The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

Post by nradov » Sun, Apr 19, 2026, 4:32 PM UTC

wongarsu wrote: post #40

Tanoc wrote: post #20

I bought CS6 Suite back in 2012 and used it well into 2021. Before that I had a patchwork of CS3 programs from 2005 I was given the discs for second-hand. Nowadays I use Krita, ffmpeg, Blender, Zim Desktop Wiki, and Inkscape to replace Flash/Animator, Photoshop, Premier, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks. CS6 cost me $549 back in 2012 under a pretty generous student discount, but would've been $1,800 otherwise. That's $790…

For regular, undiscounted prices the subscription prices were somewhat fair. Regular Photoshop CS5 was $700, or $1000 for the extended version. And $200 to upgrade. Now it's a $300/year subscription. But students really got shafted. You used to get 80-90% student discounts, and could keep using the same version for years. Including keeping the software when you were no longer a student

Post by bensyverson » Sun, Apr 19, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

vrighter wrote: post #15

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…

don't offend blender by comparing it to ai slop.

Post by piva00 » Sun, Apr 19, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

vladvasiliu wrote: post #38

righthand wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not GP, but as a LR user, I actually did try alternatives and wasn't impressed. They're usually just as expensive, except if you expect to use the software for multiple years without upgrading, which, to GP's point, would have had you miss out on quite substantial improvements. I'm a hobbyist, and the new "AI" masking has saved me a lot of time during my edits. Is it as good as a professional path tool wielder? Proba…

Post by croes » Sun, Apr 19, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

bensyverson wrote: post #53

vrighter wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

don't offend blender by comparing it to ai slop.

If you think anything created with the help of agentic coding is slop, you're in for a rough (checks watch) rest of your life

Post by matwood » Sun, Apr 19, 2026, 4:47 PM UTC

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…