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Affinity Studio now free

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Re: Affinity Studio now free

#501

Post by dangus »

blackqueeriroh wrote: post #398
dangus wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize that money rules everything but I find it so confusing that so many companies will spend a decade building a great product and then just exit with full knowledge that it will be the inevitable end of the relevance of their work. You might think that some founders somewhere out there would be motivated by some level of ego to say “no, I won’t sell out, I built this amazing thing and the highest bidder owner…

Because it’s not inevitable. I know it’s the fashion on HN to say it’s inevitable, but it’s not, and if it were, then it would be inevitable for all companies, including those who didn’t exit, which would mean those companies would fold, which would make it a capitalism problem, not a “founders exit” problem. Either way, trying to place blame on individual people is kind of silly.

Maybe not inevitable but “most likely outcome by far.”

It’s not like your median founder hasn’t heard of enshittification. They just don’t care. They’re by and large out for a quick buck, not much different than a day trader or a gambler. And the VC system enables that rather than being focused on building companies that are generational and customer focused.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#502

Post by npilk »

What a fascinating thread. I bought Affinity Photo and Designer V1 as one-time purchases a few years ago. I didn't upgrade to V2 when those came out. I have continued to occasionally use the V1 apps - I was just in Photo the other day.

To me this is exactly why you would want to buy software licenses as one-time purchases - the company can't rug pull you for what you already bought. If I want, I can keep using the Affinity apps on this machine indefinitely.

It seems a lot of people are really frustrated that they purchased software and now the company is doing something else. Isn't the whole point of purchasing a license for standalone software that you are protected in case the company goes under, or gets bought, or decides to do something else?

Do people think the apps they bought are going away? Or did they expect to get free updates forever for their one-time purchase? Or am I missing something in this announcement?

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#503

Post by sedatk »

I own Affinity products and I used to be able to login to Serif's site to download them. Now that download link seems to have gone. I wish I had archived those images. Not sure if they would keep working though.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#504

Post by rubyfan »

BenFranklin100 wrote: post #488
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…

Once AI blows up in a spectacular unprofitable mess (as it will for 90% of the companies in this space), then what though?

Well all have bigger problems when that happens

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#505

Post by nobody9999 »

>Affinity Studio now free

I'd love to have an actually free alternative to the offerings from those rapacious thugs over at Adobe.

/RANT

But this isn't actually free. Rather than paying with currency, you pay with your PII and, presumably, your attention as you're relentlessly marketed to by Canva and by whomever they decide to sell your PII.

This is all too common and folks seem to be okay with it for some unknown reason. If you walked into an art supply store, grabbed the stuff you wanted/needed and headed to the cashier with cash and they refused to sell you anything unless you provided them with your name, phone number, email address, etc., etc., etc. you'd likely walk out without purchasing anything. [N.B.: Yes, Radio Shack always asked for that info, but didn't require it for purchases.]

Yet it seems that selling your personal details and attention is perfectly fine online.

What's more, since you must have a valid "account" with Canva to use their "free" offering, you are also subject (generally without recourse) to changes in the licensing/subscription models and they can take it away whenever they feel like it. What could go wrong? It's not like that's ever been an issue, right?

I'd love to use Affinity Studio. But I won't. Because the price is too high for me.

I'd note that these sorts of shenanigans aren't limited to Canva -- far from it. It's just one more vendor contributing to the further enshittification of the tech sphere. And more's the pity.

/RANT

Why is/isn't it too "expensive" for you? (Note, this is a real question, not a poke at anyone.)

Edit: Fixed prose. Added to rant.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#506

Post by cromka »

npilk wrote: post #502

What a fascinating thread. I bought Affinity Photo and Designer V1 as one-time purchases a few years ago. I didn't upgrade to V2 when those came out. I have continued to occasionally use the V1 apps - I was just in Photo the other day. To me this is exactly why you would want to buy software licenses as one-time purchases - the company can't rug pull you for what you already bought. If I want, I can keep using the Af…

They expected to be able to upgrade it in the future to most recent version with a one-time payment fee, like they used to so far.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#507

Post by thoroughburro »

zitsarethecure wrote: post #373
gethly wrote: post #156

Yet after decades, Gimp still can't compete even with programs built from scratch :D

If it works well enough for the people who use it, why does it matter?

It doesn’t work well enough for the people who use it; false assumption. I use it, and it’s a cludge that I resent every time I have no other option.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#508

Post by 9dev »

BenFranklin100 wrote: post #488
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…

Once AI blows up in a spectacular unprofitable mess (as it will for 90% of the companies in this space), then what though?

Given that it’s the only thing keeping the US economy afloat right now? Then many of us are loosing our jobs, and no longer having access to drawing tools will matter little.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#509

Post by chemotaxis »

ezfe wrote: post #402
chemotaxis wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Isn't this EXACTLY what subscriptions fix, though? That you can stop paying if the product stops getting updates. How? First, by that time, you've usually spent many times more than it would have cost you to own the software outright, so the vendor is already better off. Second, if you stop paying, you lose access to the software, possibly with no other way to open existing files, etc. You're the one who's being he…

Sure, if the subscription is unreasonably priced. Then yes, it will be unreasonable. Final Cut Pro is a $300 piece of software with a $50/yr or $5/mo subscription. It would take you 6 years to reach the same price which shows the subscription cost is reasonable. It's a separate issue when software is unreasonably priced in subscription mode, versus the merits of the subscription model itself.

My beef isn't with products where you have a choice between perpetual and monthly. It's with products where you don't. This includes the "always-online freemium" model, where you only really lose features over time to drive free -> paid migration and show growth.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#510

Post by dataflow »

ezfe wrote: post #350
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…

Isn't this EXACTLY what subscriptions fix, though? That you can stop paying if the product stops getting updates. Everyone wanted a one time license, you aren't allowed to complain when that one-time licensed product stops getting updates. Note: I own a license to V2 of the Serif suite.

I think people want either (a) a subscription that lets them keep the latest version perpetually, or (b) a perpetual license that provides some predictable amount of updates (this could be zero).

What people don't want is to pay for updates that they were led to believe they would get, but that they never got. Or to lose access to software that they paid a lot for, or that they got locked into (even free).

I don't think these are particularly difficult expectations to understand or meet.

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