I hate ADOBE club

[scharky]

Wanna Join?

Earlier today I am shooting for my film in a very remote location. I go to check a scene from within photoshop, because I am using PS for some color corrections. All of a sudden I get this message "your computer configuration has changed, and you must re-activate imediatly before you can use Photoshop." There was no warning, and no way to use photoshop as I was miles away from any internet connection. I hadn't even changed anything on my laptop, I had just used photoshop the day before.
Long story short, I ended up losing money, all because photoshop refused to open.
Adobe has gotten too big for it's own good. If this had been an isolated inccident that happend to me randomly, I might accept it, but I went to the adobe forums, and there are hundreds of posts of this happening to PS users.:angry:

I have already replaced other adobe software, Vegas for Premiere, Combustion for After effects, and now it is Photshops time to take it's trip down the garbage disposal, as all Adobe software should.:engel017:

Can anybody reccomend a comparable Photoshop replacement. I absolutly refuse to give Adobe another cent of my money. They are absolutly worse than Microsoft, and I refuse to support their money hungry greesy paws from prolonging their dreadful rule of imaging software.

So who is with me, after all, adobe really is nothing more than a mud block, so maybe that is where they should return.

 

[BLUESPIDER]

I'm sorry about your problem but there is no replacement for photoshop. I mean there are others like it but nothing really does compare to photoshop. Um, maybe you can use Ulead photostudio or Microsoft Paintbrush. Sorry Scharky. Maybe try going back to Photoshop 5 if you have it.

 

[David Jimerson]

They've a got a nice headquarters, but it *is* about four blocks from a giant bronze statue of Lenin, so . . .

I have not used them, but I have heard people swear by Corel Paint or JASC Paintshop Pro.

 

[Neil Rowe]

..corel photo paint is pretty sweet. i used it for a long time until i went with a ful adboe pipeline. but i do have issues with adobe that they dont see to know or care what their customers want or need alot of times, and dont see to be too concerned with giving it to them when the find out. but on other points they are very good, and i love the workflow. it works great for me now. soo ill stick with them untill they drop the ball too far.

 

[HorseFilms]

Jasc Paint Shop Pro is really nice. I like it better than Photoshop for many things (and it's WAY cheaper).

 

[J.R. Hudson]

Paintshop is indeed cheaper; recently, FRYS ELECTRONICS offered Paintshop for $29.99 after all rebates. $29.99 !

 

[scharky]

can you run actions and such in Paintshop of corel?
How about layer compositing and masking? are they comparable?
I really appreciate the suggestions.

 

[Neil Rowe]

IMHO corel photo paint is way easier to use and user freindly in terms of layers and masking but i dont have the latest version so im not sure if it can run macros and such in the newest one. but it has some great tools that allow you to do things very simply and intuitively.

 

[XCheck]

They've a got a nice headquarters, but it *is* about four blocks from a giant bronze statue of Lenin, so . . .

You GOOTA be kidding! In the USA? I can't believe it.

Can you imagine the statue of Adolf Hitler anywhere in the world?

Well... I have newsflash: Not to downplay the awful stuff the Nazis inflicted on millions of people. Hitler should rot in hell (if such thing exists which I doubt because that would imply the existence of heaven and God, and I am sure if there was one he wouldn't allow WWII - I've come full circle), and when he's completelly rotten, hang him by his testicles off that famous tree in the Garden of Eden and put him into a snake skin.

BUT: Lenin and communism are directly responsible for someting like 120 million dead people over the last century - ten times more than the Nazis. Anyone erecting a statue of any communist leader should be brought to justice for promoting hatred and crimes against humanity.

Brrrrrrr! Shiver runs down my spine! What has the world come to?


And yes - I hate Adobe too. I was 'this' close to buying a PHotoshop upgrade, but from what I am reading, it's not worth it. I am sure my tinkering with technology would lock me out in less than a minute. Thank goodness, I've been reading this stuff, and there is no way I am upgrading.

