24 ms·

I know nothing about Canva. As someone who has been a big fan of Affinity, their products and their pricing model, do I start freaking out now or can I just wai

I know nothing about Canva. As someone who has been a big fan of Affinity, their products and their pricing model, do I start freaking out now or can I just wait until the acquisition closes?

t-writescode 3y ago
Yeah, as someone that's been very happy with the Affinity Suite and am scared of any major changes to them, this is pretty scary to me, as well. Reminds me of when Jasc was bought by Corel waaaay back in the day. Canva, if you're on HN, seeing how we're going to respond, please don't take away the stand-alone, non-subscription-based, affordable system that Affinity's products are. I love their products. I don't want to have to find alternatives.
- freedomben 3y ago
  Hate to say it, but a subscription model is coming. Canva is making money hands over fist by doing that, and I can't imagine they are going to part from what has been so lucrative
  - vetinari 3y ago
    With perpetual license, they were getting some money from me for each major release. With subscription, they are going to get exactly 0.
  - pier25 3y ago
    The only reason people get Affinity is because of the non subscription model. Adobe software is just better.
    - buzzerbetrayed 3y ago
      100% this. There is absolutely 0 reason to use Affinity of Adobe besides pricing model. They can play around with the numbers and try to have a cheaper subscription than Adobe, or maybe bundle it with the other software Canva offers, but ultimately I think switching to a subscription model will be the end of the Affinity software suite.
      - omnimus 3y ago
        Have you tried Affinity? The software itself is a lot better than Adobe in many fundamentals. It’s faster, crashes less, supports a lot more file formats, connection between the individual programs is perfect, they add new quite innovative features at constant pace. Adobe is pretty much legacy software that gets close to zero development, its ridden with bugs that will be never fixed. The reason why everyone hates them is that last non subscription version Adobe CS6 from more than 10 years ago is pretty much the same thing what you get now even though users have been screaming for features and bugfixes. Adobe can have their cake and eat it too.
        adithyassekhar 3y ago
        The only reason I don't use CS6 is because it doesn't work properly with hidpi displays. It doesn't scale well above 100%.
        vetinari 3y ago
        Affinity (Photo) still doesn't support tablets properly. You can play around with parameters affected by pressure and tilt, but here Adobe (and Krita) are ahead.
        pier25 3y ago
        > The software itself is a lot better than Adobe in many fundamentals. It’s faster, crashes less, supports a lot more file formats, connection between the individual programs is perfect, they add new quite innovative features at constant pace. I disagree with all your points. I've been using Adobe for 20 years and Affinity Design and Photo since they released in 2013 or so. Adobe apps are faster on Apple Silicon than Affinity. I haven't experienced a crash in years with Adobe and I have experienced crashes with Affinity quite recently. Adobe has complete integration between programs. Eg: You can use AE timelines into Premiere, import Photoshop files into AE, edit vector objects from Photoshop in Illustrator, etc. Affinity innovation pace is just glacial. V2 introduced some new features but it Serif what... like 10 years? And personally I didn't see any value in the new features. Design is still missing a lot from Illustrator.
