7 ms·

My recipe for dealing with "cranky" proprietary software like this: Step 1. Buy CC subscription and install what you need. Step 2. Look for a good patch/crack

by nnq 12y ago

My recipe for dealing with "cranky" proprietary software like this: Step 1. Buy CC subscription and install what you need. Step 2. Look for a good patch/crack that makes everything work ofline, and that still allows you to update. Step 3. Make peace with the risk of having installed some possible malware on your machine with the patch/crack (ie. do the sensible thing of doing you shopping and ebanking on the other dedicated machine you only use for this). Step 4. Stop caring that step 2 is illegal and get on with your life, you paid for the damn thing and nobody will really sue you for using it in a way that breaks the damn EULA anyway...

asdfaoeu 12y ago
> risk of having installed some possible malware Are you talking about the Creative Cloud drm or the crack?
- orware 12y ago
  Both probably ;-). Most likely just the crack...sometimes they come with additional crap and people (who are none the wiser) click on it and get something bad installed.
- rangibaby 12y ago
  You don't need a crack for CC, just to block Adobe's activation servers in your hosts after installing. (AFAIK)
  - Fuxy 12y ago
    That only work for 90 days though once the counter hits 90 you're screwed. You still code that can either crack the software or act is a server for it.
  - mschuster91 12y ago
    Not anymore, this was valid up to CS5. CS5.5 and later need the amtlib.dll patch on Windows, dunno what's the state of affairs on Macintosh.
    - ubercow13 12y ago
      I'm pretty sure they don't..I had CS6 without using any patched files iirc
the_ancient 12y ago
>Step 3 That is what VM's are for.....
- muellerwolfram 12y ago
  http://www.prtfl.io/muellerwolfram/blog/2013/1/23/how-to-use-photoshop-in-ubuntu http://www.prtfl.io/muellerwolfram/blog/2013/1/23/how-to-use...
Fuxy 12y ago
And this is why "cloud" software will always be worse then regular software. What happens when these "cloud" companies go out of business? You're pretty much SOL if you can't find a replacement quick. Don't ever rely on "cloud" software for critical infrastructure unless you own that cloud. Everybody get CS6 and delay upgrading as long as you can.
- prawks 12y ago
  > You're pretty much SOL if you can't find a replacement quick. Everyone who seriously considers moving mission-critical software or infrastructure to the cloud should (if they don't already) have a contingency plan at the forefront of their evaluation of any platform/service. Evaluations of solutions like that take away much of the risk that you're proposing. It's also just smart business.
  - LoganCale 12y ago
    The problem is, Adobe never did this and abruptly forced everyone to switch to a subscription model if they wanted to upgrade. And existing versions only keep working for so long unless you keep the same hardware/operating system with them forever. So suddenly, thousands of people who rely on Adobe software daily are forced to switch to a subscription-only model.
- cmiller1 12y ago
  I disagree in some specific cases. For software that is focused around accessing shared data. Say, ERP, document collaboration, etc. for small businesses that can't afford or don't want dedicated IT staff cloud based software makes a lot of sense.
  - nitrogen 12y ago
    It makes a lot of sense iff those businesses lose less money on cloud+ISP downtime than they would spend on IT staff or on-site support from a retail store.
  - owlmanatt 12y ago
bitL 12y ago
This all seems sensible until Adobe revokes your license and you lose all money you invested so far and access to the work you produced. There should be consumer protection laws for these cases. When you pirate software, everything works smoothly (unless you catch some trojan), but if you are a paying customer, all kinds of unpleasant and artificial problems are thrown at you.
- wooter 12y ago
  Or just let the consumer vote with his money. (sketch and pixelmator look like they're growing nicely) All "protection" laws will do is add compliance costs and increase the barrier to entry.
TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
The DRM on a game creation IDE I use stopped working not too long ago. I'd bought the product, but the DRM didn't care. So I just used a crack.
abalone 12y ago
My "recipe" is this: Uninstall and switch to Sketch. http://bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ http://bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ I have been so, so happy. Not 100% apples-to-apples of course but it's been great for my UI design needs, way better than Photoshop/Fireworks. For bitmap editing I supplement with Pixelmator (only $15!). I used to say Photoshop couldn't be beat because of insanely hardcore features like content-aware fill, but then this is happening: http://www.pixelmator.com/blog/2014/04/17/sneak-peek-at-pixelmator-3-2-sandstone/ http://www.pixelmator.com/blog/2014/04/17/sneak-peek-at-pixe...
- mcmillion 12y ago
  I'm going to have to see that in person to believe it.
  - nitrogen 12y ago
    There is a similar plugin for GIMP, though it is less refined.
  - Someone 12y ago
    It is like magic, but Adobe demoed (and, I think, shipped) it in Photoshop over four years ago: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/cs5-web-premium-feature-tour/contentaware-fill/ http://tv.adobe.com/watch/cs5-web-premium-feature-tour/conte..., so the technology does exist.
- btown 12y ago
  I was curious about how content-aware fill works, so I did some digging. Photoshop's content-aware fill uses the PatchMatch algorithm, originally developed at Princeton: http://gfx.cs.princeton.edu/pubs/Barnes_2009_PAR/patchmatch.pdf http://gfx.cs.princeton.edu/pubs/Barnes_2009_PAR/patchmatch.... Does anyone know if Pixelmator is using the same technology, or is it something new?
- wishinghand 12y ago
  I do wish there were better alternatives for each and every app in the CC. The only one that's competently matched is Premiere. Pixelmator is good, but Mac/OSX only. It also doesn't have adjustment layers, meaning that if I want a layer to be black and white, I'd have to open it up separately, desaturate, then import it back in as a new layer, delete the old one and rearrange. They finally have a 16bit color, and apparently the content aware fill is coming.

