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Creative Cloud outage leaves Adobe users unable to work

macuser.co.uk

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Re: Creative Cloud outage leaves Adobe users unable to work

#201

Post by wooter »

bitL wrote: post #132
nnq wrote: post #37

My recipe for dealing with "cranky" proprietary software like this: Step 1. Buy CC subscription and install what you need. Step 2. Look for a good patch/crack that makes everything work ofline, and that still allows you to update. Step 3. Make peace with the risk of having installed some possible malware on your machine with the patch/crack (ie. do the sensible thing of doing you shopping and ebanking on the other de…

This all seems sensible until Adobe revokes your license and you lose all money you invested so far and access to the work you produced. There should be consumer protection laws for these cases. When you pirate software, everything works smoothly (unless you catch some trojan), but if you are a paying customer, all kinds of unpleasant and artificial problems are thrown at you.

Or just let the consumer vote with his money. (sketch and pixelmator look like they're growing nicely) All "protection" laws will do is add compliance costs and increase the barrier to entry.

Re: Creative Cloud outage leaves Adobe users unable to work

#202

Post by steven777400 »

DenisM wrote: post #49
e12e wrote: post #19

And this is why I won't trust SaaS that doesn't provide a viable self-host solution (which for practical purposes tends to mean Free software, although I suppose "binary" only self-contained jars might be a realistic alternative). And also why I can't see myself selling/working on such a solution without providing some form of viable / realistic exit strategy/alternative. With traditional apps, you run the risk of eg…

We've learned to live with centralized water and electricity and banking, all outside of our control, rather than rely on on-premises solutions. SaaS, too, will win out after a few hiccups.

I don't completely agree with this. Many homes and probably even some business are on well water and/or septic systems. Backup electrical generators on-site are commonplace at offices. Lots of noise (but maybe less substance) is being made of bitcoin taking banking back into the individual's control.

Re: Creative Cloud outage leaves Adobe users unable to work

#203

Post by pasbesoin »

7.5 hours worth of repeated (and I mean repeatedly explaining the situation to each new contact) tech support calls over a licensing issue that was, ultimately, a 10 minute fix (allowing for included administrivia) that was already sitting available for access/correction on the computer in front of a "supervisor".

That left me swearing Adobe would never see another dime from me or people I advise. And it leaves me repeating this anecdote every time the news surfaces another story about their cr-p administration systems and support.

And these are the people who are going to be involved in e.g. EME DRM in our browsers? I sincerely hope not.

Re: Creative Cloud outage leaves Adobe users unable to work

#204

Post by reboog711 »

Fuxy wrote: post #123
nnq wrote: post #37

My recipe for dealing with "cranky" proprietary software like this: Step 1. Buy CC subscription and install what you need. Step 2. Look for a good patch/crack that makes everything work ofline, and that still allows you to update. Step 3. Make peace with the risk of having installed some possible malware on your machine with the patch/crack (ie. do the sensible thing of doing you shopping and ebanking on the other de…

And this is why "cloud" software will always be worse then regular software. What happens when these "cloud" companies go out of business? You're pretty much SOL if you can't find a replacement quick. Don't ever rely on "cloud" software for critical infrastructure unless you own that cloud. Everybody get CS6 and delay upgrading as long as you can.

The Adobe "Creative Cloud" is not cloud software. It just the Adobe Creative Suite desktop applications sold on a subscription model.

The problem here was that they added DRM to it to make sure you can't use it if you don't have an active subscription and those 'call home' servers failed.

It is more of a DRM problem than a 'cloud' problem.

Re: Creative Cloud outage leaves Adobe users unable to work

#205

Post by notwedtm »

maldusiecle wrote: post #198
patio11 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be noted that "just spin up a VPS/dedicated server" is not a serious competition for most SaaS companies, nor is it a requirement for most people who buy SaaS. Try explaining that process to Office Manager Milly, whose #1 feature request is being able to fax documents to the SaaS app rather than having to upload them. Milly may have heard about Heartbleed recently. She doesn't understand public key cryptogr…

Naturally the hypothetical ignorant office manager is going to be a woman. This is ycombinator, after all.

