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The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

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Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#21

Post by Calavar »

bensyverson wrote: post #13

For a long time, "pro" software was able to retain its price premium, even while consumer apps essentially all became free. But two things are happening: First, competitors are realizing pro software can be a "loss leader" for a different offer (see: Blackmagic Resolve, Canva's Affinity suite). Second, AI is making it possible to create open source alternatives that are very full-featured. Blender is a pre-AI example…

> we're seeing an explosion of brand-new high-polish OSS apps this year

Do you mind sharing a few examples?

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#22

Post by CWuestefeld »

We all love to hate on Adobe. But as a photographer my primary software tool is Lightroom. And I continue to use it despite its $120/year price and less-than-stellar cataloging subsystem because its photo editing features (it's primary mission) still exceed the capabilities of its competitors.

I don't see anyone else here talking about the huge strides that Adobe has taken in the past few years with their masking tools in particular. Adobe is still the leader at least in this segment because their tools are still the leaders functionally.

If competitors want to leapfrog Adobe, they're going to have to continue to innovate past Adobe in functionality, not just price. After all, that price isn't really that onerous: their photographer's suite (Lightroom and Photoshop) are together only $120 year. That's not free, but it's not so much that I'm willing to make my job as a photographer harder or less effective because of it.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#23

Post by Tanoc »

tayo42 wrote: post #12
bix6 wrote: post #2

Paywall. I assume everyone is tired of their subscription fee? I love Lightroom but it’s too expensive for my hobby use. I wish all the photo systems had better interoperability. I’m losing quite a bit as I migrate to Darktable.

All of the software is to expensive for hobbyists. How do people make the jump from hobby to pro without going broke paying for all of this software on their own? Is the art industry alittle more leniant about learning software on the job?

Most of us start off as pirates and then go legitimate once we're big enough to work with others. Everybody knows someone who has a cracked version of some ancient version of Corel Draw, but we all know getting contracted under a big company means they want us using the latest file type standards because they'll only have access to the newest version of the file's publishing program. I know some people who still animate in Flash MX and go through all of the trouble of porting it forward to Animator CC 2025. Thought with Adobe killing Animator last month maybe they'll end up with some even more convoluted upconversion chain to get it into Toonboom.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#24

Post by chromacity »

Every time I see one of these HN threads, I am actually amazed with what Adobe was able to pull off. I'm not surprised that they could do this to pros who were used to a particular workflow. In fact, for some businesses, a subscription may have some benefits. You were probably upgrading regularly anyway, and the only downside is that it's an expense you can't cut back on in a lean year.

But there are so many hobbyists, including here HN, who just went with it and have given Adobe thousands of dollars over the past decade just to keep using Lightroom or Photoshop! It just boggles my mind. There was a brief period where you had no good alternatives - GIMP wasn't it - but for almost all hobby needs, you now have very good pay-once options (e.g., Capture One instead of Lightroom). It's basically a monthly fee you pay for not having to think about the problem, and people are willing to pay it for many years.

Makes me think I should be doing more bait-and-switch...

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#25

Post by egypturnash »

tayo42 wrote: post #12
bix6 wrote: post #2

Paywall. I assume everyone is tired of their subscription fee? I love Lightroom but it’s too expensive for my hobby use. I wish all the photo systems had better interoperability. I’m losing quite a bit as I migrate to Darktable.

All of the software is to expensive for hobbyists. How do people make the jump from hobby to pro without going broke paying for all of this software on their own? Is the art industry alittle more leniant about learning software on the job?

Student discounts, piracy. Mostly piracy.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#26

Post by righthand »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #22

We all love to hate on Adobe. But as a photographer my primary software tool is Lightroom. And I continue to use it despite its $120/year price and less-than-stellar cataloging subsystem because its photo editing features (it's primary mission) still exceed the capabilities of its competitors. I don't see anyone else here talking about the huge strides that Adobe has taken in the past few years with their masking too…

You’ll never try a different product anyways so who cares about Adobe die hards? This might as well be a thread about using Linux and all the Apple die hards come here to tell us they just can’t use anything besides Apple for “reasons”. Great! Enjoy your setup.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#27

Post by j45 »

chromacity wrote: post #24

Every time I see one of these HN threads, I am actually amazed with what Adobe was able to pull off. I'm not surprised that they could do this to pros who were used to a particular workflow. In fact, for some businesses, a subscription may have some benefits. You were probably upgrading regularly anyway, and the only downside is that it's an expense you can't cut back on in a lean year. But there are so many hobbyist…

Hobbyists and professionals have discovered tools like Affinity. Well, the non-subscription version of it anyways.'

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#28

Post by j45 »

Mixtape wrote: post #14
alsetmusic wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paywall at the Verge? I have them in my RSS feeds and load articles most days and have never seen that. I definitely don't subscribe to their site. Either way, here's a link: https://archive.is/WCDgq

Their articles seem to load fine in my reader (Fluent) if I fetch them as they're published. Beyond that though, if I try to fetch the full content or open the article in my browser, I hit the paywall. It seems like either their paywall takes a few minutes to apply to their new articles or they deliberately make them accessible to RSS users fee-free.

It's a good thing to reward RSS use.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#29

Post by j45 »

corndoge wrote: post #4
bix6 wrote: post #2

Paywall. I assume everyone is tired of their subscription fee? I love Lightroom but it’s too expensive for my hobby use. I wish all the photo systems had better interoperability. I’m losing quite a bit as I migrate to Darktable.

Try DxO Photolab if you have a mac

acdsee is another one worth exploring.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#30

Post by [deleted] »

tayo42 wrote: post #12
bix6 wrote: post #2

Paywall. I assume everyone is tired of their subscription fee? I love Lightroom but it’s too expensive for my hobby use. I wish all the photo systems had better interoperability. I’m losing quite a bit as I migrate to Darktable.

All of the software is to expensive for hobbyists. How do people make the jump from hobby to pro without going broke paying for all of this software on their own? Is the art industry alittle more leniant about learning software on the job?

[deleted]
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