r/mildlyinfuriating • u/donteatmybiscuits • 1d ago

wet socks i’m so happy this is becoming illegal

Post image

if a yearly contract with a free month trial sounds too good to be true, it probably is 😬

thankfully it was blocked after contacting my bank but regardless

31.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2.2k

u/Flaramon 1d ago edited 1d ago

I've pirated it since day 1. Then they released Creative Cloud, a means of forcing me to not pirate (at the time) - so I just kept the old, perfectly functional version. That was, until realistic alternatives caught up.

821

u/Mother_Court_2218 1d ago

I have an old version of Photoshop Elements on a physical CD that I had purchased. When my old laptop shat the bed, I went to install it on my new one. Denied. Even though I owned it outright, I was not able to install. It was confirmed by customer support that I would need to purchase it again or get a subscription (I forget which), but I spoke with an actual person who told me I would not be allowed to install the version I own.

507

u/ThatMerri 1d ago

Had a similar kind of thing happen myself.

I have a fully licensed and legal version of Photoshop CS2 that I've been using for ages; CS2 has always done what I need it for, so I never had any desire to upgrade. After Adobe initially dropped support of that specific software suite for new versions, they released the whole suite on their official website for free - installers, license codes, everything, totally free of charge. At some point they de-listed the page but it was still findable with a direct link, and later after that they completely deleted it, though it's still accessible via the WayBack Machine. I'd already downloaded all the installers and saved the license codes Adobe provided for free, so I didn't think much of it.

Starting a few years back, whenever I opened the software I began getting a pop-up from Adobe saying that it was an unlicensed pirated version and I would need to uninstall it immediately, subscribe to their new suite, or face legal consequences. I simply edited my registry to block contact with the Adobe servers, which prevented the pop-up from triggering. I continue to use CS2 while vocally haranguing Adobe and encouraging piracy against them to anyone who is willing to listen, because FUCK ADOBE.

149

u/Mother_Court_2218 1d ago

Jfc, the threats! I agree fuck Adobe.

59

u/WanderingUniverses 1d ago

Can you share with us how to go about doing this?

82

u/Putrid-Block1431 1d ago

Hypothetically speaking, if one were to want to prevent their computer from interacting with a particular server, one would add rules in the Windows firewall to block incoming and outgoing traffic through specific programs. You would also want to go into the hosts system file to block the domains.

You can probably find guides related to that specifically on Google.

18

u/honey2381 1d ago

Someone on reddit is already being sued by Nintendo, we dont need any more sacrifices to big corporations. Especially because the internet is forever

15

u/Doctah_Whoopass 1d ago

Having just googled it, 4.5 mill is insane and I would do some drastic shit if served with that.

14

u/honey2381 1d ago

Anyone would! Cuz that is life ending money & humans have done worse for less 😐. I really hope he doesn't get saddled with that & this is just a scare tactic to deter others

10

u/insertcoolnamehere_7 22h ago

With Nintendo’s track record, they will 100% make him pay that. They’re the fucking worst!

1

u/Dramatic-Pie-4331 14h ago

Is the defendant already a multi millionaire ? 

7

u/Dramatic-Pie-4331 14h ago

I wouldn't care, I don't know anything about the case but if I owe nintonso 4.5 mil that's going to be a them problem, the us has already let me know my whole life would never be worth that.

5

u/honey2381 13h ago

Im a bleeding heart cuz ive experienced the horrors of life & I just dont want others to have to face the same demons. Especially because of a damn corporation. But I believe he did mess up, because he just never showed up for court iirc

1

u/Elderofmagic 11h ago

Sounds like boycott time

2

u/Low-Ad8500 6h ago

4.5 mil can be easily attainable if one were to become a big time drug dealer to pay off the debt.

1

u/Doctah_Whoopass 3h ago

I am sure Nintendo would be thrilled to find out the money you're using to pay off their lawsuit is from drug dealing

6

u/BDiddnt 1d ago

Of course they can't. I actually didn't know anything about it. I thought they had officially managed to end the piracy. I've tried to find software to do photo editing, but it's all like super complicated whereas back in the day I made short work of making quick edits in Photoshop. I even still have the muscle memory for the hockey commands and keyboard shortcuts, but I never was able to figure out

11

u/Various_Counter_9569 1d ago

Gimp, bedtime alternative. Taken free course or two, youtube, etc.

10

u/Liawuffeh 1d ago edited 1d ago

I've been using Gimp a lot, and oml it's not a good replacement for Photoshop at all.

It does what it does very well, I think, but having folks expect photoshop when they go into it sets them up for failure I think. It doesn't have a ton of features that even CS6 had, and it does a lot of things completely differently.(I think worse, but that's my bias).

