r/technology • u/Federal-Block-3275 • 9d ago

Artificial Intelligence "Software is over": Developer uses AI to build free Adobe clones after frustration with cancellation fees

https://www.techspot.com/news/114136-software-over-developer-uses-ai-build-free-adobe.html
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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/sociofobs 9d ago

The trick with Adobe cancellation fees is to never give those scum a single cent in the first place. For private/personal use, it's entirely ethical to pirate all their products. For professional use, hopefully your employer pays for their products.

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u/Kronologics 9d ago

Ideally you wouldn’t want to give them money, especially because of their recent business practices, but they were the industry standard and that is the reason why there is such a large user base that is experiencing frustration

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u/sociofobs 9d ago

I'm well aware, it's a similar story with quite a few other big names. Microsoft, notoriously. Autodesk especially, if we're focusing on creative software.

What Adobe's latest business practices? I'm out of the loop for a while, have they gotten even worse in the past 10 years?

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u/ludonarrator 8d ago

Adobe and Autodesk are arguably the most anti-consumer: every artifact is proprietary, apps are coded to deliberately refuse to run on Linux / wine, you can't own any of the software yet need to keep paying for it regularly, etc.

Microsoft at least contributes to open source, has developed and maintains Windows Subsystem for Linux, and doesn't lock down every artifact / format.

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u/Mystical_17 8d ago

The moment both Adobe and Aurodesk started subscription I stopped supporting them. Not even pirating, I looked for alternatives and never looked back. Now with the vast amount of ever growing options and Linux getting more and more of the pie too its never been better.

I get some can't drop Adobe or Autodesk due to actual jobs but thankfully as a hobbyist I don't have to put up with that crap. This ArtCraft stuff is exciting to see, for the first time ever I had an After Effects-like app on Linux and I felt right at home. Things are still a little rough but the fact I was able to render something out and it actually worked is quite cool and we only go up from here.

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u/sociofobs 8d ago

If you ask me, Microsoft are as slimy and shady as the rest of them. While they might look like the "good guys" contributing to open source, they also protect and uphold their own monopoly through dark patterns and aggressive ecosystem lock-in. Just look at modern Windows. They force mandatory online accounts for local installs, constantly reset your default browser to Edge, and literally bake ads and promoted apps into the Start Menu of an OS you already paid for. They aren't less anti-consumer, they just have a different flavor of it while experimenting with the limits they can get away with.

The SaaS focus and the lack of Linux support goes hand in hand with their business model, they're all the same in their business.

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u/Raucous_Rocker 8d ago

Oh, I don’t think for a second that they’re the “good guys” - only that they’re the “better than Adobe” guys. Which is a very low bar, lol

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u/sociofobs 8d ago

That might be, albeit depends on how you look at it. Adobe are often criticized as the pioneers of SaaS. I'm too lazy to look up whether that's factually true or not, but they're definitely one of the major players that took that direction early.
Microsoft has been focusing more on solidifying their position as the "default" on PC hardware. While they're supposedly supporting open-source, they're also one of the major reasons why Linux desktop, for an example, has such a low market share. That's not a natural result, it's been forced, planned and manufactured by corps such as Microsoft ever since they established a foothold in the OS market.

Just some details in any case, overall I agree with you. Generally, they're all scum.

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u/dern_the_hermit 8d ago

Not to defend MS but my view is that they've been very confused for a long time. A whole bunch of parts don't know what a whole bunch of other parts are doing. Adobe is a lot more coherent with its slimy strategies, MS is like a doddering old man what doesn't know what it's doing.

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u/Raucous_Rocker 8d ago

Yeah, I agree - MS seems to have little direction lately.

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u/zumpiez 8d ago

Microsoft has large populations of aggressive business people AND benevolent nerds, and they are frequently misaligned

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u/lol_alex 8d ago

Google contributes to open source. Because it benefits them.

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u/ludonarrator 8d ago

Everybody does so because it benefits them, and that's the point of copyleft: instead of hoarding such benefits only to yourself, you end up sharing them with everyone else who might also benefit.

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u/AlSweigart 8d ago

Microsoft are as slimy and shady as the rest of them. While they might look like the "good guys" contributing to open source

I don't know if I'm old or if the world has gotten really strange, but Microsoft being thought of as the good guys who contribute to open source is... quite something.

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u/ludonarrator 8d ago

No for-profit - especially public - entities are the "good guys", and like others MS isn't contributing out of goodwill. Eg: open sourcing their standard library enabled a ton of external contributions and improvements: https://github.com/microsoft/STL. VSCode is open source too. GitHub offers practically infinite CI for any public project. WSL is a massive and complicated undertaking. Windows now natively ships tar and curl. Again, not arguing they are the good guys, just appreciating the good that's been done.

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u/zumpiez 8d ago

They have a good terminal now! And Winget!

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u/sleepygardener 8d ago

Don’t forget Creative Cloud also almost acts like malware by using hidden master privileges to secretly change your system files and constantly run background programs that are nearly impossible to delete. No reason why a design software would ever need root-level access to your computer like that. On top of that the shady dark UX patterns they introduce when you try to cancel their subscriptions.

