I know there is a lot of heat being generated about the commitment of Adobe to the Creative Cloud business model, as against the perpetual licensing business model etc, and I know that someone like myself who has spent £1,000's over the years on Adobe products, might now appear to be of little ongoing importance to them, because I no longer represent their core market, as I am not a corporate multi-license user, but just a one man business and pro user of their products - yes I know this is an odd way for them to treat their loyal customer base, but that is an argument for another ongoing thread I think.
So putting all the misquoted and misrepresented hyperbole aside and arguments about who is right and who is wrong etc., all Adobe need to do to keep me on board as an on-going loyal money paying customer, is to continue developing and selling ACR to me as a PS plug-in, that will retain support for PS CS6 and upwards. So instead of giving ACR away each time there is an update as has happened in the past, I can then simply buy it as an updated plug-in. That way I get to keep Photoshop as a stand-alone app and yet still have support for new camera models and their proprietary file formats when they are released, as well as any improvements of the RAW conversion and processing engine.
Surely this is not too much to ask?
This idea will probably get shot down in flames, but before you do, let's all be honest, PS has probably been developed about as far as it can reasonably be expected to go for photographers, yes I know tweaks can always be added, but to all intents and purposes the product is 'complete' and doesn't really need any further major developments, as far as photographers are concerned at least. So maybe this is a good time for us to be pushed off the merry-go-round in favour of allowing them to concentrate on the corporate and graphic arts user markets, but please Adobe, at least allow us to continue with ACR updates, even if we have to pay for them as plug-ins, which I think you will find, we will all be very happy to do.
Dave