Adobe shambles - Why subscription software should be illegal

[Andrew Reid]

Creative Cloud is anti-competitive, locking users into a perpetual payment plan with no guarantee of future costs. What started at Adobe has spread like a cancer in the software and creative app industry with subscriber-only plans rather than a one off purchase price. Our subscriptions as businesses, enthusiasts and consumers are stacking up and becoming a real monthly headache, and it is time governments looked into regulating the subscription software industry - starting with the king bastard of them all, Adobe.

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[kye]

The free version of Resolve has almost all the functionality of the paid version, and a one-off purchase (of $300 IIRC) potentially comes with unlimited future upgrades. They don't guarantee that, but I bought a dongle when v12 was out and it still works on v16, and people who bought at?previous versions are also around saying the same thing.

If you buy a physical dongle then I think you can use it across however many computers you like, just not at the same time, and you won't be subject to the Apple store licencing restrictions.

There are also threads of people petitioning BM to give it still image editing so they can also ditch LightRoom, but I'm not sure on how likely that is.

Come on in, the water is fine

[Avenger 2.0]

Adobe Lightroom is a good example. Luckily I still use the last perpetual license. It's only available now in an expansive plan with Photoshop which I never use. I downloaded the last Lightroom Classic Trial and I'm shocked to see that there are no major changes in the 2 year it was out. From what I can read on the Adobe forums, Ligthroom 6 is more stable than any version after that including the last Classic. Pay monthly to be an Adobe beta tester. No thanks!

[gcaus]

I have been thinking recently of switching to Affinity Pro, has anyone got experience with it? I am very much a photoshop user, mostly using bridge and camera RAW as I like the interface. But I am feeling like I am being ripped off now and would rather own than lease software.

[sanveer]

Blackmagic was created with the purpose of destroying all the obscene pricing NLEs and all the post suites of a handful of companies. Unfortunately, it appears that the companies refuse to improve their ways and want to to back to making thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, from each user. They need a Blanket Boycott and everyone should post their NLE boycott.

[Andrew Reid]

31 minutes ago, kye said:

The free version of Resolve has almost all the functionality of the paid version, and a one-off purchase (of $300 IIRC) potentially comes with unlimited future upgrades. They don't guarantee that, but I bought a dongle when v12 was out and it still works on v16, and people who bought at?previous versions are also around saying the same thing.

If you buy a physical dongle then I think you can use it across however many computers you like, just not at the same time, and you won't be subject to the Apple store licencing restrictions.

There are also threads of people petitioning BM to give it still image editing so they can also ditch LightRoom, but I'm not sure on how likely that is.

Come on in, the water is fine

The Resolve dongle that came with the first BMCC in 2013 still works with Resolve 16 Studio for me

Incredible. This was a free dongle with a camera.

But no matter how good the competition is, coming off Premiere is like trying to stop smoking. Not easy due to the years of muscle memory.

[SottoTerra]

9 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

The Resolve dongle that came with the first BMCC in 2013 still works with Resolve 16 Studio for me

Incredible. This was a free dongle with a camera.

But no matter how good the competition is, coming off Premiere is like trying to stop smoking. Not easy due to the years of muscle memory.

Speaking for myself, I've used Vegas Pro for years and has been far more reliable then Premiere Pro ever was, except for the last three version which have steadily gone downhill.  Switched to Resolve and never looked back.  Sure it does need a beefy machine with an equally beefy GPU but it's by far the best and most feature rich editor I've used!  I'm genuinely surprised why everyone doesn't ditch Premiere Pro and switch to resolve - does 'muscle memory' justify all the frustration born out flaky software and monopolistic business practices?  I think not...

[kye]

6 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

The Resolve dongle that came with the first BMCC in 2013 still works with Resolve 16 Studio for me

Incredible. This was a free dongle with a camera.

But no matter how good the competition is, coming off Premiere is like trying to stop smoking. Not easy due to the years of muscle memory.

Cool, what version of Resolve was that? 

And yeah, change is hard.  Resolve has a pretty hardcore keyboard customisation engine, and they've put in presets for other NLEs but the layouts and methods and tiny features still take a long time to adjust to.

One of the Adobe YT crew did a comparison of Premier and Resolve and one of the gripes she mentioned was a single button click away from fixing, but there would be dozens of those to learn in converting.

It just depends on how much pain you are in... ???

[BTM_Pix]

18 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

The Resolve dongle that came with the first BMCC in 2013 still works with Resolve 16 Studio for me

Incredible. This was a free dongle with a camera.

