Leaving Adobe for all apps

 

Back in 2006, I would fly across the world at my own expense to attend Adobe MAX just to see Adobe launch new products (and meet friends in the business). Now I'm in the camp of former fanboys that loathe Adobe. What happened? The video above sort of mirrors my Adobe trip, only I did it 10-15 years earlier. This post sums up the tools I'm now using and how I'm saving many hundred dollars per year and now have tools that are better and easier to use.

One of the biggest problems with Adobe is their licensing model that literally extorts you. Formerly, you'd pay $200 and you owned the software for as long as you wanted. This meant that you could save money and skip an update cycle if you needed to (and most did). Then came the age of subscriptions and Adobe CS. For my work, I need to have Photoshop, Premiere and Illustrator. Formerly there used to be  bundles that allowed me to get that at a “not so terrible price”. Now there's only the full CS package at $60 per month. That's $720 a year and the second you don't pay, you loose the software. It's not yours and you're income is directly tied to Adobe.

There are several alternatives and some are listed in the description for the above video about the Rise and Fall of Adobe, but here's my current solution for getting the creative software I need. Video was first on my list. During covid, I picked up a Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K for streaming and film and with that came a great piece of software called DaVinci Resolve.

DaVinci for video

I've used Premiere since the launch 20+ years ago. With hardware acceleration it also became a professional tool and most video editors I know (I'm married to one) swapped from Apple's Final Cut when they screwed up their software for all professionals some years ago, forcing a swift change. Getting the Premiere license in addition to the graphical tools has always been expensive, so I was really keen on finding an alternative.

The workflow in DaVinci Resolve is a little different and they're forcing it. The price is unbeatable though - it's free? As in completely free, but it also boasts some very unique features (Color, Fusion) that now is making many of my professional video editing friends do the swap. It also allows multiple persons to work on the same project, allowing color correction and audio to be worked while the editor adds the final touches to other parts of the project. They also offer some very nice editing keyboards with controls that make the editing experience so much better. All of that is not for me though as I'm just a complete amateur that needs to edit video once in a while.

DaVinci took some getting used to after that many years in Premiere, but after the second video it started to feel natural. I've now uninstalled Adobe Premiere on all my computers for DaVinci. It's just better for users like me.

Combined with my camera setup and BlackMagic ATEM Mini Extreme ISO, I have everything I need for making and editing tutorials for products I make.

Finding the perfect deal

Next up was testing what Serif offers with the Affinity tools. They currently offer the Affinty V2 Universal Licence for $199 (EU prices are higher, Norwegian kroner shown below).

I did however pick this up at a temporary sale/discount for only $79! I don't think I ever felt that I've gotten a better deal on software? I don't need the Publisher software at all, but at this price it really does not matter. Affinity isn't perfect in that each version is only supported for 3 years, but it's much better than Adobe despite this. Existing users will typically get a 50% loyalty discount to upgrade to the next version - much like Adobe did formerly.

Affinity Designer for vectors

This was the first software I transitioned to back in August. I've never enjoyed Illustrator much. The core feature of vector editing has always been better in other software, so my favorite 2D Vector software was actually the 3D software Rhino for many years. I still needed Illustrator for exporting and compatibility though, so I was stuck. Not anymore and the transistion was really smooth. Every time I was stuck, I just went on YouTube to find the answer quickly.

Affinity Photo for pixels

I've not used this a lot, but I've managed all the things I wanted for now. It's been like for Affinity Designer - when I'm stuck, I'll find the answer quickly since so many have done this transition already. Having a license for both Mac and PC is incredibly useful as I can use my gaming PC for any files that are really big (more RAM/GPU). My main use for a pixel editing software has typically been to either mask objects or to just rescale & export images. This last bit can now be done using the Preview app built into every Mac. It's so fast & smooth that I'll use that over other tools.

Resolve/MediaHuman for audio

The last task to solve is how to edit and make audio files. I've always used Adobe tools for this as well, but DaVinci Resolve is just as smooth for editing, mixing and audio effects - despite being a video tool. It lacks on the export front though. Resolve can only export 16/24/32 bit PCM files and I'll often need other resolutions. It would be easy for them to add this, but until they do that I'm using a very nice utility called MediaHuman Audio Converter. It's for Windows and Mac and it's all free. Very neat for batch converting files as well.

What's the future for creative software?

For many years, subscriptions have been the GoTo solution for any business that wanted to sell software. It's perfect for the business since it provides a steady stream of income. I learned from an Adobe executive at a bar many years ago that this is also related to US accounting rules and this saves them significant headaches due to legacy accounting rules made for old industry. But why did Adobe go from an convenient solution to an accounting problem to extorting their users? It's just the corporate machine I guess, but I'm saving $650 a year on my current software setup compared to using Adobe software. Since the software will last me 3 years before I need to update, I'm actually saving close to $2000! My time investment to do this swap was just a couple hours in relearning some features, so to me it's absolutely worth it.

I cannot see any future where I'll use Adobe Tools again. For my friends that work in video, it's the same. DaVinci Resolve does everything you need and then some more if you are willing to pay for it. There is simply no reason to feed Adobe if you're in that business. Adobe will retain it's stranglehold on many creative businesses such as Print for some years, but printing paper is a fading business. Marketing also depend on perfect exchange of files, but from people I've talked to in the business - they're all experimenting to get out of their Adobe deals. The only market I've found where friends insist on using Adobe tools is actually Photographers. Lightroom is just so dominating and people have so much metadata saved that they don't see a way out of it. The three photographers I talked to have not found a good alternative. After Effects is another niche that'll live on for some time. I guess there's a market opportunity here - to drive those last nails in the coffin?

Another thing is the dependance of Cloud for storage. I don't know any amateur that thinks this is a good idea. Amateur users want their files locally and not tied to a subscription. Professional users may want to pay for a cloud backup, but they don't want it to be tied to a single vendor. They also want to retain access to their files even if they're not renewing their license, so a Cloud only solution is not a good answer compared to Cloud + local. I've last experienced how bad that is since I use Fusion360 by Autodesk and they try to lock you in by offering Cloud only storage. You can export a non-editable version locally, but the full file with history and all those nice features are only available through Cloud. I guess that's the next software I'm swapping out for something that'll allow me to work locally with a software like Dropbox to ensure my backup is always there - complete with version history and not tied to a single vendor. Oh - and I need a new search engine as well!