4 ms·

What did she say? Don't leave us hanging...

sillysaurusx 6y ago
She said yes :) I owe a lot to that decision. It's also helped me understand what "privilege" is – many, many parents would have been like "no, now go do your homework." (I wasn't a very good student.) But, for example, Visual Studio 2003 Architect Edition was so expensive that I think it was a few thousand dollars at the time. Piracy enabled me to learn that, too. And surprise surprise, when I got into the gamedev industry, that was what they used. From Microsoft's standpoint, it was nothing but benefit: in addition to adding +1 productive programmer to the world, the piracy also caused me to become something of a Microsoft evangelist, similar to Carmack. It helped me appreciate a good IDE back before Webstorm made it a reality for Javascript. Of course, that eventually led to discovering Emacs (or rather being forced to learn it due to a twist of fortune) and then evolving into my bearded open-source devil form... Now if only there were an Emacs equivalent for 3D modeling and music, I'd be happy as a clam. Blender is great, but it just can't compete with ZBrush. EDIT: By the way, I was delighted to discover that Photopea (https://www.photopea.com/ https://www.photopea.com/) is a completely free, browser-based alternative to Photoshop. It has almost an identical UI, and it does 100% of what I need out of photoshop. We've been paying the $35/mo creative suite license, but I imagine lots of people still pirate it.
- jackson1442 6y ago
  If you're wanting desktop software, Affinity[0] sells one-time-purchase licenses for their Photo, Designer, and Publisher software. I've never used Photoshop/Illustrator and generally do rather light work when I do need to edit/design, but I've been very happy with my purchase. Each license is $50, and the recently went on sale for $25 (but that's over now). [0]: https://affinity.serif.com https://affinity.serif.com
  - culturestate 6y ago
    I can't speak for the Photoshop -> Photo transition since that's never really been my thing, but if you've been using CS professionally for any length of time then going from Illustrator + InDesign to Designer + Publisher take some significant muscle memory retraining. I've been gradually switching over for the last ~6 months but I still have to reach for Ai or Id if there's a really time-sensitive task. The amount of subconscious automation that goes into making you really proficient at using some tool becomes very obvious when you try to use a different one.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    (I cracked those back in high school and then purchased them because they were so good…)
    - jackson1442 6y ago
      Exactly what I did.
- Marsymars 6y ago
  My parents had stable jobs, but weren't super well off when I was a kid; but one thing that I only really appreciated in retrospect was that they gave me an effectively unlimited budget for books. They'd give me suggestions and buy me books that they thought would be worthwhile reads, but they'd also buy whatever fantasy/sci-fi books I asked for. Thankfully for my parents' wallets, I did spend a lot of time at our town library.
- megablast 6y ago
  Why did you need the architect edition though?
  - Intermernet 6y ago
    Probably didn't, but most pirated software includes the highest end options. The last pirated version of CS6 I saw was the ultimate edition (or some such), and the last pirated version of ableton I saw was the full suite. Note: I use Affinity instead of photoshop, and I've had an ableton license since v6, but I keep an occasional eye on the pirate scene. I owe many of my skills to pirated software, and could therefore afford to buy software when I became a professional.
- jbverschoor 6y ago
  I got Borland c from a friend. Later on I got watcom c from crazybytes. And then visual C++. A lot of my learning (game dev) was of course the demo scene, and x2ftp from Oulu in Finland. Another huge step was me going to the bookstore, secretively reading game programming books, and copying code on a piece of paper. Those books were unaffordable for me at the time, and the store guy told me to stop a few times.
- imtringued 6y ago
  There are lots of free software alternatives to commercial tools. They are usually worse but not by that much. The difficulty of learning them is actually a nice challenge.
- ImprobableTruth 6y ago
  >Blender is great, but it just can't compete with ZBrush Could you elaborate on that? I assume you're more on the 'dabbles in it for fun' side, but I can't think of any missing features for that kind of usage besides polypainting which is available as a WIP patch.