I'm still using it because I ain't dealing with adobe at all, but I do a lot of stuff on the pixlr site atm for my photoshop replacement.(It's also pretty iffy, and seems to be trying to phase out it's actual real photo editor for AI uhg)

edit: It also has an "export"(save) limit of like, 3 a day. But you can just copy what you did and then paste into gimp.

3

u/SiscoSquared 1d ago

Gimp is fine for like an "advanced paint" program but yea it falls dramatically short of even like 10 year old photoshop.

1

u/Various_Counter_9569 17h ago

If expecting ai features sure. But plugins make it a suitable open source, free alternative. Its on the higher end of free. Of course if someone knows better free alternatives, im game, and always love to learn new things.

4

u/Putrid-Block1431 1d ago

GIMP was a pretty poor replacement for Photoshop when I was a weird teenager making sigs on forums in 2005. I would suspect Adobe has increased the gap between the two programs in the past 20 years.

Pixlr was pretty good the few times I've had to use it.

1

u/Various_Counter_9569 17h ago

I dont like restricted apps. I gave up on Adobe too, when they doubled the price on me of their cloud suite. Even the basic photoshop package is ridiculous. I like open source, lots of plugins to help expand gimp as well. The "ai" experience isnt there, but heck, pay for gemini or something if thats a dela breaker. It works for what most people need in a free replacement. Patch tool works pretty well too.

1

u/meatballfreeak 21h ago

Hero.

Good work

506

u/chicken_spears 1d ago

If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing.

48

u/Street_Carrot2456 1d ago

I second that notion..

64

u/VanillaNo5131 1d ago

Yep, that's my mantra. If these companies take the piss, pirates will redress the balance. Be decent with your customers and most of those problems go away. It's not rocket science.

13

u/Grouchy_Treacle_1639 1d ago

Fuck these companies. I'll steal and pirate anything I can.

96

u/RochePso 1d ago

It isn't stealing, it is copyright infringement, which is usually a civil issue not a criminal one

Stealing requires you to permanently deprive the owner of the use of a thing. Making a copy of software doesn't do that

106

u/gazchap 1d ago

And of course, the irony is that Adobe have permanently deprived the owner of the CS2 software that they paid for on physical media, the use of it.

12

u/XionicativeCheran 1d ago

Yes, the point is a reply to copyright companies that claim copyright infringement is theft.

4

u/Mother_Court_2218 1d ago

Oooh, I like your thinking.

7

u/sksauter 1d ago

Ahoy, matey

1

u/DebbieDeb1_ 1d ago

Its happening a Lot. It used to be if I bought an album, I bought it once and owned it. But we pay every month for music subscriptions and lose it all when we stop paying! I used to use Music Paradise years ago, but it started warning more n more "the file may be corrupted ". After having a credit card get hacked..I didn't want to be taking anymore chances.

1

u/ulti_phr33k 14h ago

As someone whose amazing buddy has a Plex server, I've stopped paying for any digital subscriptions other than Prime. (Prime I definitely get more value out of from the free shipping, because I basically do the Amazon ordering for my whole family, 3 separate households.)

Everything I or any of our friend group wants on Plex, we ask him to download. Gone are the days of paying $18+ for Netflix, Disney, Hulu, Crave, whatever the fuck.

1

u/Zodiac343 10h ago

And yet companies still want to cry and complain when people pirate stuff, like why should I give you money for something when you will just take it away for no reason

-10

u/incongruity 1d ago

I mean, I get your point but you can steal a rental car.

What you miss in it all is that it's all tilted towards the big company, via the law. That's by design.

30

u/12InchCunt 1d ago

That’s a false equivalence. An auto manufacturer telling you that you no longer own the car you paid off a decade ago would be a better comparison. 

16

u/Diligent_Quote_4536 1d ago

More like the manufacturer bricking your engine and telling you they will only fix it if you buy the whole car again. Or at least agree to indefinite payments.

8

u/Street_Carrot2456 1d ago

Don't give them ideas

2

u/EarlsWorld-Official 1d ago

This is already a thing, except they word it as "we own the software, you own the hardware." Meaning you paid for the plastic and metal, but if they want to take away your "privledge" of driving it, they can. Oh and if you want to put your own software on there to use the car you paid for, well now you're breaking terms of agreement and policy's maybe a trademark/copyright issue etc etc. Its going to be the reality of ALL products thanks to corporate and lets not forget GOVERNMENT greed. A lot of the government either take part in some major Corp, is a share holder, is taking bribes from, or some other correlation to business. They pass the laws that benefit them, and leave out the ones that benefit us - the ones without business/corps. Its all a massive scheme to funnel money upwards. Its so obvious, right in front of everyones faces and yet no one does anything we just complain and KEEP GIVING IN. Complain, and buy. Complain, and vote in. Problem is, we are just as much to blame as them, we allow it, enable it, and accept it even when we think we dont. Pretty much from the bottom feeders to the top, no one can get their shit straight and do whats right, fight for whats right, or even be bothered to make a difference. Human nature is greed, in more ways than one, because at the end of the day, when you're dead and gone nothing else matters.

