TL/DR: ¡ADIOS ADOBE!

I have used Adobe PhotoShop for over 30 years and DreamWeaver for over a decade.

I upgraded from Creative Suite 4 to Creative Suite 5.5 in 2011. It has served me well and faithfully since then. In addition to PhotoShop, I have used Acrobat for countless PDF documents, DreamWeaver to build and maintain scores of websites, InDesign to publish over half a dozen books, and Illustrator for a few graphics design projects.

And, while I never paid a penny beyond the initial purchase price, I would have upgraded to a newer version if Adobe had offered me that option. Instead, they made their software available by subscription only, and I REFUSE TO PAY A MONTHLY OR ANNUAL RANSOM TO EXERCISE MY CREATIVITY.

But recently Adobe has gotten even worse. A few months back they announced a change in their Terms of Service regarding anything in the cloud storage that comes with the Creative Cloud subscription: They now own the right to access your creative product stored in the cloud and use it to train their AI.

If you believed Adobe could not do anything worse, apparently they found someone to hold their beer a few weeks after claiming rights to your work in their cloud. They issued a new revision to the terms of service claiming the right to also use anything created with their software even if you have it saved on your own drive.

In the last few days I have bitten the bullet and upgraded to a computer an operating system that do not support CS5. That meant either being Borged by Adobe, or finding replacements for some of the software I have come to rely on for a large part of what I do on my computer.

I am happy to report that:
•Affinity Photo 2 is a serious improvement over PhotoShop CS5.5, and it only costs $69.99 for lifetime use.
•Bluefish replaces Dreamweaver. Yeah, kind of like a brand new Prius Hybrid replaces a ’67 VW Bug. And it’s open source, so it’s free.
•PDFGear does far more than Acrobat, once again it’s an open source program, so it’s free.

While I have not used Affinity Design as a replacement for Illustrator, or Affinity Press as a replacement for InDesign, my experience with Photo 2 and what I have read in reviews makes me actually look forward to the experience.

My new machine has no Adobe software and, barring major changes at Adobe, it never will. A week ago I was admittedly apprehensive about this. Now, with better software for far less money, I am ecstatic.
¡ADIOS ADOBE!