She said yes :) I owe a lot to that decision. It's also helped me understand what "privilege" is – many, many parents would have been like "no, now go do your homework." (I wasn't a very good student.) But, for example, Visual Studio 2003 Architect Edition was so expensive that I think it was a few thousand dollars at the time. Piracy enabled me to learn that, too. And surprise surprise, when I got into the gamedev industry, that was what they used. From Microsoft's standpoint, it was nothing but benefit: in addition to adding +1 productive programmer to the world, the piracy also caused me to become something of a Microsoft evangelist, similar to Carmack. It helped me appreciate a good IDE back before Webstorm made it a reality for Javascript. Of course, that eventually led to discovering Emacs (or rather being forced to learn it due to a twist of fortune) and then evolving into my bearded open-source devil form... Now if only there were an Emacs equivalent for 3D modeling and music, I'd be happy as a clam. Blender is great, but it just can't compete with ZBrush. EDIT: By the way, I was delighted to discover that Photopea (https://www.photopea.com/ https://www.photopea.com/) is a completely free, browser-based alternative to Photoshop. It has almost an identical UI, and it does 100% of what I need out of photoshop. We've been paying the $35/mo creative suite license, but I imagine lots of people still pirate it.

jackson1442 6y ago
If you're wanting desktop software, Affinity[0] sells one-time-purchase licenses for their Photo, Designer, and Publisher software. I've never used Photoshop/Illustrator and generally do rather light work when I do need to edit/design, but I've been very happy with my purchase. Each license is $50, and the recently went on sale for $25 (but that's over now). [0]: https://affinity.serif.com https://affinity.serif.com
- culturestate 6y ago
  I can't speak for the Photoshop -> Photo transition since that's never really been my thing, but if you've been using CS professionally for any length of time then going from Illustrator + InDesign to Designer + Publisher take some significant muscle memory retraining. I've been gradually switching over for the last ~6 months but I still have to reach for Ai or Id if there's a really time-sensitive task. The amount of subconscious automation that goes into making you really proficient at using some tool becomes very obvious when you try to use a different one.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  (I cracked those back in high school and then purchased them because they were so good…)
  - jackson1442 6y ago
    Exactly what I did.
Marsymars 6y ago
My parents had stable jobs, but weren't super well off when I was a kid; but one thing that I only really appreciated in retrospect was that they gave me an effectively unlimited budget for books. They'd give me suggestions and buy me books that they thought would be worthwhile reads, but they'd also buy whatever fantasy/sci-fi books I asked for. Thankfully for my parents' wallets, I did spend a lot of time at our town library.
megablast 6y ago
Why did you need the architect edition though?
- Intermernet 6y ago
  Probably didn't, but most pirated software includes the highest end options. The last pirated version of CS6 I saw was the ultimate edition (or some such), and the last pirated version of ableton I saw was the full suite. Note: I use Affinity instead of photoshop, and I've had an ableton license since v6, but I keep an occasional eye on the pirate scene. I owe many of my skills to pirated software, and could therefore afford to buy software when I became a professional.
jbverschoor 6y ago
I got Borland c from a friend. Later on I got watcom c from crazybytes. And then visual C++. A lot of my learning (game dev) was of course the demo scene, and x2ftp from Oulu in Finland. Another huge step was me going to the bookstore, secretively reading game programming books, and copying code on a piece of paper. Those books were unaffordable for me at the time, and the store guy told me to stop a few times.
imtringued 6y ago
There are lots of free software alternatives to commercial tools. They are usually worse but not by that much. The difficulty of learning them is actually a nice challenge.
ImprobableTruth 6y ago
>Blender is great, but it just can't compete with ZBrush Could you elaborate on that? I assume you're more on the 'dabbles in it for fun' side, but I can't think of any missing features for that kind of usage besides polypainting which is available as a WIP patch.