4 ms·

I dunno... all of this sounds like fearmongering and some of these things are perfectly analogous to the way stuff already works. For example: "Want to continu

I dunno... all of this sounds like fearmongering and some of these things are perfectly analogous to the way stuff already works. For example: "Want to continue using SuperAwesomeApp? Too bad..." Want to continue using TwitPic? Too bad. Obsolescence happens, companies shut down, products go off the market and cease to be supported every day. This isn't new. If there's enough demand for an alternative, it will happen. Where there's a market, there will be product. Or: "It's either pay up or lose access." When I stop paying my gym membership I loose access. Nobody complains that "it's either pay up or get fat." Photoshop used to be a product, now its a service. This isn't an "injustice" it's normal business. Data safety in the cloud though is a reasonable concern. You don't know what's going on with your data on remote servers. But then, most people don't know what's going on with their data on their own machines. We've found ways to implement safety and security on our local machines (monitor for malware etc...), I imagine we will eventually find ways to ensure it on remote machines as well. Maybe.

marknow 12y ago
Not quite the same as a qym membership, however. Many, many designers use Adobe products to create original work. The prospect of being forced to continue to pay for access to your own created works feel a bit like a strong-arm tactic... and that's honestly how many large and small agencies are beginning to feel. It's not easy to just use another product, since a lot of proprietary aspects of the Adobe universe make it nigh impossible to open or access in another application.
TeMPOraL 12y ago
> Photoshop used to be a product, now its a service. This isn't an "injustice" it's normal business. Well, it isn't injustice. But it doesn't change the fact that this sucks, very badly. The thing about personal computing was that when a company goes out of business, the software they made still remains on machines. It can be 3rd-party-patched. File formats can be reverse-engineered, so that you can use your data with a new program. Software can be cracked, so if a company tries to make you pay too much it is the company, not users, that is going to have a bad day. All that move towards the cloud serves companies well, but sucks for the user. You don't get to tinker anymore. You don't get to do things your way anymore. Technologically, are being literally enslaved.
- walterbell 12y ago
  A small silver lining may exist in a combination of open isolation platforms like Qubes OS / Genode and "cloudlets", http://elijah.cs.cmu.edu http://elijah.cs.cmu.edu, http://qubes-os.org http://qubes-os.org, http://genode.org http://genode.org Latency / Speed of light is still a major factor in human-quality UX, even with GPU virtualization. Qubes/Genode can isolate "DRM zones" from "freedom zones" on the personal computer. DRM zones can run Adobe / Microsoft / Google / Netflix cloudlets and algos, with local caches that are DRM protected. User benefits from improved UX. Freedom zones can run open software that secures user data and requires the cloudlets to use network-isolated sandboxes when they need access to user data. If the user wants to sell/lease their data to a cloudlet, then an audited copy is allowed to leave the local PC, moving to the public cloud. Many permutations are possible in a multi-tenant client architecture. The key is to support the coexistence of open and closed enclaves on the same local device (a home server/bridge), isolated by hardware-assisted security that has an _open_ architecture TCB and root of trust.
- aaronbrethorst 12y ago
  I think it's great. I'm paying about $30 more per year for Photoshop and Lightroom combined than I was paying for Lightroom by itself before. Plus it means that I now get to use a 64-bit version of Photoshop. It's a huge win for me without any reservations.
anon1385 12y ago
>Want to continue using TwitPic? Too bad. That is just an illustration of my point really… The difference is that if the company that makes my local image editing software shuts down tomorrow, I still have all my files and I can still run the software. Eventually I'll have to find a replacement, but I've got a reasonable window of time to do that, and no corporation blackmailing me (and who knows what happens to the data held by defunct companies…). >This isn't an "injustice" it's normal business. Business can be, and often is, unethical. Somebody who argues that "we changed the EULA and now you have to pay a month fee or we delete all your data" isn't an injustice is pretty warped in my view. I've come to expect such psychopathy from business types though.
gurkendoktor 12y ago
> Obsolescence happens, companies shut down, products go off the market and cease to be supported every day. This isn't new. Yet I can (and do) still run TextMate 1, OmniFocus 1, LineForm, NewsFire, Office:mac 2011 and Photoshop CS3 on my Mac. Even when it comes to the "cloud", I can still use Skype 4.x on my iPhone which doesn't force a shitty Windows Mobile interface down my throat. It's not that I mind paying for subscriptions, I just don't want my tools to be taken away while I am trying to get work done with them.