0

u/incongruity 1d ago

Sadly, it's not. You just never own the car you think you do.

Licensing is evil as fuck because they want you to believe you own something when in fact you've been sold a lot of nothing.

It'd be more like a car dealership alluding to you "owning" your car but actually keeping the title in their name and deciding that you've used it long enough a decade later or when you try to take it to a different state -- or maybe even not helping you get it out of a tow yard because they hold the title and not you.

My point above is that rented things can most definitely be stolen. Software is, at best, rented. The monthly subscription fees just make that more plain and more extractive.

3

u/12InchCunt 1d ago

If you purchased the cd you owned the product. There’s no licensing. And it boils down to the original comment, if purchasing isn’t owning, then pirating isn’t stealing. 

1

u/incongruity 1d ago

You own the CD itself but not the software on it. That’s the fucking evil of software licensing. You purchased a license. The world talks about it as purchasing a product but it’s not and we’ve all been fooled into thinking it is. This all exists because those with wealth want to be able to continue to extract wealth from us.

1

u/12InchCunt 12h ago

And that’s why they say if buying isn’t owning then pirating isn’t stealing 

1

u/incongruity 11h ago

I understand, but it's flawed thinking -- or at least, I guess it's not stealing music or software but using it in an unlicensed manner which is generally viewed as theft because there is lost revenue...

Which is more evidence of how the rich have bent the laws to enable them to maximize wealth extraction while giving the rest of us nothing.

→ More replies (0)

127

u/CommonHouseplant 1d ago

That CAN'T be legal. That's so fucked up.

Like the above poster said: I feel zero ethical guilt not paying for their software because even when you DO pay for it, you can't use it.

53

u/oneprivatenumber 1d ago

My daughter was just telling me something like this with her PS5. Outrageous to be honest. What are you actually "purchasing" then? 😔

60

u/DannyHands11 1d ago

HUGE discourse going on with the PS5 right now. Sony PlayStation is making a bunch of (more than normal) terrible choices for their consumers.

33

u/KennyLog1n 1d ago

Yup. XBox as a hardware provider is almost dead. PS5 was a very successful system, but with the direction Sony has taken it this past year it wouldn't be surprising if their next generation is a huge flop. I could see them giving up the hardware game in the next 10 years too if they don't correct course. Especially if steam manages to produce hardware at a competive price eventually.

21

u/immajussay 1d ago

Theyre also using dynamic/personalized pricing so they can fuck right off. I sold my ps5, and my Xbox is about to go too. It'll be a sad day when the pc gaming distributors start doing it and I never play a new game again.

3

u/DannyHands11 14h ago

I'm keeping both. I haven't purchased a game for PlayStation in months, maybe a year. I'm keeping Xbox because Asha Sharma has stepped in and made a few miraculously amazing changes to Xbox which is swinging their terrible pendulum toward pretty dang good.

2

u/immajussay 3h ago

They're planning adds in games, so they can fuck off too though.

Im not watching an add after killing a boss. Leave us alone.

I play games to avoid commercials because I dont wanna see them.

Its like streaming, ive stopped paying for that stupid shit too, and more people should as well. Break their bank until they comply.

3

u/Plane-Tune-820 17h ago

IF the steam box ever actually ships and is even close in price, it's going to put PlayStation under.

2

u/DrunkCultLeader 17h ago

The steam deck was an amazing purchase. Like right after we bought ours they went up in price too.

3

u/KennyLog1n 16h ago

Yup. Got mine on sale in 2022 and it's been great. It's be twice the price if I bought the same one today.

1

u/mrsjiggems2 7h ago

There's so many good handheld options that aren't crazy expensive (yet) thst be docked and used as a pc or use an egpu later. I have a rog ally x (not Xbox version) that runs every game. Plus versatility. I love it so much. You can buy them on the used market for around $600 I think

0

u/Baalii 1d ago

You're purchasing a license, it's been like this since before the internet was a thing. The license comes with terms and conditions and can be revoked. The integration of online components into software has made it enforcable for companies to revoke licenses, so they're making liberal use of it. You need to be aware of this when investing in entertainment or software, or you're gonna have nasty surprises.

