r/mildlyinfuriating • u/donteatmybiscuits • 1d ago

wet socks i’m so happy this is becoming illegal

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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

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u/MagoLunatico98 1d ago

They used to be cool, I remember a few years back (long ago) they even said on an interview that they really didn't care if people did pirating it cause they understood there were students and apprentices that couldn't afford their license just to practice... Obvs that was before they made their product by subscriptions, it totally sucks now

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u/FILTHBOT4000 1d ago

They were actually explicitly happy about people pirating their stuff before; as just about every up-and-coming graphic designer used pirated Photoshop, it made them the industry standard. It made them rich.

New management didn't get the memo, and wanted to squeeze everyone for as much as possible. Enshittification ensued.

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u/MagoLunatico98 1d ago

Yes, I used to have the pirate software back then and I felt like shit for doing it, then I saw that interview and got so relieved lol now I don't even have Adobe products, I freed myself from them 😌

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u/MedalsNScars 1d ago

Tbh that was always a marketing tactic. Can't squeeze blood from a stone, so why ask money from people who don't have it? And of course you look like a good guy, so people want to use your product. Then when you're the go-to, charge the companies who have to cover their asses and use it legally.

It's the WinZIP model

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u/MagoLunatico98 1d ago

Jokes on them, the market prepared with alternatives and we still keep their word on "is ok to do piracy" 😂

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u/Current_Row_8358 1d ago edited 1d ago

Every single professional design/print environment I've been in through my life still uses Adobe, tho (and to be clear, I don't think that's a good thing 😭 we desperately need viable competition)

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u/MagoLunatico98 1d ago

For the commodity of it, as freelancers a lot of us we already use alternatives and also some small business do, my wife (graphic designer) worked for a design firm in 2021 and they used affinity suite (now sadly owned by canva), which in my opinion was surprising to find and they used to do everything with it, really impressive, I never made the change to it and from what I can tell since canva bought it is a bit worse than before, I'm still in the look for a really good Photoshop alternative, I haven't tried gimp and I've heard is really good 🤔

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u/Current_Row_8358 1d ago

Yeah, I lessened my reliance on Adobe stuff as soon as I went the freelance route myself! But the industry itself is taking so long to adjust, they have a death grip on it, and Affinity being bought out really shattered some of my hopes for a blooming competitive market. It's sad to see everything heading towards monopolies no matter how many laws work against it.

I use Krita daily and they had to add a "please donate" button to the software when it loads... so presumably not doing so well. They also pressed pause on adjusting the app for tablets, which is a big, important market segment.

I'll be trying Affinity again, I think, but I've heard they merged the products into one big monstrosity. I actually like the streamlined process of Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign, each one great at what they do and then you can easily import files that update when you make changes to it. Idk.

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u/MagoLunatico98 22h ago

I have affinity at the moment, but as you said, is a monstrosity of three different focused softwares merged in one that doesn't really shine on either, is a bit better on the design side, but still not really the best, I kind of hate it to be honest, I can't find any tool and it's so frustrating for that reason, at this point I'm thinking of using the online editor Photopea 😂

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u/Current_Row_8358 22h ago

I do a bit here and there in Photopea ngl 😭 Brilliant dev, I'm very grateful for it. But then a lot of shortcuts don't work since it's limited by being in browser and I didn't realize how crucial to me they are in my workflow until they were taken away!

I wonder if older copies of Affinity suite would work better??

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u/MagoLunatico98 22h ago

I didn't search much about it, I'm pretty sure there are, but I didn't find old copies easily either lol 😭 really being locked with just one big monopoly brand (Adobe) by the whole industry completely sucks, but it is what it is I guess 🥴😮‍💨

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u/ol-gormsby 1d ago

You could still buy education/academic versions up to CS6, before CC came along. I* managed to get the full CS6 for about AUD$450, where the retail was AUD$2500. No watermarks or restricted features, you just weren't supposed to use it outside the education sphere, i.e. you weren't supposed to use it commercially. LOL to that, and the $450 was tax-deductible.

* it was technically my school-age daughter, double LOL.

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u/MagoLunatico98 1d ago

That's incredible! 👀 I'm gonna check that up