Ironic really that Blackmagic should use a software suite that used to carry an annual service contract fee of up to $80K to highlight the absurdity of how much it now costs to run Premiere.

 

[Pedro]

After using Resolve steadily now for more than 2 years I still find it a bit slower than premiere to do edit work, but the advantages are there and Resolve it is my go to NLE.

The fact is I am so used to using the power windows and the color wheals on Resolve that doing color correction or color grading on premiere doesn't work for me no more. 

I haven't venture much into the fusion tab, and I got to go to AE for any kind of animation work, and for serious sound design or audio post I still go over cubase. 

 

[tokyojerry]

If I am not mistaken, I think a dongle is no longer needed to run the paid version of Davinci Resolve Studio.

[Mako Sports]

I switched to Resolve Studio earlier this year or late 2018, still use Photoshop/Lightroom. Once I find something better for editing photos I can leave Adobe CC Jail.

[Oliver Daniel]

@Andrew Reid, swallow the Adobe muscle memory and just get to grips with FCPX or Resolve. Both are far better, more intuitive and reliable than Premiere. 

I'm an FCPX guy, and when going back to Premiere now, it feels like I'm trying to edit with a relic. 

Move on! 

[GreekBeast]

Whats with the anti-premiere topics lately? If you don't like the product don't use it. Premiere has it's flaws like all the video editing programs but it's still reliable and has been solid for me tbh

[Jrsisson]

I’m stuck with Premiere as I’m always doing short term contracts and need to be able to slot in with existing teams/workflows with zero headaches.

 

Everywhere I go, Adobe is the standard. Hence I’m stuck..

[Mako Sports]

44 minutes ago, GreekBeast said:

Whats with the anti-premiere topics lately? If you don't like the product don't use it. Premiere has it's flaws like all the video editing programs but it's still reliable and has been solid for me tbh

maybe bc for the vast majority of us, its a buggy/crashing nightmare. 

[kye]

3 hours ago, tokyojerry said:

If I am not mistaken, I think a dongle is no longer needed to run the paid version of Davinci Resolve Studio.

There is a version that you buy a licence through an app store, but it's not as good as the hardware dongle version I've heard. Googling would reveal more info.

In terms of using a dongle though, if you pull it out then Resolve notices it fairly quickly and politely asks for it back

[March]

I'm still trying to convince my 4 co-workers to leave Premiere and FCP X behind and switch to Resolve... But because we are civil servants and on public money (our organisation pays for the whole Adobe Creative suite) nobody cares ... and they don't want to get headaches ... I'll still try after holidays.

Thank you Andrew for the amazing job you do !

MarcH

[KnightsFan]

1 hour ago, Mako Sports said:

maybe bc for the vast majority of us, its a buggy/crashing nightmare. 

That's half the issue. Of course people don't like subscription models in general, but if you are paying that much money, you expect it to be reliable--or at least more reliable than the significantly cheaper competition.

Premiere is still slightly faster to edit than Resolve. It's as if Resolve's UI has a few milliseconds of lag, and overall the UI is a bit clunkier with less customization. But the time saved from not crashing makes up for it, and Resolve is still improving at an enormous pace at no extra cost.

2 hours ago, Jrsisson said:

I’m stuck with Premiere as I’m always doing short term contracts and need to be able to slot in with existing teams/workflows with zero headaches.

 

Everywhere I go, Adobe is the standard. Hence I’m stuck..

Exactly! A lot of people use Adobe because clients require it. Rewriting muscle memory is doable. Convincing clients is not so easy. It's slower to change the paradigm than to make a better product, and hopefully Blackmagic realizes this, and is in for the long haul.

[Video Hummus]

I wish Apple would put some steady engineering into FCPX. The fact that you still have to use plugins and crap to get tracking and other useful features that have been in Premiere and Resolve for years.

They just now added built-in noise reduction...this year. The performance of FCPX is great but the truly useful features that can cut editing time down are not there.

Im still going back and forth on Resolve and FCPX. I just have so much muscle memory and workflow time in the later that it’s hard for me to switch. 

I love that Resolve has built In tracking and automatic face tracking with “beauty” controls. Makes it so much easier to smooth out and add that “pop” to faces.

Must have features in 2019 (and features FCPX doesn’t have!!!)

Reliable built in tracking with keyframing

A.I. powered Object removal

Customizable motion blur

A.I. driven optical flow frame prediction and replacement