Does Adobe have a gun to your head? No, thought not.
No one HAS to sign up for the Photoshop subscription package,

I’ve been looking at buying a car recently, and have been slightly alarmed at how much what I would like to buy costs. My ten-year-old Peugeot is worth almost nothing now as a trade-in, so the reality is that I’m starting from scratch, just as I did when I was 20.

I’d quite like a new car for once, but as the value of new vehicles plummets the moment they leave the forecourt I’ve been investigating lease agreements. That too seems alarming at first, but it may be better than being robbed by a finance company – and when the time is up I can just give the car back and get another new one. It seems a neat way to avoid ever owning an old car that costs a fortune to service and which has no value other than its fading function.

For £2500 a year, in today’s money, I can drive a nice up-to-date, comfortable and reliable family car every day until it is my children’s turn to drive me to parties all over the country.

Ctrl C, Ctrl V

Is this the business model that Adobe is presenting us with in its subscription-based services? We always get to drive the latest photo software, but instead of shelling out a fortune to buy it as a one-off purchase, we lease it?

Doesn’t that sound good? Well, yes, in theory, but of course in practice we don’t always need the latest version of any software package, as we only need the version that works with the camera that we own. Photoshop gets updated to a new version every 18-24 months, but most enthusiasts update their camera only once every four years, and professionals once in every two.

To continue reading this article I wrote for Techradar head to the website