Op GP Journal 6: I absolutely hate Adobe’s intangible Creative Cloud (CC) subscription model

07 June 2020

time of the year again & i guess only designers & creative professionals will understand this pain.

i have a serious love-hate relationship with Adobe. its signature softwares like Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat, has been easy & efficient to use; these have been a staple on my desktop since ADM days.

but i absolutely hate Adobe’s intangible Creative Cloud (CC) subscription model. there is no ownership of media & we are on an indefinite loop of paying crazily high annual subscription fee/tax. if not, we will end up being unable to open or edit our previously saved files; our own works done using softwares that we previously paid for. the worse part is, much of the fees are for programmes/features bundled that we dont need/use. tbh i dun need the most up-to-date softwares/functions to get my indesign layout done; those are pretty much just fancy decorations to me. unlike Microsoft Office, Adobe do not offer options for one-time permanent purchase or single software subscription.

For the benefit of non-designers, using of Adobe softwares is akin to everyday usage of Microsoft Word, Powerpoint Excel & Paint. Adobe is the industry standard & the creative industries relies heavily on Adobe for compatibility. Adobe holds such a strong software, skills & muscle monopoly in the industry for decades that there is still no comparable competitors to challenge its position or market share. there is just no real/compatible alternatives to choose from. Hence, you should understand the agony of its forceful CC subscription model.

so the CC subscription model is obviously an abuse of unfair monopoly power. if the bundling of Microsoft Windows & Internet Explorer was considered monopoly that leads to a high-profile lawsuit & breakup in the 90s, i wonder why the same has not been apply to Adobe...? 🤔

Response to "Is Adobe’s Creative Cloud Too Powerful for Its Own Good?" by Ernie Smith (original article at https://www.vice.com/en/article/3kgw83/is-adobes-creative-cloud-too-powerful-for-its-own-good).

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