this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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"The art and design communities, in particular, are feeling the pinch from Adobe Suite going towards a rental model, and now the artist and perennial thorn in the side of anyone who seeks to own a colour, [Stuart Semple] is doing something about it. He’s launching a competing suite called provocatively, Abode, which will follow an affordable paid-for licence model."

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/culturehustle/abode-a-suite-of-world-class-design-and-photography-tools

The Abode project seems overly optimistic in terms of scope, cost and timing to me but then I've never been involved in software development. Still, alternatives to the big names are always nice.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

Definately overly optimistic.

Personally, I switched to Affinity's suite of apps. Theyre affordable and competitive, feature wise. Yeah it cant do some of the fancy AI stuff, but its plenty enough for what I need it for.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

fuck adobe to the ends of the earth; their subscription thing was the most false-premise disgustingly manipulating bullshit i've ever seen.

i got a steady job and started renting; thinking maybe i'd even buy it if i got good. then i realized you couldn't even buy the fucking thing! and there was "no such thing" as a monthly subscription, they just charge you monthly for a yearly subscription that is a $80 penalty to cancel [metered by how many months left]. fucking completely disgusting, parasitic horseshit that should get you tried in a military fucking tribunal in the middle of the ocean

and i got bootlickers on reddit saying this was fine!! of course it's justified to change a yearly fee, they put it in misleading, small print when you signed up, so that's FINE! a cancellation penalty for a FUCKING SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD

FUCK!!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

People use Adobe because it’s what they know and they don’t want to learn something else. There are already alternatives to Adobe products, probably better than whatever these people will be able to make with that budget.

Also, that “provocative” name is only going to provoke Adobe’s lawyers to send and cease-and-desist lol

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Also, that “provocative” name is only going to provoke Adobe’s lawyers to send and cease-and-desist lol

Yeah, there's no way this makes it off the ground with that name or those logos. It's clearly designed specifically to be confusable with Adobe which is the most blatant and easily enforceable form of trademark violation out there.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I just gave it a cursory read and it seems like there is no support for Linux and I cannot see anything indicating that it would be free and open source. So I guess my interest is not there.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I’m pretty against the SaaS model. I would like to buy a software I may use 2-4 times a month instead of paying $5 every month even if I don’t use it.

I’m also a fan of Stuart Semple and his paints.

I’m not sure what the point of this response is, but I wanted to give my two cents.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Adobe succeeded with professionals. The problem is, it's a de facto industry standard. If you're not using Adobe, you're cut off from jobs, clients, work, because everyone uses Adobe. So you're forced to pay in perpetuity even if you don't want to.

Worse, if you're a teacher, what are you supposed to teach? Well you teach Adobe, because that makes the most sense, and so you sentence your students to decades of payments to a private company.

Now multiply it all those other subscriptions. Speaking of which, how is that Pantone subscription? You can't even open files properly now.

If you cancel Netflix, you just lose some entertainment. If you're subbed to Adobe and cancel, it, you can't do anything with your files. So Adobe not only owns their software, but your work as well.

[–] FlagonOfMe 1 points 1 year ago

If you're subbed to Adobe and cancel, it, you can't do anything with your files. So Adobe not only owns their software, but your work as well.

You know other programs can open PSD files, right?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In the highly unlikely scenario that this Kickstarter actually eventuates in something even remotely approaching the quality and functionality of the Adobe suite I'll buy it then. Until then, this is not even worth the time I've spent writing this comment thinking about.

Just a reminder that most Kickstarters make bold claims like this and don't follow though at all.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

The fact that this isn't open source makes it feel like a grift. There's no way he will be able to develop a full suite comparable to adobe with that money.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I mean, there’s already the Affinity suite which kinda comes close to the features of Adobe’s suite. Paid for a lifetime license, never had to look back. I do some software development on the side, and can attest that this is a really big undertaking that should not be taken lightly. More competition is always better, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Why go Kickstarter instead of the plenty of non subscription photo tools?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don’t work in graphics professionally, but there’s nothing I need to do that can’t be handled by Skribus and Gimp.

WRT rented software, that while model gives me the heebie jeebies. I don’t trust anything to be around forever, so I definitely want my own copy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know about Skribus but I do know Gimp isn't comparable to photoshop for the professionals.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There's a learning curve, granted. The photographers I know who use Gimp prefer it. YMMV.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't doubt that those that choose to use it prefer it. What I see time and again is someone will try it, find it missing features they want/need and revert back. I encourage the use of GIMP and other FOSS where I can. It's just not a one to one drop in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Agreed that it's not a drop-in replacement. I get that professionals don't often have time to learn new software and prefer to stick with what they know. But if they have the time and motivation, they can save some money as well as supporting FOSS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

As far as photography goes, I've never needed anything like Photoshop or Gimp, I do fine with just Darktable and DigiKam (YMMV).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

My personal preference is Seashore for Mac, but I haven't used macOS in a few years (not entirely by choice but because my uni is largely Windows based and it became too much to keep up with how to integrate into the ecosystem).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

How much of that Kickstarter money is set aside from the avalanche of lawsuits Adobe will launch when they see the name and icon?
There is zero chance it launches without rebranding, so I wonder what they're actually naming it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Artists have the choice to go with FOSS software, instead they let the industry get captured by Adobe while crying about AI (and when adobe adds ai its suddenly an awesome tool again). I honestly don't have much empathy left for traditional artists (specifically painters, just last week i donated to a guitar player).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

As an ex-professional photography, time is money, and the Photography plan wasn't expensive (it was cheaper than buying PS and LR outright and upgrading every other version) and had class leading tools. It was an easy business expense. I suppose for many creative professionals, they felt the same way.

For those who're dabbling as an amatuer, there are plenty of other tools for Photoshop, though I still haven't found a decent LR alternative.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

While I understand the goal, trying to pitch it will be very difficult because this has a very interesting.. uhh.. chinese knockoff aura.

Good luck with the project, I'll just stick to pirating Adobe for my very niche use cases.