Macromedia Fireworks is pretty close to Photoshop, IMO, but the new version (MX 2004) also uses product activation, so....

Let's start a campaign against software activation. A new film title: ACTIVATE ME!

 

[WaveRiderXIX]

I'm sorry about your problem but there is no replacement for photoshop. I mean there are others like it but nothing really does compare to photoshop.

Eh... I may be the only one to differ with that statement.
www.corel.com

My answer would be "Corel". Corel PhotoPAINT and CorelDRAW are probably the most extremely robust and under-rated software out there. There were features back in 98' which PhotoShop CS is just now barely incorporating. (This coming from a guy who used PS a few years before touching Corel)

Unfortunately, the industry calls PS the standard, and therefore I must work on it most the time. Not saying PS sucks, just saying there's another alternative.

 

[reservoir]

Well, if you would have been using a pirated copy of Photoshop like you are *supposed* to.....then that would have never happened!! Adobe has indeed become the next software evil empire, but their stuff ownz. Yep, I said it.....they software kicks ass....most all of it!! Just download it, crack it, and uh....use the **** out of it until the *NEW* version comes out (Which coincidentally is like every F'in year to year and a half....so you have to pay another 399 for the upgrade to stay *current*).....then repeat said process. Not that *I* have ever done things like that....but I have "heard" it's easy to do......~reservoir~

 

[Flintstone]

I've had the same issue once, but it never occurred again. Thankfully, I had access to the net. But I can imagine your frustration. I, on the other hand just switched to Mac, because I was frustrated at always debugging my own PC (and being a tech for 17 years, that is most annoying when you want to be creative); and to top it off PremierePro (with Matrox RTX100) is getting on my nerve from crapping out at the most inopportune moments. I will go with FCP for my NLE, but I will keep PhotoShop and After Effects (license transferred to Mac). If I remember correctly, there is no activation for AE.

Anyway, good luck!

 

[Alexa]

You could look into Fireworks, which often comes bundled with Macromedia Studio. I'm still hooked on psd, but I use fireworks for some stuff.

 

[scharky]

Thanks for the great advice everyone. I am in the same boat in that I think PS is a great program, but adobe has become way to communist for it's own good. I am thinking I will have to keep PS on my computer, but I will definatly be looking at Corel, Paintshop, and Macromedia for an alternative, for when Adobe craps out on me. At the same time, I can honestly say that Photoshop and After effects are the only two programs worth anything from Adobe. Premiere was and still is buggy as hell, and Adobe wants you to pay for updates, screw them. Photoshop is so good becasue it has been around forever. Things just keep being added to it, and it keeps getting more robust. However, now they have started tinkering with the liscensing and that sucks. It is a complete hack job that they have done, and they refuse to adress the issue. They have made a statement that they know it is there, but refuse to do anything about it. That is just poor manegement and lazy programming.
SO becasue the industry has accepted photoshp, I am stuck with it, but it doens't mean I have to like it, or even use it that much, say hello anything but adobe.

 

[speedbump]

Open source, baby

Open source, baby

The GIMP is a free photo editing program which does layers and masks and all that kind of thing, but if you are a Photoshop user the GIMP is a bit of a learning curve. Someone who previously posted said that there is no substitute for Photoshop, and I agree. You get what you pay for.

The GIMP: www.gimp.org

P.S. I once had to renew my Premiere Pro software; I had crashed my XP system doing something stupid with the swap file, and when it came back up, Premiere Pro said I had changed my configuration (nuh uh!) and reregister. Which I did. I have no doubt that something in the registry got corrupted and that is why Premiere demanded verification.

I hates that. Its tricksey. But until a better Open Source alternative comes along, I'm going to suck it up. Sorry to hear about your woes; good luck with that.

 

[scharky]

The thing is, I didn't have a computer crash, I didn't delete anything, I didn't move anything, it just came out of nowhere. I hadn't even restarted the computer. The problem with this is I don't know when it is going to do it again.
I don't believe I got what I paid for. I bought Photoshop 7 and upgraded to CS, so at about $900 I should have a program that I can assume will open up, disregarding any other computer issues. There is no excuse for this, it is adobe trying to run the world. I am not alone, do a search on "Adobe lack of support" or "re registration" or anything like this and you will see hundreds of posts on this without a word from adobe.