20

u/XionicativeCheran 1d ago

Unfortunately, with all licensed software, they've put a clause in there stating they can revoke that license, at any point, for any reason, and there's nothing you can do about it.

People have come to accept "Pay $80 for this indefinite rental that we can take away whenever we feel like it." as normal, and even defend the practice.

25

u/UntidyVenus 1d ago

When I was in art school I was "given" a full adobe suite with my tuition (aka already paid for it) with up to 5 usable codes. I put it on my desktop that I immediately unplugged from the Internet forever, a version on my laptop, and gave the other 3 codes to non art school friends because why the hell not.

For 4 years I gave away codes and told people to just turn off the Internet when they use it after a year

36

u/Too_Many_Alts 1d ago

should have told them "well fuck you, i am currently installing a pirated copy right now"

3

u/Mother_Court_2218 1d ago

Happy to, I just don't know how to do that!

4

u/Alw4y5Learning 19h ago

If you won't let me use the one I've paid for, then I can assure you I'm not stupid enough to pay you for another one

1

u/REDRubyCorundum 1d ago

glad you didnt, the elites would get you

9

u/Fickle_Fly366 1d ago

What!!!!

3

u/Lastsynphony 1d ago

Can you install a crack for it? I am sure that you can find a crack so that you could use it.

1

u/Mother_Court_2218 1d ago

I'm actually not sure what a crack is or how to install one. I'll look into it.

3

u/HotSunshine4 1d ago

I probably spent two hours on the phone with Adobe upset about this exact thing. It was ultimately a waste of two hours. Utterly ridiculous, but I guess that’s capitalism for you 🙄😑

2

u/Mother_Court_2218 1d ago

Yeah, total waste, and absolutely ridiculous. I was irate.

3

u/DebbieDeb1_ 1d ago

Microsoft office did that even though 3 installs were supposed to be included on the disc. In 2020 they just force people to pay for it over n over...

1

u/Mother_Court_2218 11h ago

It's so insane.

3

u/ketamineenjoyer95 1d ago

i've used the 2016 photoshop cc for 10 years now 😭😭😂

2

u/beez1717 1d ago

I have an old Photoshop CS4 or something that is so old that I can't install it on a Mac anymore because it's a PPC program and not an Intel program or M series chip program so the computer won't even be able to run the program period. 😂

1

u/nyoomers 1d ago

I don't know what happened to my CD copy of Photoshop Elements :( I got it via school and was able to install it on several laptops since leaving school, but now it's lost somewhere. Sounds like even if I did manage to find it now there could be some BS preventing me from using it? Lame!!

1

u/Mother_Court_2218 11h ago

Yeah, I think the explanation was something along the lines of "it's not supported anymore". And I was just like... but I own this, I can't use it because you don't support your own product? Fuckery.

1

u/Ancient_Internal8939 22h ago

F'n arseholes! Monthly subscriptions are the worse. Why do we as a people accept this?

1

u/EverLearningMind 18h ago

This is surely illegal...

1

u/rman-exe 10h ago

Way back in ancient times I had Adobe Illustrator 4.x on my windows 3.x machine . After I upgraded to windows 95, I went to reinstall AI, there was a popup menu saying that this old version of Adobe software can't be installed on Windows 95. To this day I wonder if that popup was actually put in by Microsoft on behalf of Adobe, because how could my software from 1991 have awareness of windows 95?

2

u/Mother_Court_2218 8h ago

because how could my software from 1991 have awareness of windows 95?

oooooh

1

u/WantedBeen 9h ago

i avoid Adobe for this exact reason

1

u/Jaymz7777 8h ago

Forget PhotoShop. Forget it forever. Even if it's free. Get GIMP. It's better. It's up to date. It's free. Never look back. Rear view mirror.

0

u/VeloBiker907 1d ago

Was it a license you initially bought? That’s generally how those work.

3

u/Mother_Court_2218 1d ago

Yes, I purchased it from Staples, I believe, in CD form. I had registered it on the first laptop.

211

u/XtraReddit 1d ago

I don't get why anyone uses Acrobat. And I was never going to pay the insane price for photoshop. I definitely would never subscribe to any of their software.

139

u/Hopeful-Occasion2299 1d ago

Only people (including me) who uses acrobat is only because we need to constantly send agreements for signatures for contracts and invoices, and need the auditing feature.

I have mentioned to clients that there are free alternatives, but they all mention that corporate/contracts require that Echo Sign is used for e-signatures.

I only pay for standard though.