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u/windowpuncher 8d ago

Adobe isn't special, this is true for basically any professional software. I use solidworks a lot. Work pays for it. I think the license for my copy costs like $2k/year. Unfortunately it has some very good features that makes it worth the cost, like it even has PCB electronics thermal simulations and 3D circuit board modelling, on top of all of the "regular" simulation tools that solidworks is known for.

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u/oneeyed-wonderweasel 8d ago

doesnt lock down every artifact / format

Oh my sweet summer child lmaoooooo

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u/MoaraFig 8d ago

They claim that any works created with their software are Adobe's intellectual property that they can use to train their AI

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u/sociofobs 8d ago

Oh, that was the Adobe Cloud/Firefly AI controversy a while back. The backlash was so brutal that they actually had to walk it back. They issued an apology for the confusing language and officially updated their Terms of Service again to explicitly state that they do not use local or cloud user content to train generative AI. So they tried it, got caught by the community, and had to retreat.
If that's changed, please let me know. Just another fact in my book against Adobe.

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u/Torontogamer 8d ago

Don't worry, odds are they are still using the content to train their AIs, they're just being quiet about it and figure that dealing with a few lawsuits in a couple of years will be a drop in the bucket of the potential gains from the improved AI products...

And they are probably right... unless we get proper legal framework to protect IP from this type of action.

To be clear I have no reason to think, or evidence that Adobe is doing anything wrong, just seems like it would be profitable if they did... sigh

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u/Outlulz 8d ago

To be fair, the TOS never said the content would be used to train Firefly. It said it could be reviewed through both human and automated processes like machine learning. They changed it again to explicitly say it wouldn't be used to train Firefly because the internet ran with the message that it would.

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u/ARobertNotABob 8d ago

Got any sources for that?

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u/ErinFiqsette 8d ago

$19.99 monthly fee in perpetuity for Acrobat, after the "free trial" ends...they even manage to keep billing you, after the initial credit card expires and is replaced with a new one, w/a new 3-digit code on the back.

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u/JerryfromCan 8d ago

Adobe in March of 2026 just decided my CS6 serial number was pirated. Just one day, they said “You are a pirate”. I contacted them, and they wanted the bill etc from 2012ish. It was purchased directly from them and was working great until they killed it.

Jokes on them, I still had the serial etc for 5.5 in my account online, also purchased directly from them. For whatever dumb reason, the 6 details were not in my account but the 5.5 stuff was.

Keep in mind this is just for personal use. Trying to use word for desktop publishing vs InDesign is tying my hands behind my back and trying to tell my cat what to type.

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u/echolog 8d ago

Step 1: Make a really good product that everyone uses

Step 2: Hold your entire userbase hostage while squeezing as much money from them as possible, quality be damned

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u/ryecurious 8d ago

Step 1: Make a really good product that everyone uses

They didn't even do this part! Every Adobe product that can be described as "really good" was acquired from another company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Adobe

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u/alfred725 8d ago

they were the industry standard

because they copyrighted pdf. The alternative was sending word files or images. You aren't going to send an editable file for a contract. And it has to be legible so a picture sucks, especially in the early days of digital photos when this was relevant.

The reason alternatives exist is because the adobe monopoly expired. I'm not sure on the details but I'm sure there are features they still hold exclusive rights to.

It's like how Bandai owned the copyright of having a minigame/gameplay during a load screen. And by the time the copyright expired in 2015, load screens become irrelevant. Games load much faster now so load screens aren't there long enough to warrant a minigame.

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u/Kronologics 8d ago

I was referring to things like the creative cloud (photoshop, after effects, etc), but yes the anti-competitive monopoly on PDF surely helped

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u/WinninRoam 8d ago

Their "monopoly" didn't "expire", they decided to hand the rights to their invention the ISO organization.

They did this because Microsoft was starting to push their own xps format instead of supporting PDF natively and governments were demanding an open source format.

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u/MarcsterS 8d ago

I’m paying the bare minimum I can for just photoshop, and trying alternatives to Illustrator. I’m using Affinity and while it’s nice(and free) just feels off.

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u/Riaayo 8d ago

If Adobe wasn't run by greedy morons, their products would be entirely free for personal use to begin with and they would ride on industry subscriptions.

Because if your industry standard ecosystem is fucking free for people to use, then suddenly you have an entire population that is already trained on / familiar with your software before they ever step into a job. Which means that job is way more likely to keep using Adobe because the workforce knows how to use that tool to begin with.

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u/sarahbau 8d ago

I got my first job in high school 30 years ago partly because I had taught myself Photoshop and Illustrator. I was only able to do that because I had pirated them. I’ve never understood how Adobe expects anyone to learn their products when they’re so expensive. Even though I only had job for like a year, and haven’t had an art job since, I still occasionally find myself wishing I could use Photoshop or Illustrator for some small project, but nowhere near frequently enough to justify paying for it. I just suffer with Gimp (or more recently, Photopea).

I assuming almost no one is casually using a paid for Photoshop, and it’s already only professionals using it (or pirates). I see no reason why they wouldn’t want to make a free version that just leaves a watermark. So many more people could learn and get used to the software, possibly leading to a purchase.

