[dietrichepp]

I’ve been using Photoshop alternatives for a long time now, but when I was a kid, I had access to Photoshop (version 2.5 and later 5.0). I’m used to the alternatives. Mostly Gimp, Krita, Pixelmator, and Procreate.

Recently I had a chance to use Photoshop 7 on an old iMac G4 that I acquired. Surely this would be like living in the dark ages, banging some rocks together?

Well, no. It turns out that this old version of Photoshop is easy to use and powerful. I can quickly do simple graphic design tasks that would take me longer in other programs or leave me frustrated. I can also do a bunch of simple photo editing tasks that I’ve been missing out on. This experience really highlighted how I’ve gotten used to missing features or poorly-designed UIs in programs like Gimp. Simple things like messing with channels, changing the brush size, working with 16-bit color and alternative color spaces, layer styles, nice text layers—it’s all just there and working and ready to use, in this nearly 20-year-old software.

[peterangular]

Adobe CS5 user here - 12 year old software.

CS5 Master Suite w/discs and valid serial from a reputable seller on eBay still commands $200-300+ which is nuts to me. But, when I realize that I can do all of my modern graphics workflow in this 12 year old software I get it.

I would love to use some of the newer parts of the suite but the functionality of my CS5 still 100% covers my use-case. For photography I've ended up on Darktable, and if I need to manually retouch a photo there's nothing stopping me from a Darktable <> Photoshop CS5 workflow.

As much as I want to love Gimp - I can't. It is outright ineffective and lacks features compared to even my 12 year old Photoshop. The people who continue to tout it as a 1:1 replacement have never worked in a professional graphics workflow.

Also, Procreate is amazing for doing illustrations though - I really wish I had it when I was learning digital painting!

---

Regardless, just wandering sharing anecdotes because I relate to your experiences. Hard agree that legacy versions of Photoshop (and honestly the entire suite) are still insanely powerful. I also find them to be way more stable than their newer counterparts. They're just objectively a better financial decision - I bought this a decade ago and I don't have a monthly $50-60 Adobe draw on my bank account.

[breakfastduck]

Just chiming in to appreciate CS5.

PS CS5 is one of the best pieces of software ever released.

It is honestly miles better than any modern PS clone. It's kinda sad how no open source alternative has even come close.

Every other alternative is a compromise in some way or another.

[NexRebular]

I still use Photoshop 3 on a Mac Quadra and CS2 on an old Intel Mac with the help of Rosetta. For anything requiring more modern workflow there is the Affinity Suite.

[milchek]

I still have a CS5 (or 5.5/6) master suite license somewhere from i was able to purchase it under ‘educational’ discount back in the day, but I figured it won’t work on newer machines and OS.

Are you using yours on an older machine?

[peterangular]

Windows 10 - absolutely zero issues for me. Rock-solid stability.

Here's my install notes - just make sure you don't launch Photoshop/Illustrator prematurely:

  * Skip the "setup an adobe ID" step
  * Only install "Adobe Photoshop" and "Adobe Illustrator"
  * On right-hand side deselect not needed components
    * Story Extension
    * Browser Lab
    * Air
    * Media Player
    * Device Service
    * Site Catalyst
  * Keep useful components
    * Fonts
    * Extension Manager
    * ExtendScript
  * Check both "Services" and "Task Scheduler" to make 100% the update manager did not get installed
    * Disable Adobe SwitchBoard service
  * Delete the OOBE directory from C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe
  * Delete the AAMUpdaterInventory directory from C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe
  * Launch Photoshop, Photoshop x64, and Illustrator for first time and skip past any registration screens
  * Reboot system and repeat previous two steps to ensure no updaters/etc. are installed and software works without warning on first load
    * NOTE: On reboot/second check it looks like a service gets scheduled so repeating these steps is important! (hooks on reboot by Adobe installer)
  * Type "Startup Apps" and ensure all Adobe apps not starting with system

[some-guy]

I use the Windows version of Photoshop 7.0 still. It works out of the box with WINE as well on MacOS and Linux.

[metadat]

Apparently Wine no longer works well on an up to date version of macOS. Is this true? Sad if so, because I didn't even know Wine worked on any OS-X, period, and I never got to enjoy it!

> Note that Wine does not work well with macOS 10.15 Catalina. Apple removed 32-bit support in Catalina, which is a critical part of the macOS system that almost all of Wine relies on. You can run 64-bit applications through Wine on Catalina, but very few applications for Windows are 64-bit. If you need to use Wine, you should not upgrade to Catalina.

https://www.davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/wine-mac/#:~:text=No...

[some-guy]

I should probably have stated that I used it in an older version of Mac OS before Catalina, I forgot that they dropped 32-bit support. Apparently if you're savvy enough there are ways to get around it, but I don't know if this would still work with newer versions of Mac OS [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkQj0lZFz6I

[blagie]

Virtually all the free alternatives to Photoshop are similar to 1995-2000 era Photoshop. In that era, gimp and Photoshop were neck-and-neck, with gimp missing color models and deep color.

Photoshop from that era was pretty simple and easy-to-write. It worked well, and so did the alternatives. Adobe invested an incredible amount into research to build a more serious moat around 2022-era Photoshop.