I used to think that I hated the software subscription model, just on principle. However, I think it has more to do with the pricing. Historically, I seem to update my software every 5-7 years. I used Office 2002 well past the release of Office 2007 and I’m still limping along with Photoshop CS2 which makes it about 10 years old! For movies and music, I think companies like Spotify hit a sweet spot on price. For the cost of a CD each month, I can listen to nearly any song or album I want.
In February, I gave into Microsoft and signed up for Office 365. That seemed like a reasonable deal with access to the full suite of Office applications, five device licenses, mobile apps, and 1TB of cloud storage for $100/year.
Now that I’m getting more serious about photography, I feel the need to get more serious about the related software. I thought that Lightroom would meet my needs when I upgraded to the standalone version of Lightroom 6 a few months ago, but as you can imagine, my 10 year old version of Photoshop pales in comparison to the current version. I have serious feature envy!
I suppose a move to Adobe Creative Cloud was inevitable since you would think the days of a stand alone version of Lightroom are numbered. Since that is my main go-to photo imaging software, I need to keep that up to date. So, another way to look at things is the cost of Adobe’s CC Photography plan ($10/month) is about the cost of upgrading Lightroom every year. I also get access to the latest Photoshop and the mobile apps. It certainly isn’t the deal that Microsoft’s Office 365 is, but I guess it’s not bad.
So, today, I begrudgingly move to the Adobe Creative Cloud…