Mr. Pogue understands the ins and outs of the Adobe software and pricing issues about as well as he understands cameras, which is pretty good (at least from a consumer perspective), but usually not better than the average forum participant here.
Ironic that Mr. Pogue got lambasted for apparently not being anti-Adobe enough. Sound familiar? It seems that anybody who doesn't demand the blood of Adobe CEO running in the streets of San Jose is the enemy...
It's irrational...and many in the media have flamed the fires...while I thought David got some stuff wrong in the article it certainly wasn't a whitewash. But to the one commentator, who said: "Does Adobe actually pay you for mindlessly reprinting their press releases and calling it “news”?" it smacks of a total irrational meltdown...
I mean, really, Photoshop is just software...it's main user base are pros...yes, it's a sea change in terms of licensing models, but it ain't the end of the world as we know it...there are alternatives...CS6 will work for years...Photoshop CC offers some incremental upgrades but is expected to get further upgrades over the years–hopefully useful.
But this an't an evil plot by Adobe to take over the world and create a horde of minions that pay out money just to keep their work from being held hostage...
Yes, Adobe screwed up the CC announcement...yes, Adobe failed to fully explain users' options...yes, the whole "Cloud" thing is bullshit...it all started with the creative suites where users got hooked on getting more for less money. Of course, there was a backlash back then when users found out that upgrading to a suite product for a "deal" meant they gave up on their point product licenses...anybody else but me remember the whining when users found out they had to upgrade the entire suite rather than just Photoshop?
Photoshop is a tool...it's a tool to do digital imaging...it's not a civic right. It's not like Adobe is refusing to let you use Photoshop. They're just changing the terms of that use. If you don't like that, vote with your wallets...singing a petition ain't gonna get the results that the petitioners are hoping for.
I've been using the subscription model since Photoshop CS5.5. It works...it's ok...for CS6 I got the entire master collection-it allows me to get the most recent versions of Illustrator and InDesign and Dreamweaver (ironically, for my books I always have to save with backwards compatibility set for previous version because, well, my publisher's designers never seem to be working with the most recent versions :~(