Blocking the telemetry of Adobe apps
a.dove.isdumb.one
a.dove.isdumb.one
I had been using Adobe since Photoshop 5.5, but ditched it a couple of years ago and I’ve never looked back.
I would love to ditch Lightroom, because I don't even use it for editing, I only use it for digital asset management/cataloguing, I do all my RAW edits from DxO Photo Lab, but I have thousands of raw images in my Lightroom catalog, just for this year so far.
Unfortunately, all the alternatives I try have such a fundamentally different UX, especially when it comes to the export/import flow for third-party editing tools, that I haven't yet been able to get anything to fit my workflow.
I remember hearing something about Darktable splitting into two separate projects, one with a better UX? (I'm probably wrong re the details, on the phone atm)
Ironically importing 40k or so photos from my old catalog into CO took just a fraction of time needed by LR to do the same. That was one of the triggers to stick with it for a few more days.
I would really like to get rid of Lightroom. I pay right now for the CC Photography Plan, and I /only/ use Lightroom Classic and nothing else, and I only use it as a DAM, everything else is done in DxO Photo Lab or Photomatix anyway.
Yeah, it should be! I'd say just give it a go and see. CO has also some interesting workflows for managing photoshoots, a more classic one similar to LR and a session-oriented one. The bulk update UI is not as nice as LRC imho.
I thought they would have changed by now, several years later. Turns out, they secretly modified the TOS to steal their customers' intellectual property - content the customers have invested 1000s of dollars into, simply because of the usage of creative cloud to train their AI models. That too, blew up in their face. I am not sure why anyone would even trust or use Adobe in 2025. Honestly.
I have since then switched to the Affinity Suite (serif.com) and never looked back. So, for what it's worth, fuck Adobe and I hope they burn to the ground with their scammy practices.
And if there is telemetry that they don't want people to be able to disable for whatever reason, then why would they even separate the servers for it? Why not then just have the license servers and the telemetry servers be the same endpoint so if you block it you aren't running the app at all?
There might be some legal aspect to it when licensing and telemtry are on the same server, but IANAL.
[1] https://github.com/vavavr00m/WindowsTelemetry/blob/main/bl.t...
This BS on the other hand looks like they know these thousands will get blocklisted and they plan to just rotate to a new set. The only way this could look more like malware would be if they used random-looking domains instead of just the subdomains.
An offline VM seems like the only safe way to run modern proprietary software.
Don't think so. Otherwise there is always Unbound.
Why are you continuing using the app if you don't agree with their EULA?
btw, step 2 is always "OMG that guy doesn't like my rules. Fuck that guy!"
"I don't care what the EULA is, I just throw money at the company who has written it."
and later
"OMG they are raping me with their EULA! Halp!"
and later you say
"Hey, you can't force me, fuck you!"
Fuck them, and fuck the idea that contracts are morally superior to laws. We see how contracts (and EULAs) are used.
You trying to fuck the company only shows that you're doing the same thing as the company does, only mirrored. Yet you're the one that's morally right?
The only winning move is not to play.
They include terms in the EULA that are unenforceable, and let the users figure out which those are. Most users don't have teams of lawyers to go over every EULA for every minor purchase, so they are tricked into relinquishing rights even when the law forbids such terms.
> You trying to fuck the company only shows that you're doing the same thing as the company does, only mirrored.
Trying to hold on to my legal rights (in this case not getting spied on by a very expensive product) is not "fucking the company", except in an utterly backwards moral code where trying not to get scammed and exploited is equivalent to scamming, just because the former involves breaking a corporate-written piece of paper that reads "we get to scam, exploit, and spy on you, and you give up your right to sue us for it".
> The only winning move is not to play.
Meanwhile companies lobby for favorable laws (banning users from examining how stuff works, i.e. reverse-engineering, banning circumventing DRM even for use that is otherwise within your rights, allowing mere EULAs to relinquish your right to even hold the company accountable in court, i.e. mandatory arbitration, etc.) - they sure don't think just giving up is "winning". But they're more than happy to let you think that, while they stack the deck even worse. You are their ideal customer, that will just bow his head and take any abuse dished out, and the most they can fear from you is that maybe you'll instead buy from someone else next time.