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Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

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Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#171

Post by cpach »

yokoprime wrote: post #84
cpach wrote: post #68

If you’re on macOS and just want a good and convenient image editor, I warmly recommend Acorn. The Muellers (owners of Flying Meat Software) have put a lot of effort to make it feel like a really solid Mac application. The price is good and from time to time they offer discounts. The whole experience reminds me of using good old Paintshop Pro back in the late 90s (^_^) Other options are Affinity Photo from Serif Ltd…

Thank you! Acorn looks pretty solid, I've got Pixelmator on my iOS devices, so I was wondering if i should go for Pixelmator pro on macOS. For very lightweight stuff, I've often used https://www.photopea.com/ , even when i had photoshop installed. Works pretty well for å browser image editor I've moved away from Adobe recently, both because of their scummy business practices (but when you know how it works, its predi…

My pleasure!

I’ve tried both Pixelmator and Acorn on macOS and IMHO Acorn’s GUI is cleaner and more Mac-like. YMMV.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#172

Post by Brajeshwar »

I was a victim once. That was when I removed every trace of Adobe from my life and ended my relationship with Adobe that spanned decades. On my way out, and to serve my nostalgic need, I bought the software from Serif's Affinity[1] - Publisher, Photo, Designer.

I really wanted to build up a workflow with Lightroom but that was cut short. For now, I'm good with MacOS Photos and some plugins such as Skylum's[2] Photo Editing Software.

1. https://affinity.serif.com/

2. https://skylum.com

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#173

Post by mr_tristan »

Subscription models are great for professionals (and companies), but amateurs, a single year of the Adobe Photoshop + Lightroom bundle is over 2x what a perpetual Affinity Photo license costs. (I just wish Serif came out with a photo management product, but in the meantime, it's not too bad to use digiKam for some management and `aws s3 sync` to back photos up in an s3 bucket.)

What's sad is that it was not easy to even see that there's still a Photoshop Elements product these days with a one time price, though I have no idea what the support is, and what upgrades cost. I had to search around to find it. It costs $99, though there's sales and bundles yada yada yada. The Adobe "comparison" page (which I still don't know how to navigate to) just seems like they want to funnel everyone into the subscription offering: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/photoshop-vs... It seems like Elements would be the "hobbyist" license, the subscription model would be the pro version, but it's very, very not clear.

The product that gets subscriptions right is Autodesk Fusion 360. There's a Personal Use tier that's free, which provides pretty much all the features you need for most hobbyist style 3D design and CNC usage. You need the serious features, you pay the expensive license, but, you're probably making money at this point, so it's a necessary tool. Fusion 360 changed it's licensing in 2020 which confused a lot of people, but really, they used to have a "startup license" or "personal use" license that was really vague, and I think was being taken advantage of by actual businesses. It's just simpler now, and I think it's more obvious.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#174

Post by jeroenhd »

tomrod wrote: post #43
BenjiWiebe wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox does, briefly when you load a scrollable page. And then shows it again while scrolling, naturally.

I suspect parent commenter is looking for more major browsers like Opera (4X market share [0]), Vivaldi, Brave, Chrome (leader), Safari, Samsung default, Android default, etc. Firefox isn't widely used anymore for mobile, especially with their recent user-hostile approaches of deprecating extension access, removing about:config, devs alledgedly flipping off users on twitter, and so forth. [0] https://gs.statcounter.c…

> Firefox isn't widely used anymore for mobile, especially with their recent user-hostile approaches of deprecating extension access, removing about:config, devs alledgedly flipping off users on twitter, and so forth.

I don't get this sentiment. I understand that people are upset at Mozilla, so am I. But why would you then decide to switch to a browser that makes the exact same mistakes without any extensions whatsoever?

That said, websites like Statcounter will always show a larger user base on Firefox because of anti tracking measures present and enabled by default in Firefox. It's definitely not what it used to be, but these statistics can't be relied upon ever since ad blocking first appeared on the internet.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#175

Post by bradleyjg »

toyg wrote: post #160
bradleyjg wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evil is thrown around way to much. If you are going to use it for dishonest business practices what’s left for ISIS?

A gradation of evil is still evil.

I love living in a time moral absolutism and self righteousness. Nothing better than having conversations with people that have zero doubts about the correctness of every single one of their many, many ethical positions and that anyone who disagrees is evil.

Good times. If only I could have witnessed the Spanish Inquisition.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#177

Post by howeyc »

bennyp101 wrote: post #46
iso1631 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems pretty obvious to me, it's an annual contract you pay for monthly, I have many such contracts

But thats a monthly plan? I would pay monthly... an annual plan I would pay once per year... or is that their cunning terms - 'contract' rather than 'plan' kind of thing

No, the term of the plan can be separate from the terms of payment.

Auto insurance is usually a 6-month plan you pay monthly. Some are easier to cancel/change mid-term than others.

Mortgage is an X-year plan you pay monthly.

Auto loan is an X-year plan you pay monthly.

This is fairly standard stuff.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#178

Post by vr46 »

mr_tristan wrote: post #173

Subscription models are great for professionals (and companies), but amateurs, a single year of the Adobe Photoshop + Lightroom bundle is over 2x what a perpetual Affinity Photo license costs. (I just wish Serif came out with a photo management product, but in the meantime, it's not too bad to use digiKam for some management and `aws s3 sync` to back photos up in an s3 bucket.) What's sad is that it was not easy to e…

Previously - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26786563

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#179

Post by civilized »

unfocussed_mike wrote: post #169
civilized wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I reject the idea that everyone should know from these words that they will be subject to an enormous early cancellation fee if they forget to cancel before the 7 day trial period is over. Adobe has a moral obligation to explain that up-front, so that consumers who cannot easily pay the fee are adequately warned of the danger they are getting themselves into.

In the interests of reaching a point of agreement, I concur that they could put, in or next to that initial wording, something like "early cancellation fees may apply". But an annual plan really is that. They are telling you pretty clearly* what you're buying; the fact that there's a way to bail out half way for less is an advance on that position. * though as I said in the other reply, "yearly" would be better

These four words are clear enough to be legally defensible, but they are the absolute minimum and they are designed to be the absolute minimum. They want to maximize conversion even if it traps people who didn't understand in good faith what they were buying.

It isn't hard to provide a complete explanation of what happens if you go past the trial period and want to cancel. All they have to say is, "if you don't cancel after the trial period, you are obligated to pay X over the next 12 months. Early cancellation is possible for a fee of half the remaining balance. For example, if you cancel immediately after the trial period your early cancellation fee will be X/2."

There's plenty of space to feature this explanation prominently. We all know why they don't. It's to trap people.

Many subscription plans work this way but it's no excuse. It's scumbag behavior. The fact that it's so common is just one of the many reasons why I believe the world is run by sociopaths.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#180

Post by bmarquez »

stickfigure wrote: post #83
tomrod wrote: post #37

I am so sick of companies doing this. Google bait and switches your unlimited-forever suite into limited workspaces, fails to support products, and generally makes it so you can't trust they will be there in two weeks unless you're an ad buyer. Facebook tracks you everywhere, even VR glasses. Adobe nickels and dimes, takes away permanent software with kludgy, awful SaaS billing and UX. Why are we okay with these prac…

These are not the same things. I'm annoyed by the workspaces thing too but at least I got a decade of free service. Adobe is using sleight of hand to get you locked into a long-term contract. That's closer to fraud.

Google was also using deceptive language (pay or lose access) to hold previous G Suite purchases hostage. Only after backlash did they add info to their FAQ and say that there would be some sort of purchase migration available.
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