I don't know why anyone needs to look for alternatives to Creative Suite.

From CS3 the software has done pretty much everything you could possibly want, and OK the later version might have a couple of refinements that make life easier for some people, but nothing massively important that you couldn't work around. I run CS5 on a 5 year old MacPro. It does everything I need and it does it fast. For the first time since in 25 years I have a system that isn't lacking in either features or speed.

If I was still in charge of the buying policies of an agency, I'd be looking at freezing our software at CS6 and looking very carefully at the point at which the OS updates break the applications, and then having a hardware upgrade to the point just before. I would imagine that would give us at least a 5 year period during which time our hardware and software expenditure would be pretty much zero.

A good policy if you were adhering to just Adobe’s software. However, I have other software I use a lot which marches on to the OS upgrade beat, and the policies of which OS to support are basically two behind the current one. Which means that eventually if I were to freeze at an OS which I knew worked for Adobe, other software would become too new to run. With Apple’s OS update policy, this means pretty much two to three years.

I would be interested to see what Apple’s thoughts on their Mac App Store will be in the future. Right now, you can buy software there or elsewhere. There is no mandating from Apple that all apps must come from their distribution point at the moment. If they do (and this is something that I know software development folk have been concerned about), then if Adobe wishes to remain on the Apple platform, then it will have to enter into Apple’s revenue sharing scheme.

Not so much a problem for me. I already run two separate systems for graphics and audio, and apart from a handful of utilities, minor apps and Quark XPress, which are only used occasionally, my graphics work is all done in Creative Suite. I could quite easily keep one Mac frozen at CS6 and whatever the last version of the OS that it will run under, and migrate all the other apps that need a newer version of the OS onto my other Mac.

The last design agency where I was employed ran nothing but CS3 for almost 5 years. IMO it can be done quite easily.

Actually, what you are saying is interesting. In the long term, it would be cheaper to buy a Mac mini, and use that for CS3, and keep the other Mac on the regular OS upgrade path than subscribe to Adobe’s system.

"I really want to rent rather than buy the software I base my business and livelihood around."

- No one, ever.

That's what I'm thinking of doing. My only issue is when documents come in on the later versions, but that doesn't happen often.

You could always get them to resend in an older format?


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Older formats may not support features in newer formats. At best, you’ll get a document that opened with most things in tact. At worst, you’ll have an unopenable document.

There's also a matter of perception to my clients, I can't imagine them being very impressed that I don't have the latest versions of everything. Ironic really when you consider the state of the artwork they send!

If I'm dealing with a new client with unknown software versions, I always get them to send a high res PDF of the design as well as the native files. That way if there are any plug-in/XTension/font incompatibilities I can see what it's supposed to look like. In the worst case scenario I can always use this to rebuild the artwork in whatever version I have.

TBH unless I have a client who is going to guarantee me at least 8 hours work per week for which I will need Creative Cloud versions of the software, I can see little point in moving over for quite some time.

I think Adobe could do itself a big favour if they had a bit more granularity in their rental model.
At the moment it's single app or the entire Master Collection with nothing in between. I'd like to see either a menu based system that lets you pick the apps you need and pay the proportion of the Master Suite price or cheaper bundles (like Design Standard) sitting between the single app price and the full fat MS price.

While I see your reasoning, companies only look to maximise revenue. If they can get you to pay more that is all that matters to them. Adobe has get profit margins on its products so renting is a way to even out those revenue streams.


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I suspect they will do exactly that in time, to maximise their revenue. They need to offer packages that people will buy in preference to looking to the competition. Most companies offer such packages, and it's not because they're being nice.

Yes but if they mess this up they will lose market share to the competition. I suspect that for many people there is no alternative. Hence they feel that they can get away with this.