    - t-writescode 3y ago
      That's not true at all. There's also the strong dislike of Adobe as a company.
      - throwaway2990 3y ago
        Due to subscriptions.
        timeon 3y ago
        And bloatware. Affinity runs smoother on Mac.
        throwaway2990 3y ago
        This is true. I bought it because photoshop kept crashing on Mac. And I got tired of watching filters take effect in Lightroom.
        aikinai 3y ago
        I switched to Capture One years ago, but recently switched back to Lightroom. It’s much much faster now and they also recently launched advanced color editing, AI masks, and true HDR support which pushed me over the edge.
        robertoandred 3y ago
        Eh, they take like 30 seconds just to open the app.
        pier25 3y ago
        This used to be the case but in my experience Adobe runs better in Apple Silicon than Affinity does.
    - ReleaseCandidat 3y ago
      I also try to avoid the two big "A"s, Autodesk and Adobe.
    - Toutouxc 3y ago
      I paid $lot for the entire Affinity suite and DxO Photolab instead of going with the (quite good) Adobe offerings just to avoid the insanity that is the Adobe Creative Cloud launcher. I deeply hate apps that install, auto-run and auto-update other apps. Affinity and DxO give you a DMG.
      - pier25 3y ago
        I agree about Creative Cloud. I too hate it with a passion. But when I said "Adobe is better" I was referring to the apps themselves.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
    - bayindirh 3y ago
      > Adobe software is just better. I won't be installing that invasive spyware suite to my system even if they pay me monthly to use the software. It's that bad.
    - browningstreet 3y ago
      But the subscription based company was the one to buy the non-subscription company. Because they generate the funds to do so.
    - srvmshr 3y ago
      I keep Adobe products only on iPad or iPhone, where the app seems sandboxed. In Mac/Windows, Adobe CC (or any product line FWIW) spawns files and folders like cancer in /Library or /System. It's just hallmark bad software engineering.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- timeon 3y ago
  Not only subscription, but what I find problematic about Adobe is bloatware.
  - robotshmobot 3y ago
    Exactly. Creative Cloud launcher digs its greedy fingers deep in your system, running hundreds of processes and constantly phoning home. It’s the model I point to when people say they want alternate app stores. I would much rather download apps individually from the App Store, or at worst a dmg.
    - flenserboy 3y ago
      It would be fantastic for an OS to mandate a particular type of installation (oh how I miss dragging app packages from a .dmg into my Application directory & being done with it) while preventing anything else.
      - jwells89 3y ago
        A lot of desktop software devs are averse to anything but old style full access to everything all the time, but yes I agree. Most software has no good reason to put files anywhere outside of its own application bundle and ~/Library/Application Support/<Program Name>/.
facialwipe 3y ago
I enjoy Serif products but have always wondered how it would survive. Pixelmator stayed a family-run bootstrapped operation while Serif scaled a company in the EU around the Affinity Suite.

