and Windows for years. Microsoft has historically relied on the fact that most applications were written primarily for Windows (along with some strong-arming of OEMs behind the scenes) to maintain their lock on the OS market. With software now becoming more cross-platform (for various reasons) they need a way to keep the cash flowing in with a minimum of effort, and just charging a regular subscription fee to continue using "your" computer is a good way to do that. Forcing 3rd party sales to go through their app store is another.

They're probably watching with great interest to see if there will be a big backlash against Adobe for trying it out. I suggest that anyone who doesn't like the "cloud" model be very vocal about it.

In the meantime, it might be prudent play around with some of the open-source alternatives. I haven't tried Lightworks yet, but I'll give it a shot when I get a chance. Blender, Gimp, and Inkscape are all very capable applications. I won't argue that they are necessarily better than the commercial apps, as "better" is highly subjective. However the main practical advantage of open-source is that, if the primary developer goes insane and starts ticking off the users, someone invariably forks it and the users can just migrate to the fork.

...anyway, I'll step off my soapbox for now.
 
Barry_Green said:
This smells like Netflix/Qwikster all over again. Here's a hint, Adobe: people don't like to be controlled. They don't like to be forced into things. And they definitely don't like someone sticking a hand into their wallets perpetually.

Had you made CC an option you'd be receiving universal praise. People could have it both ways. But by making it mandatory you're driving customers away.

Good luck with that. But I will no longer be a customer.
Click to expand...

YEP, I tried the cloud thing with Adobe and it was a disaster. This opens the door to Apple to get's it's stuff together…..
Apple - Motion sucks - It needs to be more like AE - here's your chance.
I use FCP X for a few things - but the timeline sucks.
Make it like FCP 7 and people will come flocking back.
 
Wesley Byram said:
And to add to that point, if Adobe does raise the price, and you balk and refuse to pay to pay up, then your copies of Premier, Photoshop, etc. cease to function. All of the money you had invested in Creative Cloud up to that point goes down the drain and you're left with nothing - vendor lock-in at it's ugliest. It makes perfect business sense for Adobe, but obviously bad news for the users, especially if Adobe maintains its current strong market position.

Unfortunately, this sort of thinking is not limited to Adobe. Microsoft has been floating the idea of switching to a subscription model for Office and Windows for years. Microsoft has historically relied on the fact that most applications were written primarily for Windows (along with some strong-arming of OEMs behind the scenes) to maintain their lock on the OS market. With software now becoming more cross-platform (for various reasons) they need a way to keep the cash flowing in with a minimum of effort, and just charging a regular subscription fee to continue using "your" computer is a good way to do that. Forcing 3rd party sales to go through their app store is another.

They're probably watching with great interest to see if there will be a big backlash against Adobe for trying it out. I suggest that anyone who doesn't like the "cloud" model be very vocal about it.

In the meantime, it might be prudent play around with some of the open-source alternatives. I haven't tried Lightworks yet, but I'll give it a shot when I get a chance. Blender, Gimp, and Inkscape are all very capable applications. I won't argue that they are necessarily better than the commercial apps, as "better" is highly subjective. However the main practical advantage of open-source is that, if the primary developer goes insane and starts ticking off the users, someone invariably forks it and the users can just migrate to the fork.

...anyway, I'll step off my soapbox for now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Adobe is acting like big brother government - no thanks….
And I left MicroSlop years ago…..
 
Gary Huff said:
Lightworks also requires a subscription fee to be usable.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the plug-in for proprietary codecs like ProRes does require a subscription, but Lightworks itself is still free. I'm already used to transcoding into open codecs for editing, but I can see how most people would prefer to avoid that step.

I may also start looking into OpenShot again. I hear that it doesn't crash every 5 minutes anymore...
 
Wesley Byram said:
Yeah, the plug-in for proprietary codecs like ProRes does require a subscription, but Lightworks itself is still free.
Click to expand...

Here are the common codecs you cannot work with (at all apparently, because the Pro version specifies both Decode and Encode):

ProRes, AVC-Intra, XDCam, R3D, DPX, H.264, AVCHD, HDV

Now, you can get away with it and purchase the $70 AVID license and use it if you transcode absolutely everything that comes in your way...but then you're pretty much right back to a FCP6/7 workflow.
 
I think that Adobe is being cynical in claiming that the cloud permits them to roll out new features in a timely manner. In the past, with discrete versions released at fairly consistent but widely spaced intervals, Adobe could take the time develop and debug new features. In fact, to sell new versions, they were compelled to. When a new version came out users approached cautiously, logic dictating that no one should ever use a new version on an active project before rigorously testing it for bugs and compatibility with previous versions. With Creative Cloud, Adobe has a captive user base. New features and bug fixes -- the only reasons to upgrade -- may be implemented at their whim, because they now have users by the, uh, throat. And keeping track of versions -- or whether you should upgrade -- may get a little harder.
 
Gary Huff said:
Here are the common codecs you cannot work with (at all apparently, because the Pro version specifies both Decode and Encode):

ProRes, AVC-Intra, XDCam, R3D, DPX, H.264, AVCHD, HDV

Now, you can get away with it and purchase the $70 AVID license and use it if you transcode absolutely everything that comes in your way...but then you're pretty much right back to a FCP6/7 workflow.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm...Point conceded. It's obviously not going to work for everybody. It might still work for me personally, as I'm already used to transcoding everything into a common format in a batch process, but that's just me. I guess what you choose depends on where your priorities are: control or convenience. I'm OCD about control, but then again, I'm also insane ;-)

I'm curious to see which Open Source license Editshare uses when they have their promised source code release. If it's GPL, LGPL, or something similar, then the community will develop workable alternatives to the proprietary plugin (which is why Editshare will probably not go GPL.)
 
Generally, I despise Adobe, in particular Acrobat and overall buggy behavior on the mac. Why would they release mac software with a million bugs and just piss people off. Over time, I have felt their upgrade scheme has been expensive and somewhat predatory. That aside, one of the issues with the subscription scheme is auto updating features and how that will mesh with your other software. For example, I am mostly mac based and ran into a huge incompatibility kludge when I needed to upgrade my system software for a new cad package. Creative suite no longer worked. I also use solidworks on win7, but it won't run on win8. You get the idea; you have to be really careful with regards to compatibility and the never ending upgrade path.

Grant
 
That's another fine point. When engaged in a long-form production, the LAST thing I want happening is to update or change the software I'm using. I want it to stay 100% stable (or, well, at least KNOWN stable for whatever bugs it has) until the project is complete and finished and over and done. If Adobe changes something midstream that causes me problems... well, yeah, that just further cements my decision.
 
Barry_Green said:
That's another fine point. When engaged in a long-form production, the LAST thing I want happening is to update or change the software I'm using. I want it to stay 100% stable (or, well, at least KNOWN stable for whatever bugs it has) until the project is complete and finished and over and done. If Adobe changes something midstream that causes me problems... well, yeah, that just further cements my decision.
Click to expand...

Except that's not true. You have a full year to upgrade when a new version comes out...it doesn't happen automatically.
 
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