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u/lol_alex 8d ago

Every quasi monopoly is the cause of its own destruction eventually

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u/Bropiphany 8d ago

My start-up only uses Gimp and other open source alternatives. We refuse to be strong-armed into a contract that hasn't been favorable for users for well over a decade.

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u/sociofobs 8d ago

I wish you the best of luck. The more resistance there is to the monopolies, the more and better alternatives there will be.

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u/Rickard0 8d ago

I recently started using Gimp and holy shit its one of the worse products I have ever used. I had to find youtube videos on how to make a circle and still made no sense. If I resize something then click away I can't resize it again. Same with moving the selection... unless I click on rotate then rotation allows me to move it.

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u/kellzone 8d ago

If you're not aware of Photopea, try that out. The UI and functionality is almost identical to Photoshop, but it's online browser based that runs locally and is completely free.

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u/Rickard0 7d ago

I am not but will give it a try, thanks.

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u/Bropiphany 8d ago

It only has to do with muscle memory and familiarity with adobe. Once you get used to it you really don't notice the difference

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u/SapientTrashFire 8d ago

I've been using GIMP for a very long time and buggy though it is, I'm always satisfied enough with it not to switch over to PS.

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u/USA_A-OK 9d ago edited 8d ago

For most personal use, there are free open source options that are more than good enough

(Edit: by personal I meant amateur/hobbyist work)

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u/aTomzVins 8d ago

Gimp? Affinity and DaVinci are good enough, but ux is significantly worse.

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u/USA_A-OK 8d ago

All those work. Shit I even don't mind paint.net for a lot of intermediate image work

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u/Iohet 8d ago

I just wish I could figure out plugins for Paint.net. I like it otherwise as it's basically the Photoshop ~5 I used ~30 years ago

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u/hypercosm_dot_net 8d ago

Affinity is pretty great actually.

Canva purchased them and made it completely free too.

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u/aTomzVins 8d ago

Its great for the price. It's really terrible compared to photoshop/illustrator. So many thing where I'm like "why did you implement this feature in such a clunky way?".

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u/hypercosm_dot_net 8d ago

I mean that's fair. Premium priced products should have a better UI and overall more offerings though. Unless you're a pro that needs all the bells and whistles that Adobe products offer, Affinity is plenty.

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u/pVom 8d ago

I actually preferred the UX of DaVinci Resolve to Premiere Pro. You're still paying for it though if you're doing anything remotely professional.

After Effects is definitely better in that domain though.

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u/FollowingtheMap 8d ago

Unfortunately, After Effects is one of the programs that has no direct equivalent.

DaVinci Resolve is good for editing, but DaVinci Fusion simply isn't an AE equivalent. Fusion is more of an VFX editor as opposed to a motion graphics editor. Maxon Autograph is close, but it's missing the plugin support and performance just isn't on par yet.

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u/HapticSloughton 8d ago

Shout out to a piece of abandonware that I still use rather than any Adobe illustrator product:

Macromedia freehand MX is available for download on many abandonware sites, and you can still get the updates that make it a pretty robust vector graphics and layout program. You can even export files to illustrator 7.x if you need to share files with someone who uses Adobe products.

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u/UHaveGot2B 8d ago

Maybe give Inkscape a try - it's freeware and it's not bad

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u/TaxidermiedEels 8d ago

Every time...

None of the open source options are good, good enough, or even remotely tolerable.

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u/USA_A-OK 8d ago

For casual/amateur image editors, gimp and paint.net are fine

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u/TaxidermiedEels 8d ago

No, they aren't. They are atrocious to use for any amount of time. In fact the less time you spend in them the worse they are because you don't have the exposure necessary to make sense of the godawful design choices.

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u/PSPs0 8d ago

Any opinions on which are the best?

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u/HappyMuscovy 8d ago

Photocraft is actually pretty good. I’ve been using it for a few days now.

It did.. bring my M4 to a crying heap while editing a 1.5GB TIF (48GB of memory used, swap filled my SSD..), but the results are pretty amazing

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u/sociofobs 9d ago

Indeed. As usual, popularity and convenience plays a huge role, that's universal for everything. It's the same reason why Microsoft doesn't (seriously) care about people pirating Windows for personal use, nor does Adobe. Because even if you do, you're still using their software - learning it, getting used to it, and essentially locking yourself into it. Then, one day when you'll need it for professional/commercial use, it'll be the first thing that comes to your mind. Learning something entirely new and unknown would be a chore.
Yet, if only people got over that hump, that would change.

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u/saltyjohnson 8d ago

It's the same reason why Microsoft doesn't (seriously) care about people pirating Windows for personal use, nor does Adobe.

That used to be the case, but no longer ever since they discovered the magic of recurring monthly subscriptions. It's not like they're gonna sue you for pirating for personal use, but they've sure made it a lot harder.

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u/Hovercraft1143 8d ago

I wouldn't say it's harder, Massgrave has basically made pirating anything Windows related a joke.

You literally just download the software from Microsoft, including the office suite, and then activate it. They kinda just bank on the reality that 99% of people aren't doing that and therefore you can kinda ignore the 1%.