That is total BS.

 

[dvlisarrr]

I've also seen this very same problem from users with DVRack. Apparently the licensing is grabbing some information from your network card/connection and when you unplug from your network it thinks it isn't on the same computer that was previously activated. More and more programs seem to be going this route, so I'm not sure the problem will go away any time soon. I'm surprised they didn't give you a phone number that you could call to re-activate. But even if they did, they're probably not open on the weekends/latenight!

I've learned to re-test all the apps I think I'll need in the field unplugged before I go out on location...

 

[scharky]

Ahhh, that does make sense. I usually turn off my network card when I am not using it to save the battery. However, I have done it before with now problems, I'll have to do a test and see.

 

[Jacques_Meov]

Couple thoughts:
PHOTOSHOP BLOWS, or SUCKS, depending if you're up wind or down of its odiferous program.
I use Paintshop Pro 3.11 (for windows 3.11 no less!) as my day in day out cut/paste/graphics art program. Talk about intuitive! I know tha JASC makes better stuff because I use their latest edition; but for ease of use and down and dirty situations, PSP rocks!

Now, as for the rest of Adobe. Use Premiere Pro 1.5/AE 6.5 pro/AE 5.5/Encore DVD/Audition 1.5. Have Vegas 5.0, and used Final Cut something-or-another. Adobe works for me...even on some old, P3 1.6 Ghz machines!
But, then like comparing Apples to PCs, b!tching about a software program is kind of like b!tching about the weather....
I diagnose software faults as a side-line job. Have to put myself in this category too, but over 85% of the time that a software program is not functioning/crashes, OPERATOR ERROR WAS TO BLAME. Sorry Sharky, you can hate it all you want, but a deep diagnosis of your PC/Laptop would find something that you did, probably inadvertantly, that caused the software to "glitch". That point is probably moot; now the issue of Adobe being royal A-holes? That is debatable, but most would probably agree that they are!

 

[scharky]

While I would agree with you that I'm sure that Operator error is to blame for many software crashes, this is not the case. I figured out that it was shutting off my network card that has been causing adobe to want to "call home" once again. Is that operator error? NO, there is the option to shut off the network card to save battery. WHen I used Premiere pro 1.0, was it operator error that every time I used the audio mixer it would crash. NO, this was a known fact acknowledged by adobe, and fixed in a paid upgrade. Was it operator error that I couldn't import stills into Premiere Pro without getting green screens? No, it was another paid fix in 1.5. So while I'm sure there are many problems caused by the user, making customers pay to fix software IS a bit like communism. Now, I switched to Combustion just because I thought it was better, there really wasn't any fault with After effects, it is a pretty solid piece of software, but Combustion I felt had more to offer.
As far as I have seen most other software companies actually listen to their customers (at least the software companies that I am using now). They release patches, don't make you pay to get customer support (another good one adobe) and make sure their software, for the most part, is pretty solid before it is released to the public. Premiere Pro 1.0 and Encore 1.0 was like being a freaking Beta tester. I can't tell you how many times I started an Encore project and worked on it for Hours and Hours, I go to burn, FATAL ERROR, File is now corrupted, you must start all the way over. I once got the error message
"SOmething has gone wrong"
I never did figure out what that something is, becasue it never let me continue to work on that project. What a piece of #@$%.

In short, Adobe just has bad customer service, riddled with buggy software. Some problems may be user error, but when there are 100's of posts from users (on their own forums no less) about each of the above problems that I mentioned, it has now left the frustrated consumers hands and lands flat in the lap of the company. That company chooses not to support their customers, therefore, I decide not to support Adobe, and plan to make that well known. I have invested way to much into this company, I wouldn't be surprised if I were part owner by now, I should be getting mad at myself I guess.
Later.