Appreciate the post, Never considered or looked for other Photo-editing software. Will look into this more

 

Reminds me of Pixelmator (MacOS & iOS only) when they launched more than a decade ago!

Will surely take a look... hope my old and clunky PC can run it.

 

Thanks for the post, @ChrisV!

I don't mind paying for a good product, but the subscription put me off as well. Hate it so much I checked their site during the vid.

Can't say I'm the next Michelangelo, but I enjoy some good editing from time to time and at this price point I can stand by rewarding developers for my occasional messing about.

 

I use Pixlr free edition which is almost as powerful as Photoshop and cloud based which is huge for me.

 

This is a very similar reason why I switched from some software I used to love.

I design electronics, and have always used a software called Eagle.

It's ugly, it's hard to use, and it's got a steep learning curve. But damnit, it gets the job done and it's the industry standard. There's a good competitor called Altium, and it's captured about an equal marketshare at this point.

However, both tools have moved to: subscription license (~$500/yr) and cloud storage for files (they say it's to facilitate collaboration among teams, but if you want to do your work on an airplane with no wifi then you are SoL).

I'm switching to a FREE open-source software called KiCad. It's maintained by donations, has killer 3D support for modeling finished products, and they keep integrating new features (like SPICE modeling built into the schematic designer).

I know I just said a bunch of gobbeldygook jargon, but the point is:
-company w/ software thinks it has pricing power and kept finding ways to milk users for more
-lack of updates and features
-hungry upstart takes its place because decades-long customers were eager to jump ship

 

Quite alright with the gobbeldygook jargon, mate.

Basically, we're seeing a friendly take over here, which makes CENTS.

I have no idea about KiCad, but if it's similar to AutoCad it is amazing that it's free.

The common thread is a company rising to power through a need well met by their software. As they gain market share and a shift takes place in favour of cloud based services rather than products, their business models changes from a flat rate product based to a pay as you go service.
They have their own standard which the market came to rely on in time and expect their customers (because of familiarity, , "everybody else is using it" and what not) to follow them.
Alienating a lot of their "small time" customers and recreational users (like myself) exactly because of this shift, the need in the market isn't being met any longer. So young sprouts can shoot up and fill the vacuum.

Because they misunderstood the Need of their customers and only have Control over their own product, new competitors are standing up, threatening their Scale and thus profitability.

This is exactly the opposite of what BMW did when they started seeing fierce competition from China (was it with Chery?). Instead of ignoring changes, they exchanged! Sent engineers with the craft of the trade over for stock in the company.
People who wouldn't even be their customer now generate profit for them, while customers who switched brands aren't entirely lost to them.

 

I switched to Affinity Photo early last year and I've never looked back. Last week I recorded two training videos in my member's area. One was how to edit a book template in Photoshop and the other was in Affinity Photo. The Photoshop video was 2.5 times longer. It's just clunky for my basic needs and every step takes way too long. Like many older programs, Photoshop is weighted down by all its old code and feature baggage. It's like jumping into the 10th season of a SitCom - there is so much history that the story gets bogged down constantly. Affinity Photo is a single purchase price, works faster and you don't have to worry about making monthly payments for the rest of your life. It's a big win in my book.