I’ve been wanting to upgrade my ancient Creative Suite 3 for years but couldn’t afford it. I just learned that Adobe is now limiting customers to two options - either upgrade to Creative Suite Cloud with a monthly subscription or buy each software program individually. The subscription price actually looks pretty good to me, and I really don’t have much choice, anyway, But before I take the plunge, I’d like to know exactly what I’m getting in to.
If you’re using Creative Suite Cloud on a Mac (especially a MacBook Pro), have you had any problems? Do you have any tips for upgrading?
I discovered one unanswered (or partially answered) thread on another forum where someone on a Mac complained about CS Cloud taking up far too much space on his hard drive. He also said he had to move his websites into a new folder for some reason.
I should add that I’m using MAMP Pro to power my sites, so if I have to move my sites into a new folder, I’ll probably have to make some changes there.
When I was looking into an upgrade a year or two ago, a lot of people were grousing about the expense of the subscription. It’s somewhat intriguing to do the math, comparing the cost of a subscription to the cost of buying the software individually.
The game changer is the special offer - just $30 a month if you’re upgrading. Of course, there’s a catch; after the first year, you start paying the regular $50 a month.
So it certainly isn’t cheap, but compared to the cost of buying four or five expensive software programs one at a time it looks OK.
On balance, I figure it will be a bargain the first year, OK the second year, and I’ll hopefully get rich off my websites during the third year and buy all the software programs outright.
I’ve decided I won’t upgrade any more because of the ridiculous prices of Adobe products (twice the US price here in Australia for a digital download product ). Adobe have been getting hammered here for their pricing (along with Apple and M$) but not much is likely to come of it. Even if we got the US prices, they are too high in themselves. I don’t do that much with Ps etc. anyway, so the older version is good enough for me.
It’s an interesting situation. I figure the first year would be an incredible bargain, the second year would be worthwhile, but it’s a little harder to justify paying the subscription fee beyond three years unless you’re making a significant profit from your software.
In other news, Adobe’s support is a joke! You apparently can’t subscribe to Creative Suite Cloud with any browser other than Internet Explorer, and when you chat with a representative, they’re unbelievably slow and clueless. I spent FIVE HOURS trying to subscribe a couple days ago, tried it again the next day and again today. I explain the situation at the beginning of a chat session, and they don’t even read what I wrote! Unbelievable. I feel like I’m dealing with Verizon again.
Hmm I’m pretty sure I signed up using my browser (not IE, it isn’t even an option on my mac), I would have used either Safari or Chrome. Didn’t strike any problems with the actual sign-up but I don’t believe their cart system was the best I’d come across. I’m based in NZ so was redirected constantly to the Australia-Pacific website. That was annoying because up until a month or so ago the Aussie prices were above the US. Anyhow I took advantage of the reduced prices for the first year and signed up on about the 31st Dec 2012.
Pricing-wise it really does depend on what you use. I’m a multi-user of products so it is a very east choice for me. I use InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Lightroom on a regular basis. I couldn’t hope to afford all those at stand alone prices. Feature-wise though I’m not a heavy user and have been happily using CS3 on my work machine for the last year and a half. There are a lot of products in the Suite and they have some nice bonuses if you want to take advantage of them, but they’re niche things which not everyone will use or appreciate. The good thing is any updates are brought immediately to the cloud subscribers. If CS moves to CS7 during that time, you get access straight away. Can’t really beat that if there’s a major upgrade throughout the year.
As for performance, they’re much of a muchness if you have a machine that can run them. I’m using a 2011 iMac and they haven’t had a problem. The biggest problem is crashes but the Adobe products of late autorecover almost everything so I’m not afraid of losing things. Don’t ask me why but they tend to get more stable, I had more crashes early after installation. That may also be to the fact they roll out updates very swiftly too. Is a bit of a pain getting so many but I’ve got a decent internet connection and the auto-update facility allows you to skip them if you don’t want the updates.
As for location of folders, your MAMP should be ok as I think they’re defined by MAMP anyway and if you are linking it in with DreamWeaver then that allows for site-specific folders too. Wouldn’t anticipate that being an issue but I can’t say I’ve fired up DW for a few years. Can’t imagine they’ve backtracked on that feature as it is pretty basic functionality.
). Adobe have been getting hammered here for their pricing (along with Apple and M$) but not much is likely to come of it. Even if we got the US prices, they are too high in themselves. I don’t do that much with Ps etc. anyway, so the older version is good enough for me.