Affinity Studio now free

Post by Gigachad » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 9:41 PM UTC

tavavex wrote: post #437

bigyabai wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems fatalist. Free software isn't dead, and indie software hasn't died because the notion of "purchase and own for life" isn't a sustainable business model. In the 1980s, buying a new computer often meant buying compatible copies of software you already owned. It was a treadmill of support that did keep computing alive, but also prevented ordinary people from investing into the hobby as fully as they liked. Ma…

> indie software hasn't died because the notion of "purchase and own for life" isn't a sustainable business model The worst thing is that it can totally be a sustainable business model. Many software giants of today grew to their size by offering "buy to own" products through the 90s and 2000s. Lots of software can still be bought through that model, especially games, and it seems to be going pretty well for the deve…

Post by jansan » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 9:42 PM UTC

nirava wrote: post #238

This is a deletion. - they're completely stopping all updates to v2; even image trace won't be coming to it. You might have paid for perpetual access to it 2 months ago, but it has completely stopped. As the world moves on (new chips, new OS features, just general software movement) this will increasingly feel like a second-class experience. - the new "free" software is a sales funnel into the paid subscription, and…

Post by Gigachad » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 9:43 PM UTC

Espressosaurus wrote: post #345

renewiltord wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, what’s the problem? You wanted a pay once use forever and you got that with v2. So keep using v2. No one is going to charge your credit card.

I paid for v1 and v2, and would have happily paid for v3. The reason I’m not using Adobe is to avoid their onerous subscription. If Affinity has moved to a subscription model then why bother not using the incumbent?

Post by wizzzzzy » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 9:44 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #430

jazzyjackson wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's really cool they can get AI money from the people who want to pay that, to give away the core for free. I can empathize with feeling their focus will be elsewhere (whatever increases revenue) but I figure AI isn't magic, they need to have the rest of the creative suite work well to, yaknow, synergize Edit: I'll add that I much prefer purchasing perpetual licenses for software that can work without a clou…

I've been using ByteDance's CapCut video editor that has this business model and I've been blown away by the top quality tool you get for free. It really doesn't feel scammy when they ask for money for fancy features that cost them extra GPU cycles to run the AI models.

Post by Gigachad » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 9:45 PM UTC

miladyincontrol wrote: post #247

t-writescode wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Raw formats arent going away but new cameras and lenses do keep coming out which at minimum need correction profiles. Also the DNG spec does continue to be iterated on, not that users will be forced into the latest features like jpeg-xl compression, but some of the changes can be very breaking to older apps.