[possiblerobot]

It's not just the subscription model that irritates people. The software itself has become irritating in various ways. Creative Cloud is a multi-app hydra that feels like it attaches to your system like a facehugger. Lots of people are looking for and finding exciting alternatives like Affinity Designer/Photo and Sketch. I didn't realize how slow the Adobe apps were until I started using Affinity. Those apps are fast. Not only that, but they are fun to use and got me really excited about creating things again. Super bonus: you just drop the apps in your app folder to install. Boom. Despite moving to the cloud, the Adobe apps feel legacy compared to newer options.

One reason why Adobe continues to make a lot of money is that Photoshop and Illustrator files are like what Word and Excel files are in businesses and universities: currency. People trade these formats around, which makes them way more durable. But that durability can't make up for a more important aspect of some software — especially creative software — whether or not people love using it. Go to the Affinity forums and witness the fire in people's hearts. I imagine there was a time when people felt that way about Photoshop. It's not that I want Adobe to fail. I just want great software.

All I'm saying is: don't mistake Adobe's ability to make money as a sign of love for its products.

[yuhong]

The funny thing is that InDesign was able to beat QuarkXPress in a similar way.

[DanBC]

How QuarkXPress became a mere afterthought in publihing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7360076

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/quarkx...

[possiblerobot]

Yeah, true. And, of course, Affinity has Publisher on the way next year. It's getting interesting. That completes the holy trinity. But, then there's After Effects. I'm not sure if that app has any serious competitors, now or on the horizon.