I know nothing about Canva. As someone who has been a big fan of Affinity, their products and their pricing model, do I start freaking out now or can I just wait until the acquisition closes?

t-writescode 3y ago

Yeah, as someone that's been very happy with the Affinity Suite and am scared of any major changes to them, this is pretty scary to me, as well. Reminds me of when Jasc was bought by Corel waaaay back in the day. Canva, if you're on HN, seeing how we're going to respond, please don't take away the stand-alone, non-subscription-based, affordable system that Affinity's products are. I love their products. I don't want to have to find alternatives.

freedomben 3y ago
Hate to say it, but a subscription model is coming. Canva is making money hands over fist by doing that, and I can't imagine they are going to part from what has been so lucrative
- vetinari 3y ago
  With perpetual license, they were getting some money from me for each major release. With subscription, they are going to get exactly 0.
- pier25 3y ago
  The only reason people get Affinity is because of the non subscription model. Adobe software is just better.
  - buzzerbetrayed 3y ago
    100% this. There is absolutely 0 reason to use Affinity of Adobe besides pricing model. They can play around with the numbers and try to have a cheaper subscription than Adobe, or maybe bundle it with the other software Canva offers, but ultimately I think switching to a subscription model will be the end of the Affinity software suite.
    - omnimus 3y ago
      Have you tried Affinity? The software itself is a lot better than Adobe in many fundamentals. It’s faster, crashes less, supports a lot more file formats, connection between the individual programs is perfect, they add new quite innovative features at constant pace. Adobe is pretty much legacy software that gets close to zero development, its ridden with bugs that will be never fixed. The reason why everyone hates them is that last non subscription version Adobe CS6 from more than 10 years ago is pretty much the same thing what you get now even though users have been screaming for features and bugfixes. Adobe can have their cake and eat it too.
      - adithyassekhar 3y ago
        The only reason I don't use CS6 is because it doesn't work properly with hidpi displays. It doesn't scale well above 100%.
      - vetinari 3y ago
        Affinity (Photo) still doesn't support tablets properly. You can play around with parameters affected by pressure and tilt, but here Adobe (and Krita) are ahead.
      - pier25 3y ago
        > The software itself is a lot better than Adobe in many fundamentals. It’s faster, crashes less, supports a lot more file formats, connection between the individual programs is perfect, they add new quite innovative features at constant pace. I disagree with all your points. I've been using Adobe for 20 years and Affinity Design and Photo since they released in 2013 or so. Adobe apps are faster on Apple Silicon than Affinity. I haven't experienced a crash in years with Adobe and I have experienced crashes with Affinity quite recently. Adobe has complete integration between programs. Eg: You can use AE timelines into Premiere, import Photoshop files into AE, edit vector objects from Photoshop in Illustrator, etc. Affinity innovation pace is just glacial. V2 introduced some new features but it Serif what... like 10 years? And personally I didn't see any value in the new features. Design is still missing a lot from Illustrator.
  - t-writescode 3y ago
    That's not true at all. There's also the strong dislike of Adobe as a company.
    - throwaway2990 3y ago
      Due to subscriptions.
      - timeon 3y ago
        And bloatware. Affinity runs smoother on Mac.
        throwaway2990 3y ago
        This is true. I bought it because photoshop kept crashing on Mac. And I got tired of watching filters take effect in Lightroom.
        aikinai 3y ago
        I switched to Capture One years ago, but recently switched back to Lightroom. It’s much much faster now and they also recently launched advanced color editing, AI masks, and true HDR support which pushed me over the edge.
        robertoandred 3y ago
        Eh, they take like 30 seconds just to open the app.
        pier25 3y ago
        This used to be the case but in my experience Adobe runs better in Apple Silicon than Affinity does.
  - ReleaseCandidat 3y ago
    I also try to avoid the two big "A"s, Autodesk and Adobe.
  - Toutouxc 3y ago
    I paid $lot for the entire Affinity suite and DxO Photolab instead of going with the (quite good) Adobe offerings just to avoid the insanity that is the Adobe Creative Cloud launcher. I deeply hate apps that install, auto-run and auto-update other apps. Affinity and DxO give you a DMG.
    - pier25 3y ago
      I agree about Creative Cloud. I too hate it with a passion. But when I said "Adobe is better" I was referring to the apps themselves.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - bayindirh 3y ago
    > Adobe software is just better. I won't be installing that invasive spyware suite to my system even if they pay me monthly to use the software. It's that bad.
  - browningstreet 3y ago
    But the subscription based company was the one to buy the non-subscription company. Because they generate the funds to do so.
  - srvmshr 3y ago
    I keep Adobe products only on iPad or iPhone, where the app seems sandboxed. In Mac/Windows, Adobe CC (or any product line FWIW) spawns files and folders like cancer in /Library or /System. It's just hallmark bad software engineering.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
timeon 3y ago
Not only subscription, but what I find problematic about Adobe is bloatware.
- robotshmobot 3y ago
  Exactly. Creative Cloud launcher digs its greedy fingers deep in your system, running hundreds of processes and constantly phoning home. It’s the model I point to when people say they want alternate app stores. I would much rather download apps individually from the App Store, or at worst a dmg.
  - flenserboy 3y ago
    It would be fantastic for an OS to mandate a particular type of installation (oh how I miss dragging app packages from a .dmg into my Application directory & being done with it) while preventing anything else.
    - jwells89 3y ago
      A lot of desktop software devs are averse to anything but old style full access to everything all the time, but yes I agree. Most software has no good reason to put files anywhere outside of its own application bundle and ~/Library/Application Support/<Program Name>/.

facialwipe 3y ago

I enjoy Serif products but have always wondered how it would survive. Pixelmator stayed a family-run bootstrapped operation while Serif scaled a company in the EU around the Affinity Suite.