FW: Corporate madness - Adobe software to be subscription only

[Craig Ede]

This is troubling, and so one message is "buy the CS software on CD/DVD
while you still can." A number of my friends, most connected with academic
institutions, are doing that. 

I expect Adobe is attempting to have everyone on the same page as regards
these applications so that one set of help files defines the "current state"
of an application. This would help a lot in terms of expected outcomes when
using the product. However, it requires a constant state of reeducation as
new features are added and different ways of handling things are introduced.
Not that we don't have to deal with this already, but at least we know if we
do something in a given version, it is going to work in a way that we
already are familiar with. 

As for extending this "the current version of the app" beyond the bounds of
the Creative Suite, I rather doubt that Adobe will do that anytime soon. If
they have their finger on the pulse of their users they must realized that,
for instance, in the medical device industry, all tools used to produce
documentation must be validated. It would be impossible  (and expensive!) to
validate a moving target as the apps were continually being improved and the
former version made unavailable.

Craig Ede
-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Steve Rickaby
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2013 11:38 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: OT: Corporate madness - Adobe software to be subscription only

I have just heard a rumor that the CS Suite is going to available in future
only on an SaaS basis, by subscription. TCS/FrameMaker could follow?

I do wonder whether the accountants that run large corporates like Adobe
understand how important their software is to the countless thousands of
freelances who have to scrape every last penny to buy it - but at least then
they own something, not vapor that goes phut as soon as you stop paying for
it.

For the last two decades FrameMaker, Illustrator, Acrobat and Dreamweaver
have been the rocks underpinning what I do. I'm far less sure about the
future, though.

-- 
Steve [somewhat aghast]