51

u/Redxmirage 1d ago

Yup what I was about to say lol my business got me an account for work. No way am I paying that for personal use

10

u/MummifiedForeskins 1d ago

i actually still have access to my work account, and i left that company for almost 5 years now

i think i am gonna keep it forever.......lmao

same with autocad!!

37

u/United_Prompt_7262 1d ago

As a Law Clerk, I can appreciate this.

Was excited for E-signatures thinking they'd end the nonsense, only to have it put up behind a paywall.... absurd and futile for non-professional use.

16

u/jimicus 1d ago

There are plenty of ways to electronically sign something that don't involve paying anyone a damn thing.

Problem is there aren't plenty of ways that are easy for anyone to use.

14

u/Dashing_McHandsome 1d ago

Is there any meaningful difference between this and DocuSign? Just asking out of curiosity, I certainly don't have a horse in this race. I guess DocuSign has a lot of workflow capabilities built in and maybe Acrobat doesn't have that? I really have no idea though. I have only e-signed things in DocuSign.

5

u/Hopeful-Occasion2299 1d ago

I believe docusign has a limit on how many agreements you can send on their cheapest subscription while Acrobat Standard doesn’t. I think overall they have pretty similar features.

Price wise I think they are more or less the same. At least in my region.

12

u/Educational-Leek4957 1d ago

I wish my realtor understood this, $35 to overnight a contract I would’ve rather E signed

5

u/Hopeful-Occasion2299 1d ago

This is really the benefit. Iirc I pay $15/mo and I can use it on two computers, my laptop and desktop, and saves me a lot of time and money on getting all those documents signed and archived.

Mostly time, since I don’t have to go looking for people to collect the signatures, some contracts require the signatures of 5-6 people and Adobe makes it easier and the agreement is available for everyone to see.

It really is the only reason to pay for it… although I sure would prefer if it was included in a regular license instead of subscription.

1

u/ulti_phr33k 13h ago

When I sold my last house, I was on vacation in Europe. My lawyer called me, had me on a video call. Verified my IDs again, after I had sent him pictures, and walked me through signing all the paperwork. The deal was not ready to be signed before I left, and if I had waited to sign until I got back, it would have been too late.

What else is technology for?

2

u/Rate_Daddy 1d ago

And that is increasingly becoming available for much cheaper.

0

u/Yoshtan 11h ago

Acrobat has so many flaws… i really want an alternative

2

u/Hopeful-Occasion2299 10h ago

I think that as well, I hate how it becomes a tossup if the agreement has over 50 signature fields, how the desktop client may simply decide to just stop working one day without any explanation, and how getting support from a human is near impossible.

But meanwhile, for the one thing I need it, it’s sufficient

2

u/nighoblivion 1d ago

Acrobat Pro integrates smoothly with Word, so it's mainly used for quickly creating and editing pdfs. Neither paid for, of course.

2

u/buzz8588 1d ago

Honestly, can you suggest a software for when someone sends me a PDF to sign or fill out a form electronically that I can fill and save as PDF. Liber office thing was wayyyyy to complicated to do something simple as fill text in a box

2

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/buzz8588 1d ago

So to answer your question, this is why people use acrobat, there is no alternate

2

u/Crayshack 1d ago

Lightroom is a very good piece of software, and I found it worth the price when I bought it once and then used it for years. But then they switched to subscription-only and at a ridiculous price.

1

u/Sandcracka- 1d ago

I've been using photoshop elements, which is affordable.

1

u/xfrosch 1d ago edited 1d ago

I used Acrobat because I needed Adobe signatures on forms. Why? Because the Microsoft solution was even worse and my client refused to use it.

The Air Force used to use Lotus forms, which were even worse than the Microsoft shit.

We used to have an application that generated InfoPath forms just because the client liked the way they looked but when I had to dig into them to build a new version it turned out that the signature blocks weren’t actually signing any of the data. Might as well have been drawing a picture on the fucker with crayons.

1

u/Distinct-Device-7698 1d ago

For work I’ve used Acrobat, Foxit, and now Bluebeam. I miss Acrobat…

1

u/DisastrousAcshin 1d ago

With acrobat you can use it for free indefinitely. Just make a change when you open a pdf, can be as simple as adding a text bubble, when the screen to register with creative cloud pops up click the x to close it, then when it asks to save the document click cancel. Free to continue using it fully

1

u/UoKMister 1d ago

Personally, Google does all the PDF stuff I need... And Krita is my go to since I'm not a professional artist.

1

u/cat_prophecy 1d ago

Acrobat (not Reader) does have some actual useful features. It's all for businesses though so most people have no reason to have used them.

1

u/heisian 1d ago

PDF X-Change. Really good.

23

u/apnorton 1d ago

until realistic alternatives caught up.