by nnq 12y ago

asdfaoeu 12y ago

> risk of having installed some possible malware Are you talking about the Creative Cloud drm or the crack?

orware 12y ago
Both probably ;-). Most likely just the crack...sometimes they come with additional crap and people (who are none the wiser) click on it and get something bad installed.
rangibaby 12y ago
You don't need a crack for CC, just to block Adobe's activation servers in your hosts after installing. (AFAIK)
- Fuxy 12y ago
  That only work for 90 days though once the counter hits 90 you're screwed. You still code that can either crack the software or act is a server for it.
- mschuster91 12y ago
  Not anymore, this was valid up to CS5. CS5.5 and later need the amtlib.dll patch on Windows, dunno what's the state of affairs on Macintosh.
  - ubercow13 12y ago
    I'm pretty sure they don't..I had CS6 without using any patched files iirc

the_ancient 12y ago

>Step 3 That is what VM's are for.....

muellerwolfram 12y ago
http://www.prtfl.io/muellerwolfram/blog/2013/1/23/how-to-use-photoshop-in-ubuntu http://www.prtfl.io/muellerwolfram/blog/2013/1/23/how-to-use...

Fuxy 12y ago

And this is why "cloud" software will always be worse then regular software. What happens when these "cloud" companies go out of business? You're pretty much SOL if you can't find a replacement quick. Don't ever rely on "cloud" software for critical infrastructure unless you own that cloud. Everybody get CS6 and delay upgrading as long as you can.

prawks 12y ago
> You're pretty much SOL if you can't find a replacement quick. Everyone who seriously considers moving mission-critical software or infrastructure to the cloud should (if they don't already) have a contingency plan at the forefront of their evaluation of any platform/service. Evaluations of solutions like that take away much of the risk that you're proposing. It's also just smart business.
- LoganCale 12y ago
  The problem is, Adobe never did this and abruptly forced everyone to switch to a subscription model if they wanted to upgrade. And existing versions only keep working for so long unless you keep the same hardware/operating system with them forever. So suddenly, thousands of people who rely on Adobe software daily are forced to switch to a subscription-only model.
cmiller1 12y ago
I disagree in some specific cases. For software that is focused around accessing shared data. Say, ERP, document collaboration, etc. for small businesses that can't afford or don't want dedicated IT staff cloud based software makes a lot of sense.
- nitrogen 12y ago
  It makes a lot of sense iff those businesses lose less money on cloud+ISP downtime than they would spend on IT staff or on-site support from a retail store.
- owlmanatt 12y ago

bitL 12y ago

This all seems sensible until Adobe revokes your license and you lose all money you invested so far and access to the work you produced. There should be consumer protection laws for these cases. When you pirate software, everything works smoothly (unless you catch some trojan), but if you are a paying customer, all kinds of unpleasant and artificial problems are thrown at you.

wooter 12y ago
Or just let the consumer vote with his money. (sketch and pixelmator look like they're growing nicely) All "protection" laws will do is add compliance costs and increase the barrier to entry.

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago

The DRM on a game creation IDE I use stopped working not too long ago. I'd bought the product, but the DRM didn't care. So I just used a crack.

abalone 12y ago

My "recipe" is this: Uninstall and switch to Sketch. http://bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ http://bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ I have been so, so happy. Not 100% apples-to-apples of course but it's been great for my UI design needs, way better than Photoshop/Fireworks. For bitmap editing I supplement with Pixelmator (only $15!). I used to say Photoshop couldn't be beat because of insanely hardcore features like content-aware fill, but then this is happening: http://www.pixelmator.com/blog/2014/04/17/sneak-peek-at-pixelmator-3-2-sandstone/ http://www.pixelmator.com/blog/2014/04/17/sneak-peek-at-pixe...

mcmillion 12y ago
I'm going to have to see that in person to believe it.
- nitrogen 12y ago
  There is a similar plugin for GIMP, though it is less refined.
- Someone 12y ago
  It is like magic, but Adobe demoed (and, I think, shipped) it in Photoshop over four years ago: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/cs5-web-premium-feature-tour/contentaware-fill/ http://tv.adobe.com/watch/cs5-web-premium-feature-tour/conte..., so the technology does exist.
btown 12y ago
I was curious about how content-aware fill works, so I did some digging. Photoshop's content-aware fill uses the PatchMatch algorithm, originally developed at Princeton: http://gfx.cs.princeton.edu/pubs/Barnes_2009_PAR/patchmatch.pdf http://gfx.cs.princeton.edu/pubs/Barnes_2009_PAR/patchmatch.... Does anyone know if Pixelmator is using the same technology, or is it something new?
wishinghand 12y ago
I do wish there were better alternatives for each and every app in the CC. The only one that's competently matched is Premiere. Pixelmator is good, but Mac/OSX only. It also doesn't have adjustment layers, meaning that if I want a layer to be black and white, I'd have to open it up separately, desaturate, then import it back in as a new layer, delete the old one and rearrange. They finally have a 16bit color, and apparently the content aware fill is coming.