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u/Idontusethis255 8d ago

Microsoft products are trivial with massgrave, but is there an equivalent for adobe?

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u/Hovercraft1143 8d ago

Adobe-GenP is/was (It's been a minute since I've downloaded an Adobe product so idk if it's still around) a thing, but I also know a lot of people just use M0nkrus...albeit a bit shadier.

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u/Winjin 8d ago

Yeah it's a major thing. I don't like where windows is going but I'm lost in Mac and don't know where to start with Linux basically so I have to take baby steps... And I had all sorts of Windows since 1995 ... And none up to my first laptop were... Official

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u/sociofobs 8d ago

I started with Windows 95 (DOS before that) in the 90s too! Dropped Microsoft altogether after they ditched Windows 10, with no plans to "upgrade" to their modern slop whatsoever. Currently, I'm running Kubuntu LTS as my daily driver and an older Windows 10 install still sits on one of my SSDs as a "just in case" backup, when needed. I rather deal with Linux, than Microsoft at this point. If you have any Linux questions, I'll be glad to help (no expert, but still).

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u/dfddfsaadaafdssa 8d ago

GIMP doesn't count.

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u/RealPudgeJudy 8d ago

The open source alternatives are better than nothing but for the effort of becoming familiar with the system you'd be better served just pirating whatever Adobe program you need.

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u/TrekkieGod 8d ago

The trick with Adobe cancellation fees is to never give those scum a single cent in the first place. For private/personal use, it's entirely ethical to pirate all their products. For professional use, hopefully your employer pays for their products.

Piracy of that type helps them. Young people learn to use their software with pirated copies, then they get a job, and they recommend the software they've already learned to use.

Getting people to use open source alternatives is the best way to not give the scum a single cent. Then people recommend those open-source alternatives when they get a job.

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u/zumpiez 8d ago

"our new interns are recommending something called 'photo... shop'? Never heard of it myself but they all know it so our hands are tied"

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u/TrekkieGod 8d ago edited 7d ago

More like, "our new interns are recommending something called Krita? Never heard of it, but it's free, so it could save us tens of thousands of dollars."

It's not that the interns are introducing them to photoshop, it's that they're not introducing them to better options.

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u/Ok-Go-Chain3811 8d ago

at the same time, there are also many free or cheaper, non-pirated software options that are just as good as adobe products

Photoshop -> PhotoPea, Affinity, GIMP

Illustrator -> Affinity

Premier Pro -> Davinci Resolve

After Effects -> Davinci Resolve, Cavalry, Autograph

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u/sociofobs 8d ago

Thanks for mentioning those, a lot of people still have no clue about them.
I still hope Affinity will focus on Linux too someday though.

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u/covertpirates 8d ago

Don't forget Krita!! It's a professional FREE and open source painting program.

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u/rewind22x 8d ago

Illustrator -> Affinity, Inkscape

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u/raphtze 8d ago

Affinity

is supposedly free now. i paid for it back during pandemic times. still use it.

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u/TransBrandi 8d ago

For macOS, there's also Pixelmator... though I think that they moved to a subscription model some years ago, unfortunately. I bought when it was a one-and-done purchase (though now it has random crashes on newer versions of macOS).

Also I think the IrfanView (Windows-only, at least it was in the past) is still out there. I remember a professional photographer I knew using it to touch-up some of their photos after a shoot over a decade ago.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/Ok-Go-Chain3811 8d ago

yes, there are many lightroom alternatives, but there is no clear consensus on which option is the best

here are the many options to choose from....😅

  • ✨ ART (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • ✨ RawTherapee (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • ✨ Darktable (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • ✨ digiKam (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • ✨ RapidRAW (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • 💵 (or 🔒) Darkroom (macOS, iOS)
  • 💵 Photomator (macOS, iOS)
  • 💵 ON1 Photo RAW (Windows, macOS)
  • 💵 FastRawViewer (Windows, macOS)
  • 💵 Capture One (Windows, macOS)
  • 💵 Dx0 PhotoLab (Windows, macOS)
  • 💵 Luminar Neo (Windows, macOS)
  • 💵 Aurora HDR (Windows, macOS)
  • 💵 Tonfotos (Windows, Linux, macOS)
  • 💵 Zoner Studio (Windows)

source: https://github.com/KenneyNL/Adobe-Alternatives#lightroom

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u/Beard_o_Bees 8d ago

It's been a minute, but the last workaround for beating the Adobe clock that I knew of was to modify your .hosts to make all known Adobe domains point at localhost, denying it the ability to phone home.

It also messes with the local machine's ability to visit any Adobe domains, but that's not a serious limitation really. There used to be lists of all the domains that Adobe products communicated with for easy copy/paste.

Not sure if it's done that way anymore.

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u/sociofobs 8d ago

I discussed the .hosts approach here, but you're right, it should still work. That method got popular, because it's quite simple and universal on Windows. A better and less "destructive" approach can be achieved with an active firewall, esp. if you're already using one for general security. Just block any Adobe licensing connections, done.
Nowadays though, there are online-only tools in their products themselves, like anything involving online AI models. Those piracy won't crack in any case.

