To my mind, the most annoying (if not truly aggravating)trend in software today. No such thing as buying a copy and using it until it doesn't run on your hardware any more; now you're paying month-to-month, use it or not. It's a great deal … for the software company.
Adobe’s Creative Suite is dead, long live the Creative Cloud
It’s the end of the line for boxed versions of Photoshop, InDesign, and the rest.
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Agreed.
That is a downside true. But still comes with upsides. Software that will eventually be cross platform. Run on the cheapest computer with little thought on hardware. Be able to out of the box support multiple file types. Run on mobile and desktop. Easier and more accessible SDKs. Etc
I think in the end more functionality is coming. Will it be worth the price? Dunno.
If you're talking about pure SaaS setups, then, yes, there is superior cross-platform compatibility and the ability to run on lower-end hardware. On the other hand, you're dealing with latency issues. And, again, the monthly charge …
And what happens if you're in the middle of a critical project and either Adobe's authentication server is hacked/crashed or they decide to pull your license for some bogus reason? If I was a professional user of Creative Suite I would definitely be asking Adobe (and myself) some questions.
In fairness to Adobe, I should add that I finally got around to reading an open tab from a few days ago and it seems that it's 'Cloud' for marketing purposes. You could liken it more to a digital download and the internet is only needed to make your month subscription transaction (with a 180-day grace period if you don't) and no forced upgrades, so you can hold off on your updates if you're the type that prefers to wait and see if there are any bugs reported. The cloud part comes in as part of the collaboration aspect which sounds like it should be a good thing.
The only real problem seems to be that users are wishing it could be a bit more modular so they could distribute the monthly cost over the aspects of the software that they consider most useful. This may come in time, assuming Adobe want to create more internal cost centres…
Yeah, it appears it is not an "always online-required" setup, which is a good thing. It's still a "you don't own your software" kind of thing, though.