Hi Bart,
We have Adobe and their brilliant engineers to thank for a considerable portion the image processing capability we currently enjoy, but there has been a number of mishaps of late that raised questions about the readiness of updates for prime-time. I think part of it is the sheer complexity of all there is out there that can go wrong with so many system configurations and applications in use, and the other part perhaps less thorough-going QA than warranted under the circumstances - though I'm not trained to really know this - I can only make empirical inferences which may or may not be well-founded. From the discussion that ensued after these incidents, I was impressed with the comments of those experienced with software development suggesting that in the very nature of the inherent issues arising from complexity and diversity, we have to expect that a number of problems may only be discovered through the user base. In light of all that, a good number of us have become a bit hesitant to be early adopters, especially if the need is not compelling; we therefore need to depend on the experience of those who are early adopters for guidance, so perhaps we need to stop expecting perfection from the get-go and learn to live with a certain sense of adventure and uncertainty, and adopt our own risk aversion strategies, though of course I wouldn't want to see this taken too far. I don't think the software acquisition model is a variable in the causal factors of this situation whatever they may really be; but it is a differentiating factor at the curative end. You may recall that when the printing bug was unearthed and fixed mid-year, Adobe issued a "dot-release" update very quickly after understanding it was their issue to fix. This is the welcome kind of flexibility that the subscription model carries with it. As for the time taken with new features to "mature", I'm all for that if it will make for more bullet-proof releases. We already have so many excellent tools to work with. If it needs to take some time for new features to mature, there are likely good reasons for it and so be it. Sooner or later they happen and we'll all benefit.