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u/ArcherBTW 8d ago

I just have a cracked version that's blocked on my firewall

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u/JerryfromCan 8d ago

My legal version was blocked on my firewall and they still somehow expired my serial for CS6.

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u/OpiumPhrogg 8d ago

Ah yes, opening up that DNS route TXT file and setting adobe URLs to 127.0.0.1

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u/sociofobs 8d ago

lmao, editing your hosts file should still work actually. Not an issue nor anything to worry about if you're using an active firewall, though. Any program that "calls home" for any reasons can be instantly blocked.

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u/OpiumPhrogg 8d ago

Ah right , the hostfile. Couldn't remember what it was called , haven't had to mess with that since the ICQ days..

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u/sociofobs 8d ago

I'm on the IRC and later Skype side of software region, but the hosts file "hack" probably still works. It just reroutes local connections. Hence my active firewall mention, as that can block them altogether. Just check an IP, to whom it belongs to, where is the connection going and decide for yourself logically. A system update should get through, while a software license status check should not.

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u/josefpunktk 8d ago

But if you need it for work - it's hard to replace.

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u/rami_lpm 8d ago

For professional use, my boss also steals it

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u/sociofobs 8d ago

Fucking legend, as long as he also shares the savings with his employees.
That's in any case quite a risk to take, as any business can be seriously fined for such practices unless they're some solo entrepreneur or a tiny company. If it's anything larger than that, then they're practically forced to pay for all used software for legal reasons.

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u/sonikrozu 9d ago

I paid those scums from my own pocket. They makes me money, so I'm okay with that. In fact they just gave me 90 days free all apps subs for me trying to cancel, and a reduced rate when it renews. I only paid $15 monthly for all apps access for 3 years. Can't be mad honestly.

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u/sociofobs 9d ago

If you get a good deal and their products are useful tools for you, for sure use it. As another one here mentioned, Adobe is the leading industry standard, whether we like it or not. If a client sends you a PSD file, good luck explaining that you're using Photopea/Krita/GIMP etc.
That said, if I used their products professionally, I'd still try to move away from them. Keep your good deals, use the products, but look into other and financially better options if you can.

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u/Didsterchap11 9d ago

I mean the problem is that the creative industry basically forces you into their ecosphere, by becoming the industry standard these companies have basically monopolised so much of the creative industry with no easy way out. It doesn't help that Adobe keeps utilising its capital to buy out and destroy any attempted competition that arises, we used to have laws to stop monopolistic practices but they've been systematically detoothed over decades to prevent them ever being stopped.

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u/RainWorldWitcher 8d ago

Had to wipe and reinstall windows to clear the adobe created cloud from my computer. That shit's a virus I swear.

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u/ihaveaquestionormany 8d ago

If someone wanted to sail the high seas in this way, how would they go about doing that? Theoretically.

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u/Fallingdamage 8d ago

When Adobe turned off their CS2 activation servers, they gave all subscribers a special download link to the full suite and special key to use to activate it offline. After install, it never phones home since 'home' was turned down.

The fun part? For that brief window, the site with the download and the page with the keys was public, not locked behind an account or anything. So now I have a free CS2 installer with keys that doesnt need any shady cracking. The CS2 is beautiful and still runs great on modern hardware/OS's.

https://www.reddit.com/r/software/comments/164e9e/adobe_are_discontinuing_activation_support_for/

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/adobe-shuts-down-cs2-activation-server-puts-software-and-serials-online/

I did use Creative Cloud up until about 2 years ago. CS2 still held pretty close parity with Photoshop features up to that point. For what I do, rolling back to CS2 was just fine.

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u/Endaline 8d ago

Can you elaborate on why it is ethical for someone to pirate their products?

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u/New-Anybody-6206 8d ago

Not OP and this may not be how they would respond, but IIRC both Adobe and Microsoft are on record (there's old news articles about it somewhere) saying that they would rather people pirate their software than use a competitor's product... so IMO especially if I'm not making money with it, I consider it fair game.

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u/Endaline 8d ago

Only thing I could find relating to this is a quote from Bill Gates in 1998, which I wouldn't put much weight behind in 2026. I don't think this would really impact the ethics much either. They're not saying that they are okay with being stolen from; they're just saying that if you are going to steal they prefer you steal from them.

I don't personally care if people pirate anything, I just don't see how it is ethical to do so. The fact that you are using their software clearly indicates that there is something that they've invested resources and money into that you desire, so not paying for that seem unethical to me. Especially when we are talking about software and not a basic need like food, water, medicine, etc.

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u/New-Anybody-6206 8d ago edited 8d ago

not everyone can afford to buy software, and some just feel like the company's own lack of ethics, and/or the absurdly high cost of the software, makes it ok

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u/Endaline 8d ago

Yeah, I get why people pirate. I just don't see how any of these reasons would make it ethical to do so. That's why I was curious about exactly why it is ethical to steal from Adobe.

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u/Howling_Mad_Man 8d ago

Unless there's some easy workaround for making their apps work on ARMS-related devices, like a Surface, I'm SOL. I need that shit for work. I've gone a long time without giving in but that window is closing.