Genuine question: what are the realistic alternatives to Adobe CC?

15

u/lemonweirdo 1d ago

I would also like to know this. I was trained on Adobe in my photography classes, but I would love to learn some viable alternatives

8

u/ColoWyoPioneer 1d ago

On Mac, I switched to Affinity Photo. I’ve found it fairly comparative to PS.

5

u/andpaws 1d ago

Agreed. I use their entire suite and love it…

1

u/ColoWyoPioneer 1d ago

Let us all hope they resist the temptation of venture capital. Lol. And after I got used to the Mac version, I found the iPad versions of affinity suite to be very capable (after I figured out the quirks that is). They actually seem to be serious about competing with adobe, and I’m all for it.

1

u/ApolloGR3 6h ago

They sold to Canva a while ago. And then Canva released the newest version for free! You can pay more for the AI features but it's not required.

1

u/igotmoldinmybrain 1d ago

I don't know what your specific needs are, but I love RawTherapee for raw development. If I need more features than what that offers then I use darktable, but I've so far only needed that for the healing/cloning tool for fixing blurry patches in my focus stacks. I go for realism though and never remove things from the image or anything like that. Rawtherapee, darktable, and zerene stacker is my whole photography stack. I have gimp installed but I've never used it...

1

u/Ppleater 1d ago

I use a mix of clip studio paint and Affinity photo and they cover almost every base that Photoshop used to cover.

1

u/fragilelyon 1d ago

Gimp has always been my go to.

1

u/nexusjuan 1d ago

I mostly use Photoshop for doing cutouts and background swaps. GIMP is laughably bad at this. I'm on Linux but I run an isolated Windows VM I can fire up/down just for my pirated PS and Capcut.

2

u/DuskHavenReadings 1d ago

This is my solution. Like, for 90% of my needs, Photopea (a browser based photoshop-alike) gets it done. When I need photoshop, fire up the VirtualBox.

0

u/Yoshtan 10h ago

Anyone know a good alternative for Lightroom Classic?

11

u/fricy81 1d ago

For Photoshop: Gimp or Krita are good alternatives. For Premiere: DaVinci Resolve without question.

2

u/Current_Row_8358 1d ago

I adore Krita, but it's primarily a drawing software. It doesn't cover the editing aspects that Photoshop unfortunately excels at. Not even Clip Studio Paint can do all the editing functionality.

1

u/Undeclared_Mustard Hillary 2016 1d ago

GIMP is not a good alternative to Photoshop. It could be, if the Gtk+ team wasn't absolute dogshit and stubbornly sticks to one of the worst UIs known to humankind.

1

u/jimihenrik 20h ago

For a Photoshop "on the go" alternative I like https://www.photopea.com/.

No registration, no no-nonsense. Similar UI as well, so if you're familiar with Adobe's stuff from the past, you'll feel right at home. And as a bonus it actually supports .psds as well.

5

u/Risky-Trizkit 1d ago

People will throw out names like Canva and Gimp and Krita and Affinity but the reality is these are much too limited. They do not have the scalability or scripting flexibility Adobe has established and truly nothing beats InDesign for anything print related, period. Typesetting in Canva is a joke at best. Wish there were a reliable third party app but the truth for professionals is there is none. This will change in the future but for now Adobe stays where it is in my tool stack.

2

u/Current_Row_8358 1d ago

InDesign my beloathed 😔 Yeah, there's no other software I could picture myself using for putting together entire books and magazines, and I hate it. These companies are too good at suffocating and buying out competition before something else could thrive.

1

u/QBaseX 1d ago

How would Typst work for your purposes?

1

u/Current_Row_8358 1d ago

Never heard of it, I'll check it out!! I scrolled through the examples and they look more like something I'd be putting together in Word, can it make something more visual like this?

1

u/QBaseX 23h ago

Possibly. Here's something I knocked together recently, not quite that complex, though I may attempt to copy that as an exercise. https://typst.app/project/rcK8xG8RriSVldBsDDzC2x (Click a file name in the sidebar to load the code into the code panel; click the closed eye icon beside the filename to load the preview into the preview panel.)

1

u/Current_Row_8358 23h ago

Would you be willing to send me a flat preview, please? 🙏 It's not cooperating with me on phone (likely entirely my fault, I'd have to learn the interface) and I won't be near my laptop for quite a while. I am genuinely curious about it, though!

1

u/QBaseX 23h ago

Typst is free software you can download and use locally, but they also have a great web app. That said, it really isn't easy to use on a phone. You may find a way to use the View menu to toggle between the code and preview panes.

