Adobe's Black Friday deal on Photoshop and Lightroom

[ManiacJoe]

$9.99 per month for 12 months
Photoshop and Lightroom
No previous version required (This is the Black Friday deal part)
Offer expires Dec 2. (Previous version required for purchase after that date)

https://creative.adobe.com/plans/offer/photoshop+lightroom

[Major Nikon]

1. I don't mean to rain on your thread, but there are some things folks should be aware of

Photoshop is now a subscription service, which means instead of buying a copy of the software and you own it forever, you must now send money to Adobe every month. If you stop sending them money, you loose access to your software. Personally I think this is a dangerous precedent in software development, but that's just my $0.02 worth. I have been a loyal customer of photoshop for many years. I have CS5 and refuse to upgrade. When and if I do upgrade, I will go with a competing product. Just last month Adobe was hacked and 38 million of their subscription service customers' credit card info was compromised. Hackers also stole Adobe's source code and encryption data which means future customers could also be compromised via Coldfusion's vulnerabilities.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/04/1243992/-Adobe-Hacked-Source-Code-and-Data-for-2-9-Million-Customers-Stolen

[ManiacJoe]

2. Yup. Lots of software are moving in the direction of subscription services.

For better or worse....

[NV Whino]

3. Yep. I'm on CS4 and I refuse to upgrade to the cloud subscription service.

Plenty of other photo programs out there, but I'm stuck for the moment for Illustrator. I think Pages will cover InDesign.

[Stevenmarc]

4. Well I think

If someone hasn't figured out that it's a subscription plan when they see it's $9.99 a month then just wait till they have to figure out Photoshop.

The fact is that like it or not it's the industry standard and staying current is important if you are working in this field. I've found the whole cloud model to be very convenient, being able to move effortlessly between devices is a serious time saver.

As far as that persnickety glitch goes, well we all go through thousands of electronic transactions a year with varying degrees of vulnerability, PS is an important part of my workflow so in this case pragmatism wins out.

[Major Nikon]

5. I'm not knocking anyone who goes that route

The fact that there is a steep learning curve to Photoshop should give some pause as they will be beholden to Adobe who will be able to raise that price at will once the contract runs out (and undoubtedly will). For those who upgrade every time and who want to work inside the cloud, it can make a lot of sense, but for many amateurs it means that you've just hitched your wagon to Adobe's team for better or worse. I see it as Adobe using their near monopoly position to bait people to be reeled in later. As far as the vulnerabilities are concerned, they extend beyond just your transactions. It can also open you up to malicious code in ways that people may not have considered.

[groundloop]

10. All reasons that I use GIMP

For the most part, I think, GIMP is nearly as capable as Photoshop. There are a few things that Photoshop does better, but for the modest price of FREE I can live with GIMP's shortcomings. I'm not a professional, don't need to process hundreds of photos in a day (not very often anyway), and GIMP more than meets my needs.

I was actually considering making the move to Photoshop from GIMP a while ago, but when I heard about their change to a monthly subscription service I decided against it.

[Major Nikon]

11. I'll be OK with CS5 for a while

But GIMP seems like the way to go when I do change. Perhaps this will create more demand for competing products so who knows what the future will bring. I think Adobe is making a big mistake, but maybe they have it all figured out.

[Mz Pip]

13. I won't upgrade either

I have CS5 and feel I have barely scratched the surface of its capabilities. It serves me well on what I like to do and I see no point in doing this subscription plan.

[alfredo]

6. Huge security breach at Adobe.

Adobe has admitted that it is taking significantly longer than it expected to email all of the customers affected by the epic-scale security breach, with some victims still not being contacted more than 10 weeks after the data theft. Despite discovering the attack on September 17, Adobe did not go public with the information until October 3, with the company still having not informed all affected customers two full months after the breach.

Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/13/11/25/up.to.138.million.adobe.cc.accounts.violated.by.data.breach/#ixzz2lm7xtIvN

[rdking647]

7. and after 12 months its no longer 9.99

i have cs5 and dont see a need to upgrade

[ManiacJoe]

9. Price increases are always a possibility.

[regnaD kciN]

12. The big question I have…

…is: how much did the PS/LR subscription cost for people without a prior copy of PS before this deal? Is there any reason to believe that that won't be the "new" price after the twelve months of the deal are over?

[glinda]

8. Asking again only here....has anyone here upgraded to Mavericks and has CS5 Extended?

I asked on Mac Group but want to hear form more people on this and problems encountered. Some say you cannot use CS5Extened with Mavericks and some say you can.

[Blue_In_AK]

14. I'm sticking with my old tried and true PaintShop Pro

It does everything I need it to.

[ManiacJoe]

15. PSP is a good option.

I just upgraded my copy to X6.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. I've got X4

Do you notice anything particularly new and exciting? I debated whether to upgrade with that $29.99 special.

[ManiacJoe]

17. I was upgrading from X3.

X6 is now 64-bit if you have that OS. It seems still hit-or-miss with which Photoshop plug-ins work and which don't.

The PSP file format changed in X4, more notable for me than you.

I read something somewhere that convinced me to upgrade last month, but I don't remember what it was, besides the good price.