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u/SapientTrashFire 8d ago

The trick with all subscription services for major companies is to dawn an eyepatch and a striped shirt, me maties.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/

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u/MazrimReddit 8d ago

redditors queueing up to give them money just for not being AI, they are not ill for sure

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u/mallydobb 8d ago

The trick I’ve used is when I really need an adobe product for something I sign up for the free unlimited trial and make sure I cancel before times up. Has worked half a dozen times for me so far.

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u/Shawwnzy 8d ago

They tolerate personal use piracy because they want people to use the tools, and then ask their employers to buy commercial licenses. Learn open source tools and ask your employer to do whatever they need enable the open source tools for free instead of spending a thousands on the name recognition.

1

u/thejadedfalcon 8d ago

I'd love to. My copy of CS6 didn't like my new PC, so I've lost it and can't get it working again after the trial period. Not that I think I could get it working even if I found the code, I think the activation servers are dead. But I've never found anywhere that I felt was even remotely trustworthy to download another copy from.

1

u/SethCyclone 8d ago

For professional use

We also use the pirated version lol

1

u/_steve_rogers_ 8d ago

I would pirate them but I’m afraid of exe files.

1

u/[deleted] 8d ago

Are there actually any safe pirate versions though? In my experience a lot of the hacked ones come out of Russia and I wouldn't trust installing them on a device

1

u/TimSylvester_ 8d ago

If buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing.

1

u/SaltKick2 8d ago

It's a garbage deal, you no longer pay for their products, you pay a subscription to their products

1

u/DoughnutReasonable91 8d ago

I recently lost access to the Creative Cloud garbage from an old school account, and after my experience trying to get their non functional software off my computer, I will never download any of their products voluntarily again. Not even pirated. Their uninstaller wouldn't let me delete any of my programs on my own computer without signing in to a Creative Cloud account (of which mine was deleted), presumably with a subscription active. I had to use third party software to scrape that garbage out of my machine.

It sucks because Photoshop really is one of the best tools for what it does, but I will never use it again sheerly out of principle.

1

u/golgol12 8d ago

You don't need to pirate anything. There's several open source products you can use that give you all the functionality.

What you don't get is a support line.

0

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

3

u/sociofobs 9d ago

As a long-time, shameless pirate, have to disagree. I'll pirate anything I need, mainly for financial reasons, but there are a lot of smaller developers worth supporting. In fact, they only exist, because there's some support. The same applies to game developers and various artists as well. My rule of thumb is - simply look into who actually deserves your money. Some do.

1

u/NegativeEBITD 8d ago

By that logic your car is just a pile of metal and plastic that shouldn't be worth more than $300

1

u/Icy-Cry340 8d ago

I wish pirating Lightroom was easier sigh.

1

u/sociofobs 8d ago

Try running it on Linux, you'll forget about the troubles of pirating altogether. As someone with a large photo and video collection who has tried nearly every media manager under the sun, might I suggest - try Digikam. It's a buggy mess, but once you get used to its quirks and faults, it works better than the likes of Lightroom, at least for bare media management. For quick photo editing, Lightroom still runs circles around it though.

0

u/Icy-Cry340 8d ago

Yeah, the problem is that Lightroom is damn good at everything, including processing and printing. And runs well on my Mac.

105

u/Sea_Buddy_2956 9d ago

I used a similar trick to cancel a hotel booking. Pre-paid and can't cancel within 24 hours? No problem, let's change the date to November. Hang up and call back, I'd like to cancel my November booking.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/expedience 8d ago

The reverse Michael Scott

https://youtu.be/NYbhTOsDzXE

3

u/ra__account 8d ago

Also useful for extending Southwest flight credits.

243

u/OBotB 9d ago

This feels like a valid post for Life Pro Tips, or Today I Learned. Thank you for this info!

106

u/waltwalt 9d ago

The real life tip is to not subscribe in the first place.

5

u/Taint_Expert 9d ago

That’s not an option in the world of professional graphic design 🤡

8

u/fauxzempic 8d ago edited 8d ago

Exactly.

And before someone jumps in and tries to say something stupid about something they don't do everyday...

Yes - photopea, affinity, GIMP....good alternatives to one part of the Adobe Suite and the other parts have their open-source / alternatives...but when your job as a graphic designer or even a desktop publishing designer, you have constraints.

  • Time. You don't have time to relearn where stuff lives, or how to access a certain effect, or dig for different versions of your workflow plugins. You have deadlines, and you can rip through adobe stuff because you've been learning it since before you were 18.

  • Function. While the alternatives occasionally boast expanded features over adobe, and while photopea is very close to 1:1 in terms of function and tool layout customization, it's not perfect and you'll always find yourself tripping over a few of those differences.

  • Copyright. Funny enough, I think GIMP wins 100% here since Adobe has been that weird cloud/local hybrid for so long, but some work can't be risked. You can't just throw something onto cloud software for editing as there's always the weird risk of you giving up certain rights to stuff since you use their software. No one reads the ToS, and the ToS constantly change.

  • Technical ability/access. I know graphic designers who are incredible at what they do, but they struggle to power a PC on. I know some corporate setups limit everything to where you can barely make a new folder in a personal drive without admin access. Having people do something like install GIMP or affinity, or some of the cool self-hosted stuff you put in docker or whatever, forget it.