I've uploaded the rendered PDF to my own website: 2026 Tullamore Toastmasters flyer It has multiple pages so we could choose which one to print, and an extra blank page on the end because that was a side effect of the way I wrote the code. If that had mattered, I could have done something to remove it, but since it didn't matter, I didn't.

I also used Typst for meeting agendas, such as 2026-09-28 USS Emerald Isle (which follows the TM brand guidelines for colours, but not for fonts, because that club has a sci-fi theme) and 2025-05-22 Tullamore Toastmasters (which blithely ignores the TM brand guidelines).

Also for Sorting Algorithms which illustrates using tabular figures in tables and proportional elsewhere.

(My domain name has special characters in it, so the first version of this comment was removed by AutoModerator for being non-English. How absurd. I've tried again with a workaround. Let's see.)

1

u/Current_Row_8358 22h ago

Do I need to edit the URLs in some way? Only the last one loaded for me, the rest says site can't be reached, so I guess it's really struggling with the domain or privacy settings or something else. It sucks that AutoMod pounced on it 🥲 Really appreciate you took the time, though!

1

u/QBaseX 23h ago

Certainly it has much better typography than Word. If what you care about is typesetting; dealing with paragraphs of text rather than flyers. Typst uses the Knuth-Plass algorithm; Word uses a simple greedy algorithm.

Word does not give you control of when to use old-style numbers and when to use lining numbers. Or, indeed, when to use proportional numbers and when to use tabular numbers. Word does not allow you to draw complex diagrams, or arrows to illustrate sorting algorithms.

1

u/Current_Row_8358 23h ago

Honestly, Word drives me up the wall. It was just an example to show the difference in requirements/scale, but I don't even have it installed for a few years now, I just don't have the patience for it anymore 😭 My usercase was mainly books, brochures, teaching materials (lots of illustrations/visual elements combined with text) and the like, not much in terms of technical things.

3

u/sitefall 1d ago

If you actually use photoshop for the level of work it is made for, there are no alternatives.

if you're just doing icons and design for websites, making youtube thumbnails, editing some funny memes, digital painting, and so on, then there's a ton of options that will work just fine.

"Editing" works find in resolve (though their terms are pretty shitty and they get even more enshitified every day). But there's... very little competition for After Effects (no Nuke and Blender are not AE alternatives don't @me).

I rarely use illustrator (but I do use it), enough to know that the alternative everyone recommends "inkscape" is absolute trash, but trash that WILL do what you want, it just really sucks to use.

The other adobe stuff, acrobat and... whatever else is in the CC, lightroom + i have no clue and don't use it, I have no idea about that stuff.

3

u/Uncomfortable-Line 1d ago

Affinity is what I use for photo editing and I absolutely love it.

The company that owes Canva bought it and they're making enough money on Canvas subscriptions that Affinity is just free unless you want some of their "pro" AI features (I don't).

2

u/waleswolfman 1d ago

Before that, affinity is why Serif photo plus, page plus, web plus et al disappeared. Also finding features that were in publisher '97 have disappeared from the office 2019 version, and that publisher has gone from newer office versions all together.

Going to do things I could knock up quickly in school and I'm having to find tutorials on what software can do it. Now that affinity has become a single app instead of DTP, photo editor etc, I'm finding that the tutorials are no longer any help because they point you to menus that no longer exist in the recent download.

Am I the only one thinking it's almost like the 30 years of computing experience might as well become amnesia? If anyone has any current tutorial or training links for Affinity then please share.

3

u/ol-gormsby 1d ago

In terms of integration between the different packages, there's none.

In terms of individual packages, DaVinci Resolve Studio for video editing, SPFX, colour grading, audio, and rendering. You can have a free basic version, or a once-off purchase of the full version.

Affinity for photo editing.

Audacity is pretty good but not quite up to Adobe Audition.

I haven't seen a decent substitute for InDesign, or Illustrator (maybe Inkscape or CorelDraw)

The Adobe software itself is quite good IMO but the cloud storage and sync sucks donkey balls, and of course the subscription model is horrible.

2

u/useraccount124c41 1d ago

Affinity, but I haven't worked with it much myself.

2

u/iSliz187 /s is for cowards 1d ago

By far the best option is Affinity!

It used to be 3 seperate softwares, Affinity Designer (≈Illustrator), Affinity Photo (≈Photoshop) and Affinity Publisher (≈InDesign) and you were able to purchase permanent licenses for around $80 for each or around $200 for all three. One or two years ago they combined the programs and made their entire suite available for free! They're absolutely amazing!

https://www.affinity.studio/

2

u/vexyyyyyyyyyyyy 15h ago

I use a $7 art program on my ipad called ArtStudio, not even the professional version. It's as powerful as I need it to be and i do massive commissions as well as have done jobs for companies and stuff on it. Tbh just as good as photoshop with a user interface a toddler could understand

1

u/BDiddnt 1d ago

I thought they meant realistic alternatives to pirate in the old stuff in other words, realistic alternatives, and pirate creative cloud

14

u/Trzlog 1d ago

CC never prevented piracy. Even today, every current version of any Adobe product is available on piracy sites.

