Comments on: The evil Adobe empire

By: Rob Whitney (@robwhitney)

Rob Whitney (@robwhitney) — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 15:44:17 +0000

I can’t wait to see what Affinity does with that! (Horrible name, since M$ has had it for so long though.) Coming from the commercial printing/prepress side I’d love to get in on the Beta to see how it’s going to compare to InDesign but I’ll definitely be buying a copy for personal use.

It appears Adobe has learned nothing from Quark’s history. Software companies can’t be “too big to fail” only banks.

By: James

James — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 13:52:29 +0000

I suspect it will be a while before 3rd party plug-in developers jump on board. Pixelmator has been quite popular for several years and still has no support from other developers. The amount of work that goes in to plug-ins like the Astute Graphics collection probably isn’t worth the relatively low return due to marketshare. But who knows, they may surprise everyone.

By: James

James — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 13:48:45 +0000

I’m with you on the smaller suite packages. I really only need ID, PS, AI and Acrobat, so I would love a $25-$30 option.

By: scumbolt2014

scumbolt2014 — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 14:28:50 +0000

I’m really considering the Affinity software. The interface looks better than Adobe’s also. Adobe will be felled by their greed and stupidity. Greed over the fact they have no resonable price tiers for thise of us that won’t pay 50 a month for Photoshop, Illustrator and then the rest of their complete suite that 90% of users will never even use. Their “Photography” special is a good deal at 10 dollars a month, but useless for Graphic Designers. Why not 25 a month and you can have any 5 apps at one time?

Then there’s all the bad press and ill-will towards Adobe for not just killing off Flash. IMO opinion that’s worse for Adobe because it also affects people that don’t even use or know what Creative Suite is.

By: Erick

Erick — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 11:29:22 +0000

Anybody know if “Astute Graphics” are making any of their plug-ins for Affinity Designer? Can’t seem to find any mention. I really hope Affinity or any company start to give Adobe a run for their money. I love my Adobe products but this subscription model is not good for the consumer.

By: Don Brandt

Don Brandt — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 17:05:48 +0000

Got to hand it to Affinity. They have pretty much got me no longer using PS & AI. Once they come out with something to replace InDesign, it will be goodbye Adobe. Adobe thought they had the world by the throat so decided forced subscription was how they would handle their business model. Well the future has a way of changing things.

It will take a while for most people to see it but the grumblings are there and they are not going away. I do not mind paying for decent software and have always paid Adobe for my upgrades, but when I want to, not when I am forced too. I wish Affinity all the best. They have listened to people as they have created their apps and have done an incredible job. If the continue at the pace they are going, Adobe better be leery as they will fast become serious competition. I know many designers using their apps on a daily basis.

By: graphicmac

graphicmac — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 09:51:47 +0000

When Affinity releases the beta of Publisher later this year, I’m going to take a serious look at switching to their full suite of apps.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 01:22:42 +0000

I’ve subscribed to Creative Cloud since it was announced and have so far really liked the service. Since I pretty much use all of their software, it makes it well worth it. However, I think they need to be more flexible. They should be offering different subscription for user’s need similar to the original creative suites. They also should have offered options for folks that don’t want to subscribe and still want boxed versions. And as far as their support, they may need to be reminded that it wasn’t that long ago that designers were fleeing QuarkXpress for that very reason and it could always happen again. As a content creator, I’m watching the new offerings from the Affinity and other upstarts very intently.

By: Alex Affonso

Alex Affonso — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 17:14:37 +0000

I miss Freehand.

This subscription model without a purchase alternative is so good for monopolistic and lazy companies like Adobe. They don’t need to improve their products in order to keep cashing. I’m still on CS5, and honestly I don’t see any improvement from that 2010 package that justify an upgrade. Paying a monthly fee to reward anti-consumer business practices seems crazy to me.

Meanwhile I have to buy Astute Graphics plugins to make Illustrator at least usable.

By: Theo Belk

Theo Belk — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 12:57:04 +0000

Affinity is picking the Adobe apps off my dock, one by one.