Need Vitriol? Admit subscribing to Creative Cloud

I was seriously disappointed when so many people started ripping Scott Kelby for trying to explain Creative Cloud.  He didn't tell anyone to subscribe, he was trying to explain what he saw.  I have a very good sense of what he felt like now. I announced yesterday on Google Plus that I had received an offer from Adobe targeted at CS6 Master Collection licensees and that following a phone conversation with Adobe, I decided to subscribe.  For me, the annual fee is less than half of what I have consistently paid for upgrades over the various iterations of Master Collection and even before that when Macromind and Adobe were different companies. 

Today, I am stupid, Darth Vader, a sellout, a transacter of souls, easily fooled by people with clipboards, a drinker of Koolaid and an abandoner of principles.  Like Mr. Kelby, I did not tell anyone to subscribe, but I did relate that I had chosen to, because I have been vocal on why I don't like leased software in the past.

I still don't like leased software.  I still own CS6 Master Collection and if my experiment with Creative Cloud doesn't work out, I still can use CS6 in perpetuity.  Would I prefer it if Adobe treated the Master Collection as they have Lightroom 5, that is to make it available as a subscription AND as a perpetual license, buyer decides?  Absolutely.  They didn't.  Sometimes business makes decisions we don't like and we can follow or not, our choice.

I was pleased that Adobe reduced the subscription cost to a price/value ratio that is acceptable to me.  Many are saying Adobe flinched and is in the process of caving in.  Maybe so.  There has certainly been a lot of negative flashback at Adobe for their decision but the data shows that over 1M customers have subscribed to Creative Cloud.  I assure you, if the price/value ratio was not acceptable to me, I wouldn't have done it, and time will tell whether it's a good buy.  The net is that I get to use all of Creative Cloud for one year for about the same cost as a one year membership to the Professional Photographers of America, a membership I have maintained for some time.  I can assure you that I will get more value from Creative Cloud in terms of tools and revenue, but that doesn't make the PPA membership useless.

Having spent more than fifteen years of my life working for software companies, I understand the piracy challenge all too well so I discount some of the complaining about Creative Cloud because it makes it harder for people to steal software.  Some complainers still have a principle argument against Adobe and despite their insults, I still support their arguments.  In the end my data is my data, and as I use tools to get to finished product, and after analysis have determined that I go back and revisit a work to enter the edit process midstream later occurs nearly never.  A finished photograph or a finished video are for me at least, finished.  In some ways it's like renting a tool from Home Depot.  Even when the tool is gone, I still have the cabinet I built with the tool.

I would definitely prefer if Adobe offered a license choice for Master Collection CC.  If they change their mind, I will likely go that route.  In the interim, I will try the components in Creative Cloud and make ongoing business decisions from there.   For those who care to heap insults on me for my decision, whatever.  You are entitled to your opinion, but in this case it's my money, my work, I don't tell anyone else to follow me.