Free Photoshop coming

DJ-S1

Adobe plans to have a free, online "Photoshop-lite" soon, supported by ads. Article here.

yokimbo

Yeah, saw it on Tech Crunch as well. Sites like Picnik could be in trouble.

quark

Related thought. This is a review of several online photo editing tools.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2108968,00.asp


Pardon me if already posted.

SloYerRoll

THis online PSlite is basically a BETA for future Adobe endeavors. Eventually all applications from photoshop to MSWord will be online applications.
This will basically destroy any pirating capabilities except for high end hackers.

Good stuff!

claudermilk

Good stuff? Not so much. There are certainly some apps, or pieces of apps, where being online makes sense. Photoshop, Word, Excel, etc. do not. All the positives relate to the publisher: we users don't get our grubby mitts on an actual ditributable chunk of code, they can now charge subscriptions instead of selling a single copy until upgrade time comes around, they can bombard us with yet more ads for another revenue stream, they can at any time, without warning cut access to the application. On the flip side, all the negatives relate to the user: net access is mandatory, access quality directly affects usability, lose access, lose your app, data security?, now an ongoing expense, we get bombarded with yet more advertising, did I mention data security?

I sure don't see this concept as a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I don;t begrudge Adobe or MS making a profit from their work--that's what they are in business for. However, I don't see this approach as a reasonable one to deal with the thieves as once again the legitimate paying customers are going to be punished.

dogwood

claudermilk wrote:

Good stuff? Not so much. There are certainly some apps, or pieces of apps, where being online makes sense. Photoshop, Word, Excel, etc. do not. All the positives relate to the publisher: we users don't get our grubby mitts on an actual ditributable chunk of code, they can now charge subscriptions instead of selling a single copy until upgrade time comes around, they can bombard us with yet more ads for another revenue stream, they can at any time, without warning cut access to the application. On the flip side, all the negatives relate to the user: net access is mandatory, access quality directly affects usability, lose access, lose your app, data security?, now an ongoing expense, we get bombarded with yet more advertising, did I mention data security?

I sure don't see this concept as a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I don;t begrudge Adobe or MS making a profit from their work--that's what they are in business for. However, I don't see this approach as a reasonable one to deal with the thieves as once again the legitimate paying customers are going to be punished.

Interesting points. This is a perspective I hadn't really considered. The first real online app I've used so far is blurb and oddly enough, I couldn't get it to work on my main computer that has a pretty decent firewall-- unless the firewall was off. Your points on data security are well-taken.

Online apps do require a much more open connection to the web-- seems like viruses or whatever is hot with hackers now could be a problem too.

SloYerRoll

claudermilk wrote:

Good stuff? Not so much.

Hey Cris, you make allot of very valid points.
The main reason I say this is a good thing is the phenomenal amount of illegal copies of these high end applications. All you need is some crappy p2p program and you have 1000+ dollars worth of software.
By making this move, (which I think is inevitable) it will all but completely remove pirated versions of these apps, thus making digital darkroom techniques available to the only people that should have them. The paying customers.
So essentially this move is helping de-saturate the market of people that would otherwise never consider purchasing programs like these.

I have no doubt the super powers like adobe will not make a big move until consumer based technology is able to meet the demands of their applications.


-Jon

mwgrice

SloYerRoll wrote:

Hey Cris, you make allot of very valid points.
The main reason I say this is a good thing is the phenomenal amount of illegal copies of these high end applications. All you need is some crappy p2p program and you have 1000+ dollars worth of software.
By making this move, (which I think is inevitable) it will all but completely remove pirated versions of these apps, thus making digital darkroom techniques available to the only people that should have them. The paying customers.
So essentially this move is helping de-saturate the market of people that would otherwise never consider purchasing programs like these.

I have no doubt the super powers like adobe will not make a big move until consumer based technology is able to meet the demands of their applications.


-Jon

One thing that's always fascinated me about software piracy is that it's a double-edged sword.

First, if your piracy protection is too effective, then pirates use your competitor's product. This can actually cut into your market, since having learned to use your software with a pirated copy some pirates may either buy it later or influence their employer to buy it. To be fair, future piracy protection may be the factor that forces them to buy it

Second, piracy protection often puts a burden on your paying customers. For instance, I've had a lot of trouble playing Half Life 2 lately because of issues with their piracy protection (servers down, corrupted profiles, etc.)
In the case of online applications, companies would obviously have to overcome the sorts of issues claudermilk mentioned--and I'm sure there are going to be plenty more.

One thing that concerns me at this point is that Adobe is good at making software. Making an online application requires a different infrastructure and different sets of skills and knowledge than building software does. Getting the product out the door is a lot different than keeping the product up all the time. While I'm sure they can make the transition, it may be a rough ride for their customers.

dogwood

mwgrice wrote:

Adobe... it may be a rough ride for their customers.

Kind of like the beta version of CS3?

I'm counting the days until April 16!