marknow 12y ago

Not quite the same as a qym membership, however. Many, many designers use Adobe products to create original work. The prospect of being forced to continue to pay for access to your own created works feel a bit like a strong-arm tactic... and that's honestly how many large and small agencies are beginning to feel. It's not easy to just use another product, since a lot of proprietary aspects of the Adobe universe make it nigh impossible to open or access in another application.

TeMPOraL 12y ago

> Photoshop used to be a product, now its a service. This isn't an "injustice" it's normal business. Well, it isn't injustice. But it doesn't change the fact that this sucks, very badly. The thing about personal computing was that when a company goes out of business, the software they made still remains on machines. It can be 3rd-party-patched. File formats can be reverse-engineered, so that you can use your data with a new program. Software can be cracked, so if a company tries to make you pay too much it is the company, not users, that is going to have a bad day. All that move towards the cloud serves companies well, but sucks for the user. You don't get to tinker anymore. You don't get to do things your way anymore. Technologically, are being literally enslaved.

walterbell 12y ago
A small silver lining may exist in a combination of open isolation platforms like Qubes OS / Genode and "cloudlets", http://elijah.cs.cmu.edu http://elijah.cs.cmu.edu, http://qubes-os.org http://qubes-os.org, http://genode.org http://genode.org Latency / Speed of light is still a major factor in human-quality UX, even with GPU virtualization. Qubes/Genode can isolate "DRM zones" from "freedom zones" on the personal computer. DRM zones can run Adobe / Microsoft / Google / Netflix cloudlets and algos, with local caches that are DRM protected. User benefits from improved UX. Freedom zones can run open software that secures user data and requires the cloudlets to use network-isolated sandboxes when they need access to user data. If the user wants to sell/lease their data to a cloudlet, then an audited copy is allowed to leave the local PC, moving to the public cloud. Many permutations are possible in a multi-tenant client architecture. The key is to support the coexistence of open and closed enclaves on the same local device (a home server/bridge), isolated by hardware-assisted security that has an _open_ architecture TCB and root of trust.
aaronbrethorst 12y ago
I think it's great. I'm paying about $30 more per year for Photoshop and Lightroom combined than I was paying for Lightroom by itself before. Plus it means that I now get to use a 64-bit version of Photoshop. It's a huge win for me without any reservations.

anon1385 12y ago

>Want to continue using TwitPic? Too bad. That is just an illustration of my point really… The difference is that if the company that makes my local image editing software shuts down tomorrow, I still have all my files and I can still run the software. Eventually I'll have to find a replacement, but I've got a reasonable window of time to do that, and no corporation blackmailing me (and who knows what happens to the data held by defunct companies…). >This isn't an "injustice" it's normal business. Business can be, and often is, unethical. Somebody who argues that "we changed the EULA and now you have to pay a month fee or we delete all your data" isn't an injustice is pretty warped in my view. I've come to expect such psychopathy from business types though.

gurkendoktor 12y ago

> Obsolescence happens, companies shut down, products go off the market and cease to be supported every day. This isn't new. Yet I can (and do) still run TextMate 1, OmniFocus 1, LineForm, NewsFire, Office:mac 2011 and Photoshop CS3 on my Mac. Even when it comes to the "cloud", I can still use Skype 4.x on my iPhone which doesn't force a shitty Windows Mobile interface down my throat. It's not that I mind paying for subscriptions, I just don't want my tools to be taken away while I am trying to get work done with them.