Ugh, seriously? This is the input to this conversation that you decided was the most important? Try not being so hyper-sensitive to social issues and keeping the conversation on track within the context of the OP.

Re: Creative Cloud outage leaves Adobe users unable to work

#206

Post by LoganCale »

prawks wrote: post #160
Fuxy wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is why "cloud" software will always be worse then regular software. What happens when these "cloud" companies go out of business? You're pretty much SOL if you can't find a replacement quick. Don't ever rely on "cloud" software for critical infrastructure unless you own that cloud. Everybody get CS6 and delay upgrading as long as you can.

> You're pretty much SOL if you can't find a replacement quick. Everyone who seriously considers moving mission-critical software or infrastructure to the cloud should (if they don't already) have a contingency plan at the forefront of their evaluation of any platform/service. Evaluations of solutions like that take away much of the risk that you're proposing. It's also just smart business.

The problem is, Adobe never did this and abruptly forced everyone to switch to a subscription model if they wanted to upgrade. And existing versions only keep working for so long unless you keep the same hardware/operating system with them forever. So suddenly, thousands of people who rely on Adobe software daily are forced to switch to a subscription-only model.

Re: Creative Cloud outage leaves Adobe users unable to work

#207

Post by LoganCale »

kbatten wrote: post #17

I have a hard time understanding why anyone would lease a service that is vital to their job, or at least without a backup. If your livelihood depends on something then spend your money appropriately. Even if you did sign up for CC you can still have an older version ready to go in a pinch.

You can't buy the latest versions of Adobe software. They are simply not available for purchase. You can only rent them. So if you work with designers who use Creative Cloud you are similarly forced to subscribe. At this point, I'm probably just going to get out of the field entirely once it becomes impossible to continue because of Adobe's idiocy.

Re: Creative Cloud outage leaves Adobe users unable to work

#208

Post by wishinghand »

abalone wrote: post #179
nnq wrote: post #37

My recipe for dealing with "cranky" proprietary software like this: Step 1. Buy CC subscription and install what you need. Step 2. Look for a good patch/crack that makes everything work ofline, and that still allows you to update. Step 3. Make peace with the risk of having installed some possible malware on your machine with the patch/crack (ie. do the sensible thing of doing you shopping and ebanking on the other de…

My "recipe" is this: Uninstall and switch to Sketch. http://bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ I have been so, so happy. Not 100% apples-to-apples of course but it's been great for my UI design needs, way better than Photoshop/Fireworks. For bitmap editing I supplement with Pixelmator (only $15!). I used to say Photoshop couldn't be beat because of insanely hardcore features like content-aware fill, but then this is happenin…

I do wish there were better alternatives for each and every app in the CC. The only one that's competently matched is Premiere.

Pixelmator is good, but Mac/OSX only. It also doesn't have adjustment layers, meaning that if I want a layer to be black and white, I'd have to open it up separately, desaturate, then import it back in as a new layer, delete the old one and rearrange.

They finally have a 16bit color, and apparently the content aware fill is coming.

Re: Creative Cloud outage leaves Adobe users unable to work

#209

Post by lotsofmangos »

nandhp wrote: post #187
lotsofmangos wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are undoubtedly for those customers, but legally you have to enforce copyrights to keep them. There is no way that Adobe could argue that they are still enforcing copyright restrictions on the binaries of CS2.

You're confusing copyright with trademarks. Trademarks must be defended if you want to keep them (this is logical: if other people are using them, they are no longer a mark of your trade). That doesn't apply to copyright; it's an entirely automatic process.

You are right. Thinking it through you can of course put a restrictive license on stuff that is publicly available, otherwise of course open source would not work. What Adobe may have done is confused their original license terms by posting a download with key, so a court is very unlikely to award more than nominal damages should Adobe get annoyed with it being used, but you are perfectly correct, their copyright still holds up.
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