Adobe takes a huge leap into the cloud.

See More | September 09 2013

Although I don’t profess to be the most technologically advanced person on the planet, I do know a lot about a fair amount of it. I love technology and gadgets to the point where my 25-year-old son has called me ‘Tech Boy’ on more than one occasion. I have an iPhone 5 and the newest iPad. When I bought my last computer I brought with me a list of must-haves, and was told when my machine was ready that the gamers were jealous (for those of you that are non-techies, that is a huge compliment). Over the years I have paid many hundreds (and probably thousands) of dollars for software; software that did everything from entertain me to help me with my job. It was always exciting to bring home that huge box and pull off the cellophane and spend hours loading new software from the 10- 5¼ floppies that the
program was shipped on.
In the early 80’s they started using the 3½ inch floppies, which really weren’t floppy, but they were smaller and held more than twice as much data. But it still took ten discs for the newer version of the same program. By the time the late 80’s and early 90’s rolled around, we
started seeing the software on CDs, which had more than 500 times the storage capacity of a floppy disk. Now we were back to the program being on one disc, but as time went by, the same piece of software took another, then another, then another CD.
Along comes the DVD and now we are back down to one disc again. The funny thing? The box that held the software stayed, until recently, the same size. My favorite piece of software — and this won’t be news for anyone who knows me — is Photoshop. I have had every version since Photoshop 3 and they have just released version 15, which they are calling CC for Creative Cloud.
The huge news that comes with Creative Cloud is that Adobe is not allowing customers to buy any more of its software. All of Adobe’s products, from this version on, will only be available by monthly subscription. I think I just heard a pin drop.
Subscription software is not really that new. The first subscription services go back to the 60’s with banking software, but it’s fairly new to the average home customer. When Adobe first announced that they were going to have both subscription-based software and boxed software I was quick to jump on this new offer right away. The life cycle for an Adobe product before its next upgrade was roughly 18 months, and I always upgraded, so it was actually cheaper for me to take the subscription route. Plus, I was buying more than just Photoshop — if you bought what Adobe called its Master Suite it was about $2,800, but with a subscription I could have everything for
$30 a month. If you do the math you will see I am way ahead.Now you don’t have that choice. If you need, or want, Photoshop, Indesign,
Premiere Pro. or Illustrator, to name just a few of Adobe’s many titles, you have to have a subscription.
The downside to what Adobe calls The Creative Cloud is that once a month you have to be connected to the internet so that your subscription can be confirmed. The plus side is that you don’t have to be connected to the internet all the time. You’ll no longer have the boxes that the software came in lining your shelves, but you do have to make sure you have high-speed internet when downloading the software, otherwise be prepared for a very long download. The software does actually sit on your computer and not in the cloud as some
people are assuming. Whenever there are upgrades, you’ll get them right away — no more waiting for the next version to get the newest, coolest tools. Best of all, for me especially, as I use both PC and Mac, I don’t have to buy two versions of the same
software anymore.
Your subscription gives you two installs, and it doesn’t care what kind of computer you put it on. So needless to say I am happy about cloud based software and all the huge benefits that come with it. Between having no boxes for software and all my books now going on
my Kindle, I’m going to have to find some cool stuff for my shelves.

Any comments, compliments, or suggestions can be sent to
craig@thestew.ca.

See you next month.