You are reaching big time with a few different factors. First you appear to be assuming Adobe is totally maxed out on its number of subscribers and cannot attract any more users.
Not at all. Adobe has one big advantage and that is by pushing their software in the education sector, people going through high education are used to that software and have the idea implanted into them that they have to have this software.
What the hell is Corel or any non-subscriber software vendor doing to "lure" customers to the next version? As I said before I've already paid my $99 "upgrade protection" fee but haven't heard the first word of what to expect with CorelDRAW 2021. Meanwhile there is actually a process toward progress going on with Adobe. The lights are on in Adobe's house. Can't say the same at Corel.
I said that the desire should be greater. I didn't say that the company was actually doing that. There is a huge difference. Corel has it's own problems as you mentioned in other posts.
Ironically, I would say that what some of the others have done is one key difference that Adobe had done (Corel used that very thing in the earlier years of the switch to get new customers). They kept a non subscription license option. That was the single factor that took me away from Adobe after having worked with the software since the summer of '94. Add into how MS was handling Windows, I made another switch. In fact, the OP started experimenting with Affinity software based on not wanting to pay the monthly license.
Now, having said that, I'm able to eat crow and move back if that becomes a need. I won't like it, at all (far more freedom as an end user and what I can do on the platform setup that I have now compared to what I had before), but I know enough to make that decision if I need to.
Adobe is the one who is being far more responsive to user feedback. Adobe is issuing way more bug fixes and doing so faster.
This is actually apart of that iterative nature. To where you get more bug fixes etc, but not the truly wow new features like we used to get. I'm talking "layers" level of wow.
Large canvas means squat to you? I think I asked this before, but what are you doing spending time on a sign making forum if large canvas functions don't mean anything to you?
I can work in scale, I've been doing it for years. It doesn't bother me, I have a system down for that. Certainly not a feature that would compel me to buy a perpetual license if Adobe still had that available.
As to why I'm on a sign forum:
1. I offer services to sign shops, either partial or the entire process (depending on if they have the machines or not)
2. I also do create and offer smaller signage, along the lines of more "novelty", but not quite. For some sure, but not all.
3. While the main stay of what I do may not be signage, there is very little difference in creatives, so it's nice to socialize in some way with other creatives.
4. I firmly believe in continuing to learn. I educate all creative processes and enjoy learning about them. I believe that the mind, like any other muscle, needs to be continually worked.
The large canvas feature in Illustrator was long overdue.
So they just
now implemented a long overdue needed feature when they are able to slow down and be more iterative and fix bugs. How long have people been crying out for that feature?
the push updates does way way more to keep users far more current on running the latest builds.
This is a pro and a con. You are essentially on a rolling release, this isn't good for a production platform. For an end user, maybe, but not a production computer. How many update issues has their been with Windows and their updates? Some haven't had any, but some have them all the time. And when Windows has an issue, that affects the programs as well and it's because of that, people have to keep upgrade their software. At that point, I would prefer to have browser based software (and with WASM, it's damn near close to native speed, why we are able to have AutoCAD in the browser). At least with it being in the browser, there is another level inbetween it and what is happening on the hardware level that Windows updates won't affect it to the same degree. You may not have had that much of an issue with Win 10 updates, but there are plenty that have.
The development team doesn't have to waste a bunch of time working on old, defunct versions of software for people who flatly refuse to upgrade.
There is a difference between this and a more stable platform.
Don't want to upgrade? Unplug your PC from the Internet permanently. But don't drag everyone else down with that Luddite garbage.
That actually doesn't work all that well if that software still requires server connections.
I'm not advocating luddite level here. My main office OS doesn't get a stable release until April of this year (it's 21.04), the other computers run the LTS, but are rolling release for KDE/Qt applications, meaning Qt apps (Krita for instance) get updated as soon as a new one comes up (I do that manually on my own). I run alpha builds of Blender in production, so I'm not afraid to stay current, but even though I tend to run Alpha and Beta builds of software (I ran Fedora in production and that OS goes EOL every 13 months), I still wouldn't suggest it for a production machine, unless someone is willing to fix things on their own. Those are the ones that should be using rolling releases, those that are able to fix things on their own. Do an internet search etc. Not those where time is money.
Adobe's software is not for casual hobbyist kind of stuff. It is geared primarily for paid, professional use. A hobbyist can go play with Inkscape or some other free or very affordable program. It's not a problem for my company to pay for 3 CC licenses. We pay a LOT more money for plenty of other things, including certain kinds of software. For example professional level RIP software for large format printers is not cheap at all.
You are assuming some things here. You are equating my not liking the new licensing scheme as not being able to pay it, not running a legitimate business because of that.
Back in the day, when Adobe released a new version, I would buy it out right (in terms of buying a perpetual license, one never truly owns Adobe software), even if I qualified for the upgrade pricing. Why did I do that? Because I didn't want to have to futz with installing the old version and then install the upgrade if I swapped out computers, it was worth the full price to me to not have to deal with that.
The software that runs my machines and my digitizing business, $15k. I have
no problem shelling that out, but I will drop them if they go subscription (I have other options, one of which offers more then it's paid for equivalent (not as much as the $15k software, but I don't
need everything in that particular package either and what extra I needed that most don't need, I actually contributed to that part of the code base). I was even a beta tester for them once (do you really think that they would have hobbyists as beta testers or "real" businesses?). Price is not the biggest reason.
If you believe that this last section of yours is the biggest reason why people do things like this, swapping to other software, especially if it's cheaper and thus without merit in the commercial setting, your way off base when it comes to my main point and why I advocate switching. For some, sure that may be true, but not in my case.
