Around November 2011, Apple screwed up one of it's premier softwares (Final cut pro) and Adobe jumped right in and offered a 50% discount to all of its Creative suites (version: 5.5). Their pitch then was - "Apple screwed up, try ours and hey, if you buy the suite, it's yours forever and you get peace of mind". And so I bought the Windows edition of one of their suites. A year later, CS6 was announced and I decided to wait for sometime before upgrading. Just to be clear, I shelled out almost $1000 on the CS 5.5 version.
In the last few months, I made the switch to a Mac and I found out that my license for Windows wouldn't work on a Mac. Fortunately, Adobe seemed to provide a "crossgrade" path, wherein I can just swap my platform at no additional cost. Sounds good? No. Except that you can't swap from an older version (CS 5.5) to a newer version (CS 6). You can only switch between platforms of the two same versions. Okay, that's in a way fair enough, since it's been over a year anyway and it's time to upgrade. So, let me just upgrade to CS6, I thought.
This is where it started to get messy. I searched for links to upgrade to CS6, and I did find a few. But they all re-directed to the stupid Creative Cloud edition. WTF?
[1] http://www.adobe.com/mena_en/products/creativesuite.html
I searched and searched and finally found a link that worked. I placed an order and 24 hours later, my order was cancelled for no reason. I had to search for that link I found earlier, again. After giving up finding the link, upon contacting customer support, I was tried to be pushed into the stupid Creative Cloud platform, again.
Support: Based on what we have discussed I highly recommend that you purchase Creative Cloud which includes Photoshop CC for images, Indesign CC for print design, Illustrator CC for graphics, Flash Pro CC for animations, After effects CC for adding effects and plus more.
Support: Plus you will get all the upgrades and updates for free of cost.
Support: You can install CC on 2 system both on mac/ Windows.
Support: I am sure CC will meet all your requirements.
you: Oh no thank you, please. It doesn't fit my budget. Once I stop paying, everything is gone, unlike in the case of a CS 6 install.
Support: I do understand your concern, however, going forward there is no upgrade path available since CC is replaced by CS6.
(WTF)?
you: Do you mean to say, that I can't upgrade from Cs 5.5 to 6?
Support: The upgrade path from CS6 to CS7 is not available, since CC is replaced by CS7.
you: Yes, I understand that.
you: I don't need CC ma'am, really.
you: It doesn't fit my needs.
Support: That's okay.
Support: Let me provide you with the link to upgrade to CS6 production premium, okay.It's funny I had to spend so much time with support to purchase CS6, since Adobe clearly conveys that it intends to sell CS6 indefinitely. [2]http://www.adobe.com/products/cs6/faq.html
Even though the support person gave me the link to buy CS6, I thought it would be a good idea to probably re-consider CC again. So I checked on the Creative Cloud page to see if I could just pay $45 for say, about two months and later upgrade to CS6. But, again, Adobe tries to backstab its users. IF you cancel your CC subscription before 1 year, you will be billed 50% of the total amount (50% of ($45x12)) as a penalty. WTF?!! So, basically they want to beat their users to the ground as much as they can.
I decided to try alternatives, because I really wanted only a good Photoshop-like program and nothing else more (at that point). So, I searched, but I couldn't find. Now, this is highly deceptive on Adobe's part because they play a monopoly role clearly and they decided to backstab their users all of a sudden.
There is no easy way to buy CS6, there is no easy way to subscribe to CC for just a few months and the calculations they demonstrate are also deceptive at best. CC is more expensive than the boxed product.
One of my friends is a blogger, he has a huge follower count. Adobe contacted him and gave him a free 1 year subscription to CC. I was curious and I found a lot of bloggers reporting the same. One thing that was common in most of these Adobe contacted bloggers' posts, was how their stress to explain how the CC version was effectively cheaper than their boxed version.
So basically Adobe is indirectly bribing bloggers to write good stuff about their CC subscription.
Adobe's CEO is an incompetent backstabber who is totally fit for nothing. This was the same guy who argued with Steve Jobs that Flash on mobile rocks and later discontinued it. Backstab #1. I was a Flash developer previously. I was even jobless for a few days because I relied so much on this technology.
Adobe's CEO also backstabbed the much capable Flex eco-system. Do you know how many Flex developers are jobless now? Backstab #2.
And the Creative cloud (CC). Backstab #3.
That is why I feel happy that their source code was stolen. I was a genuine customer amongst a million others who just wanted to pay ONCE to use my software. I could have pirated like many others, but I didn't. I trusted them. But they took a U turn and decided to shoot us in the back.
Also, this guy is never straightforward: http://gizmodo.com/5984191/adobes-ceo-completely-refuses-to-...
This guy is incompetent and needs to be replaced. Atleast someone should file a class action suit for abusing their monopoly.