I think customers are a bit to blame for such shady companies. So many good alternatives to Adobe ecosystem exists but customers are mostly unwilling to switch to them and as result Adobe doesn’t have to worry about keeping customers satisfied.
Do I hate that I used to pay a (large) one time fee for a version and now I've given them thousands of dollars more than I'd have preferred? Yes. Do I think this 12-month contract dark pattern is scummy? Yes. But I also can't find suitable alternatives either, so in a sense they've earned their money in that regard.
Scribus also looks like an interesting open-source solution. (Anybody here have an "InDesign vs. Scribus" perspective?)
- Website: https://www.scribus.net
- Download ("Development Candidates" recommended): https://www.scribus.net/downloads/unstable-branch/
- Flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.scribus.Scribus
- Source: https://www.scribus.net/websvn/listing.php?repname=Scribus