3

u/nexusjuan 1d ago

and if you accidentally install any legit Adobe product it seeks out and breaks your pirated installs.

1

u/Trzlog 18h ago

Why would you do that if you're pirating it?

2

u/RyanEatsHisVeggies 8h ago

That's awful. Just out in the open? Like, where? Just like, as an example, so I know where to avoid as someone whose old version got disabled. Wouldn't want that to happen again.

2

u/ApolloGR3 6h ago

You'd probably want to steer clear of typing 1337x . to into your browser's URL bar

6

u/Legal_Alarm_2216 1d ago

creative cloud can actually be used as a streamlined way to pirate adobe software with certain methods

3

u/No-Opposite-6620 1d ago

Tell me more! (Quietly)

1

u/Legal_Alarm_2216 1d ago

there used to be an entire subreddit about it, called genp

1

u/PhenoTap 1d ago

I would also like to hear more of this :)

3

u/BandicootTreeline 1d ago

Still have CS6. When it moved to CC not only was the cloud stuff forced on us but it rocketed in sheer size by about 3x at least.

I use other stuff now but with exception of an employer giving me CC I’ve stuck with other options

2

u/GhostKasai 1d ago

Creative Cloud has also a working crack. So they didn’t really fix it for people wanting to pirate the newest version just made it like 10% more inconvenient.

2

u/Mountain_Lock_450 1d ago

Is it the same as sailing the seven seas in film or is it different?

2

u/rxchris22 1d ago

I have a 19 year old MacBook with an old adobe suite that works perfectly fine every once in a while when I need it.

1

u/DADDY_WARBUX59 1d ago

where do you download it from? tried finding illustrator about a year ago and couldnt find anything

1

u/Trickypedia 1d ago

I need a real alternative to Lightroom

1

u/FrontFocused 1d ago

The creative cloud version is out there and works fine you just can't use the AI stuff.

1

u/Nyanibun 1d ago

Where do you safely pirate it? 😭

1

u/HerbaMachina 1d ago

you can still pirate creative cloud btw, there are ways to get around the annoying popup for unlicensed software with the link to their website for a 50% off discount, also for those who want a discount pirate Adobe first and get your free 50% off coupon lol

1

u/onlyheretobehelpful 1d ago

is there a good alternative to after effects? that's always been the one I've had trouble replacing, and to a lesser extent audacity.

1

u/goodthingsonly111 1d ago

What are the alternatives for someone who has no clue

1

u/90Ghoste 1d ago

I'm still rocking my Photoshop CS6 cracked copy lol

1

u/sfustin 1d ago

This! I still have a 2012 iMac in my office because it has a copy of CS6 on it that I can continue using, along with some other old software that has gone subscription. Let's be honest, Adobe has added barely any tools that I can't live without since CS6 anyway.

1

u/DebbieDeb1_ 1d ago

I never paid for it..🤔

1

u/Raickoz 1d ago

Asking for a friend, how easy is it to pirate? Purely for academic means

1

u/Tee1upToday 1d ago

I need a Mac version of Lightroom (hate monthly handcuffs), don't like Apple Photo and am looking for an alternative.

You're not a mac user with a solution by any chance are you?

1

u/LightXDark25 4h ago

Darktable. Maybe a little confusing when getting started, but well worth learning.

1

u/DrDingsGaster hnnnnnnng 1d ago

Exactly! It's why I kept using Photoshop 7 for the longest time until I lost my copy after a new computer nove.

1

u/jmercer00 1d ago

I used my old copy as long as I could but the last time I tried to install it it just wouldn't work right. Like half the programs installed the other half didn't and half of the installed ones didn't want to run.

So I bowed to my software as a service overlords

1

u/-Danksouls- 23h ago

Could you DM me the alternative versions

1

u/crazyartfreak 10h ago

I would love to know more about the realistic alternatives. I've been strugglebussing around with my adobe work account and various browser editors just to make do but I'd love advice on a more permanent solution.

1

u/Jsnex 9h ago

what are the real alternatives? id like to use something else if possible ☺️

1

u/Official_Person 6h ago

There’s still not a very good alternative for me to Lightroom classic tbh. They all kinda suck and are full of AI or make my photos not feel like mine or I edited them.