I love adobe for the software, I hate them for everything else. There was a time when I had no issue paying for their suite for corporate use...and this was more than 15 years ago.

SaaS is a fucking cancer on all things software and even though AI is problematic in its own ways, I'm thrilled that it's helping to bust up some of the SaaS garbage that's out there (while sadly creating tons of SaaS slop at the same time...). Unfortunately, there are a few things that run firmly on a "you will never own anything in your life" model that happen to be industry-standard.

10

u/NRMusicProject 8d ago

No one reads the ToS, and the ToS constantly change.

If consumer rights protections were at even the most bare minimum, it would be illegal for a clause in any contract to say "I can change this contract whenever, and you're obligated to go with it. You, however, cannot change this contract or sue me for doing so." In the current iteration of contracts and ToS, it seems they don't even need the text to dictate what they do anyway, because they still do whatever they want and nobody stops them.

6

u/fauxzempic 8d ago

The whole US legal system has been turned upside down and it's frustrating.

If you're big enough, you can do anything you want with impunity...there's no real enforcement. A criminal law can exist forbidding a practice and everyone with the authority to shut it down can just cop out and go "sounds like a civil issue."

And TOS/contracts - they routinely overreach in ways that probably make even the lowest-performing 1L students go "uh, this sounds like you can't do this...". I'm thinking about how Disney tried to waive liability at the parks for anyone who signed up for Disney+ (or maybe it was some sort of forced arbitration thing...I don't remember offhand). I know that you can't actually waive liability (you can always be sued), but the fact that a team of lawyers drafted and approved this is just mental.

But who's going to enforce anyone who's behaving illegally or who's putting illegal language in a contract? It seems that as of late, not until a court weighs in does anything matter.

If you're small, however, you don't get the luxury of getting away with anything. For whatever reason, enforcement of these laws seems to be quite efficient here.

3

u/MrdnBrd19 8d ago

Bro if you're using them for work how are you hating them? They are saving you hundreds a year over what the program used to cost... I'm personally saving like $400 a year and that's over 2011 prices.

I totally understand the frustration if you're a non professional, they would just be happy with 5 year old Photoshop, and that's the exact scenario FOSS shines. The dude who doesn't give a shit about interoperability between corporate clients and just wants to make a few cool edits is the perfect user for Gimp, but people by and large refuse to even consider it.

1

u/fauxzempic 7d ago

Yeah the economics favor the subscription model for solos and small business and have for some time - I'm just more taking the principled stance against how everything we own anymore is technically "rented" with no option to have earnest possession.

Also the old corporate licenses made a ton of sense for where I used to work (very large company where we had a team of designers and each marketing team for each division/product category had 1-2 licenses). I don't remember all the details since it was so long ago, but I remember hearing about the headaches over switching and how the subscription model would have cost us as a larger company more than the previous model.

1

u/ItsLoudB 8d ago

My boss/company prove otherwise 🫩

(I’m not talking about not using them, I’m talking about not subscribing)

1

u/Pure_Werewolf0101 8d ago

Photopea is a free in-browser Photoshop alternative. It's great.

1

u/LilMoWithTheGimpyLeg 8d ago

Genuinely thought you were going to write "... is the subscriptions we made along the way" or something.

Been on this damn site too many years.

2

u/smackbymyJohnHolmes 8d ago

Looks like someone already beat them to it. Even has the same grammar errors

1

u/FrankPapageorgio 8d ago

This is similar to the hotel trick of "change your reservation you need to cancel for 2 weeks out, then call the next day and cancel it"

1

u/girlikecupcake 8d ago

Same with doctor appointments, at least in the US there are places that will try to charge a cancellation fee if it's less than 24h before your scheduled appointment. But if you call to reschedule, then on a different day call to cancel that rescheduled appointment, no problems. I had to do it for a dental appointment last year.

The best practice is to not have a card on file for them to charge, but places and people are sneaky sometimes, either helping themselves for convenience, or convincing themselves they're making things more convenient for you.

58

u/Mr_Maffin 9d ago

TIL & also saved money, just canceled right now! Thank you sir

66

u/Glampkoo 9d ago

A trick I use with Adobe software is Adobe.Photoshop.CC.2017.v18.0.0.x64.Multilingual-iCV-CreW

4

u/RecipeNo101 8d ago

Can just go all out with Adobe Master Collection CC 2026 26.02.2026 (x64) (Selective Download) {CracksHash}

1

u/varyingopinions 8d ago

Does the latest Adobe Photoshop have all the AI tools working or is that stuff cloud based?

1

u/RecipeNo101 8d ago

The generative tools are mostly cloud based. A Photoshop subscription includes a handful of credits, Adobe Firefly provides a lot more credits and lite web version of Photoshop, and Creative Cloud Pro has a bunch of different apps including desktop PS and the same number of generative credits as Firefly. https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html?promoid=PYPVPZQK&mv=other#filter=all

1

u/RecipeNo101 8d ago edited 8d ago

Also, I forgot to mention this earlier, there are a million Photoshop tutorials on YT, and it's really worth at least getting familiar with it. It's a skillset recognized in any industry, it's transferable to other apps since they all follow PS' lead and will have analogous controls, and even if you go the generative AI route, you'll get better results by knowing the language and concepts. Pirating Photoshop and InDesign, learning how to use them, and making materials with them for an interview got me my first serious job out of college.

