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Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

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Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#11

Post by gruez »

Cheyana wrote: post #9
justinclift wrote: post #4

Wonder how many of the layoffs will be from QA? Fusion 360 is the buggiest shipping product I've ever seen. Really hoping they don't lay off any QA staff. But, seeing the shipping product so far, I'm not optimistic. :(

A department where I work (in a place that employs 1500 computer users) purchased an upgrade to Autocad one year that was a total mess. After a couple of weeks their tech support suggested we reimage the computer and start fresh. We stood our ground, stating that we weren't going to reimage a system for 5000 dollar software that can't upgrade from the previous version of itself. We were going to make them work for th…

I'm curious how that turned out. Did they solve the issue?

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#12

Post by frik »

blue1 wrote: post #6
yoklov wrote: post #2

Looks like this is to focus on their subscription model or something along those lines. Haven't tried Autodesk's subscription, but I will say that I (unlike many I know...) am extremely happy with Photoshop CC. $10/mo is trivial for something like Photoshop, and it still works without an internet connection, so I'm not sure what all the hate is about. General mistrust of the business model?

For me, the hate is about several things: (a) CC's price make sense only when compared to the price of upgrading the Creative Suite at every release (under the old model). But I did not do that; I used to upgrade every two/three releases: the Suite is mature software and in most cases there is no need to be on the cutting edge. By the way, I work in the design industry and this was standard practice. So for a lot of…

Your are right.

David Wadhwani was responsible at Adobe for the switch to the SaaS business model. Because of that he got a job as CEO of AppDynamics, to make them ready for an IPO.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#14

Post by krschultz »

justinclift wrote: post #4

Wonder how many of the layoffs will be from QA? Fusion 360 is the buggiest shipping product I've ever seen. Really hoping they don't lay off any QA staff. But, seeing the shipping product so far, I'm not optimistic. :(

I was astonished by poor quality of Fusion 360. On paper it makes great sense, in practice I found it practically unusable.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#16

Post by krig »

golergka wrote: post #13

One of the best game engines? What? It might be nice, but I haven't actually met or heard about anyone who would be using it.

It may be better known under its pre-acquisition name Bitsquid, made by a swedish company called Fatshark. I think the engine part of the company was split off and then sold to Autodesk. Still, certainly not one of the most popular game engines (of course popularity isn't necessarily the same as being the best)

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#17

Post by Silhouette »

dangerlibrary wrote: post #8
blue1 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the hate is about several things: (a) CC's price make sense only when compared to the price of upgrading the Creative Suite at every release (under the old model). But I did not do that; I used to upgrade every two/three releases: the Suite is mature software and in most cases there is no need to be on the cutting edge. By the way, I work in the design industry and this was standard practice. So for a lot of…

You're right - for a professional it is more expensive and it absolutely was a move by Adobe to capture more of the value of their products (read: increase profit). The flip side of the argument, of course, is that more profitable companies have more room to innovate and experiment (Bell Labs, Kodak, Google, etc.) and Adobe isn't exactly resting on its laurels and allowing their products to stagnate. There is a valid…

...Adobe isn't exactly resting on its laurels and allowing their products to stagnate.

The thing is, if Adobe had been consistently developing valuable new functionality and making it available in newer versions, their customers would have been paying them to upgrade in the previous model as well. The fact that so many people didn't see enough added value to buy each major upgrade suggests objectively that the products were stagnating.

Contrary to your argument, it therefore seems that having customers locked into the subscription model so the money is coming in anyway is a disincentive for Adobe to do better now, at least as long as the industry momentum and relative lack of competition keep customers signed up.

I don't do much design work, so I may be wrong here, but my understanding is that Adobe products are the industry standard because they are unquestionably the best tools to accomplish most tasks.

How Adobe products came to dominate parts of the industry is, as usual, a combination of actually being good at what they do and other, more commercial factors. However, the switch to a subscription model has opened up interesting and viable opportunities for disruption in the market. Credible competition is starting to appear and apparently do quite well in some niches previously dominated by Adobe's big titles, so that "unquestionably" is looking more questionable by the day.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#20

Post by agumonkey »

yoklov wrote: post #2

Looks like this is to focus on their subscription model or something along those lines. Haven't tried Autodesk's subscription, but I will say that I (unlike many I know...) am extremely happy with Photoshop CC. $10/mo is trivial for something like Photoshop, and it still works without an internet connection, so I'm not sure what all the hate is about. General mistrust of the business model?

I thought it was way more expensive. The European website says 12e/month. I see a lot of people who could benefit from just one month of use and 10 bucks is nothing. Although it works in the case that person already knows the software. Now I wonder how much learning material they sold since the subscription model is on.
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