Anyone who can't make enough money off the back of Adobe is probably not worth Adobe fighting for anyway.
A lot of these pirates will be younger and or students who will go on to work in the industry and help Adobe maintain it's software hegemony.
A lot of these pirates will be younger and or students who will go on to work in the industry and help Adobe maintain it's software hegemony.
It's a little regrettable that Adobe maintains so much control over the market, but as a creative professional myself, I can't find much that can actually compete with their software, especially for the price.
Honestly curious - was money not an issue would you be able to find something better? Is Photoshop and the likes from Adobe truly "high-end" or is there something less popular, more expensive, perhaps harder but "better": technically, in it's capabilities?
Don't think there's really a replacement for photoshop though. The autodesk tools are more to replace the After Effects / Premier / etc. parts of the creative suite.
As someone who uses this software and occasionally tries the alternatives, I would say that there isn't really anything better out there than Adobe software. But it's also quite affordable when you put it in perspective with how much you can do with it over time.