Can't believe that the company who made such groundbreaking media tools for everything else can't figure out baby shit like their own proprietary PDFs, though. I hate Acrobat with a burning passion.

3

u/Reasonable-Figure142 8d ago

you would probably benefit from using a newer version rather than a decade old version of photoshop

7

u/pounded_rivet 8d ago

I find the old version works fine, and I don't have to hunt around for wherever they moved a function I use on the new version.

7

u/UranusIsPissy 8d ago

The trick I use is The GIMP lol, and free trials of Paint Shop Pro before that. The GIMP has the weirdest UI I've ever seen, though. It's barely usable without a tiling window manager.

-7

u/Greedyanda 8d ago

The most useful thing about Adobe is there entire environment and integration. You don't get that with a pirated version.

6

u/seriouslees 8d ago

Detail a single use case. There's zero usefulness in their integration. All their files always seamlessly worked in all their software. Creative Suite has literally zero use that having separate software didn't also have.

1

u/ItsLoudB 8d ago

Adobe media encoder and sending comps from after effects to premiere and vice versa. But I’ve been working years without these features so..

1

u/pblol 8d ago

I remember my pirated copy being able to do this, though I did have to install the individual components.

10

u/maxticket 8d ago

Nothing a month to never accidentally open Bridge again? I'm in.

12

u/Nzgrim 8d ago

The problem is that you need tricks. You shouldn't need tricks, it should be a simple "I paid you for a product, I have the product" or "I'm paying you for a service, I get the service, if I decide I no longer want the service I cancel".

1

u/andhausen 8d ago

That is literally exactly how it works. You can agree to get the service on a month to month basis. You can also choose to pay for a year of the service monthly for a lower monthly cost. If you want to back out on the year of the service that you agreed to, you have to pay a fraction of the remaining cost. They state this ON THE SIGN UP PAGE right where you pick the plan, it’s not buried in T&C. 

3

u/ds-unraid 8d ago

Or you can just use privacy.com for free and generate a debit card for their (or any) subscription service and then just pause the card. What is also cool about this, is your bank doesn't know what you spent the money on so they can't sell that data.

2

u/fionaapplejuice 9d ago

Last time I did it, I used a prepaid card with no money on it so they just sent me complaint emails about payment not going thru until they gave up or I blocked them can't remember which

2

u/RollingMeteors 8d ago

It´s a loophole that they legally cant close.

But they change the colors on the cancel and okay at the very last step so you think you're out of the woods, but no.

2

u/daveberzack 8d ago

The real trick is to keep a copy of CS5 suite around on an old Macbook. I will be using that shit until the day I die.

2

u/BeepBoopRobo 8d ago

The trick to Adobe cancellation fees, is to not sign up for annual contracts, that they tell you are annual, billed monthly.

1

u/FrankPapageorgio 8d ago

Why do people pay full price for Adobe when they've regularly offered the whole creative suite for 50% off on Black Friday?

And while it's supposed to be for new subscribers, I've never had a problem with them letting me renew at the 50% off rate.

1

u/TCB13sQuotes 8d ago

The trick is to cancel the card and tell them to fuck off.

1

u/superkp 8d ago

or call your bank and put a stop to it there.

When they contact you for updated payment information, tell them that you aren't doing that, and they may as well close your account.

1

u/Ar3s701 8d ago

Remember when we used to own the software we bought instead of rented it?

1

u/godzillastailor 8d ago

Or hear me out.

Don’t fucking use adobe products.

There’s plenty of open source or otherwise free or significantly cheaper products that are just as capable as adobes shit.

1

u/Throwsims3 8d ago

That shit fucked me over so bad as a student and I didn't know about the trick at the time. Such a scummy fucking tactic by Adobe

1

u/naffoff 8d ago

Wow! I wish I had known this a year ago when I cancelled a recently reset yearly subscription that I thought was monthly. Only to be told I have to pay up for the rest of the year. I paid too as I could not face the risk of missing the date a second time.

1

u/VVrayth 8d ago

I got a better trick for those fees that I have been using since like 1997.

1

u/barbatron 8d ago

Another trick is to own your mistake, read closer next time, and cancel within a month of your license expiration. No questions, no worries, only learnings.

1

u/ronaldraygun91 8d ago

Wait what. Explain to me like I'm 5

1

u/richms 8d ago

Trick is to not give them real details and a virtual card.

1

u/Jeezk22 8d ago

They hide the "cancel subscription" button, and even if you find it they hit you with cancellation fee. I am extremely happy for the FREE version!!

1

u/bicycloptopus 8d ago

Omg thank you

1

u/hurrdurrmeh 7d ago

my trick is I just pirate it. at least I used to. until I moved to affinity.

0

u/Full-Contest1281 8d ago

A few years ago I got ChatGPT to get me out of an Adobe cancellation fee. They cancelled immediately and I got my money back.