William Gallagher at appleinsider has a balanced account of the situation with Affinity, but closes with
“But it’s still going to be a shame that the individual Affinity Designer, Affinity Publisher, and Affinity Photo are behind us.”
Don’t like thinking of myself in a servile relationship with Canva. “Free forever”? We’ll see won’t we…
Then don’t use it, the simple solution to your self-confessed pessimistic view. Can you think of ANY software package these days which doesn’t require some sort of account or login?
It’s hardly servile when they’re simply moving from paid to free.
Interesting that the old apps were about 2.88GB each, HFS compressed 916.5MB each.
The new app is 3.5GB, HFS compressed… only 1.1GB for three-in-one!
More proof of the amount of duplication across the separate apps.
Same thing happened in reverse with Microsoft Office. I don’t have actual numbers to back this up, but back before Office apps were available in the Mac App Store, there was a large amount of installation files that were shared across Office apps. After the App Store, each app has all that shared program files, duplicated – they’re now inside each app package. It installs this way even if you’re using the stand-alone, full Office installer.
For example, look at the SharedSupport (773.1 MB) and DFonts (541.4 MB) folders in Microsoft Word.
I think that Microsoft could have still installed Office in a way that it shares the common resources. Notice how some applications, such as Xcode, download more files after you first open the application.
LibreOffice
Blender
Freecad
Kate
Firefox
Thunderbird
GIMP
VLC
Krita
…
…and that’s all without searching or thinking about it very hard. I’m not resigned to the idea that I have to allow tool vendors to lock my work behind doors that they control, regardless of how benign (or even friendly) their initial terms appear. I’m guessing the Canva license prohibits circumvention of their control and allows them to change their terms at will when the time comes for enshittification.
There’s certainly provisions against using it for illegal activities, or porn, or to aid the subversion of democracy, they have those requirements in their terms and conditions. If that bothers folks then they don’t have to use it.
For now, it’s good news. Serious pro tools for free with a stated intention that all future updates will keep it so.
Fair point, if you’re willing to live within the realms of open source I guess it can be avoided. But then there’s no substantive equivalents to the major packages I use. What are the feature comparable replacements for Affinity, Adobe, Filemaker, Capture One, Script Debugger, Photomator, Fender Studio? What about all the apps specifically for things like cameras, public transport, airlines, car rentals, government departments, banking, health care, the tax office etc?
Personally it’s not the world I want to live in. I’ve tried many, many variants of OS software over the years, and found them quirky, klunky, ugly, often difficult to install or get working correctly, and with arrogant, questionable levels of community ‘support’, but YMMV.
If the price of getting a better overall experience is handing someone a fake name and a burner email address, it’s a price I’m willing to pay.
I agree that isn’t a big deal. If the price, though, is potentially losing access to all the creative or business work you’ve done or workflows you’ve created using proprietary software, or being subject to extortionate fees for continued access, than that would be has been a problem for me.
No disagreement, but not all subscriptions have the same policies.
For instance, the Microsoft Office Suite, if run without a valid license/login, acts as viewer software. You can view and print, but not edit or create.
In contrast to Adobe’s suite, where you’re completely locked out.
This is the price of entry — especially for software used in business. I’m sure there’s plenty of open source ‘products’ which have withered on the vine and died. It’s the way of the computer world, nothing lasts forever.
Right now there’s absolutely nothing to suggest any problem with Affinity offering a free product. They already have their business model with Canva. If you feel this is locking you in, don’t use it. From this I assume you don’t use any software with a proprietary file format, good for you, but it’s not how most people want to use their machines. If it was, Linux would be the only desktop OS as no-one would need anything else.
I actually don’t mind paying for software that works for me. For example, as a photogrrapher by trade, there’s zero chance I would ever use Darktable instead of Lightroom or Capture one, or Gimp instead of Photoshop - life’s too short for software misery.
There’s an irony this discussion is happening on a Mac based website. I don’t recall hearing cries of conspiracy and suspicion when Apple switched from charging for MacOS to giving it away for free.
I do not know about the rest of Adobe’s suite, but Lightroom desktop and Classic require a paid subscription to use their full features. However, with a finished subscription, you can still use Lightroom Classic to view and organize photos on your local hard drive in the Library module, but you lose access to the Develop and Map modules.
This made me chuckle. I agree. But how weird that it needs to be said: I don’t mind paying people for the create stuff I use.
Photoshop Elements (what I use at home) used to have a simple license key. But now, it needs you to log in periodically to prove something or other. If you ever log off, or if your token expires and you don’t re-authenticate, the app refuses to do anything - you just get an error and a login screen.
It’s my understanding that all of the Creative Cloud apps are similar - if you’re not paid up, they don’t run. But I’ve never used CC, so this is based on what others have said in the past.
The Lightroom/Photoshop bundle continues to work in a reduced mode. The Develop (and Map) modules become inactive – but other features remain.
I can’t believe it – I’m defending Adobes subscriptions. Yikes!
All three are still there in one app/
head over to where the cool folks are Affinity Forum CreoFora: Creofora.com
Thanks, definitely not the same assault on the eyes the other forum is.
A word to the wise:
If, like I, you have been updating your installed copies of the Affinity apps from inside the application, NOW is the time to grab a complete up-to-date standalone installer from the Affinity site. Version 2.6.5 is available now. How long it will be is anyone’s guess.
In reality, only people who have no design skills need AI assistance to do their creative work. AI has the potential to rescue underexposed or very noisy photographs, but this technology is still in its infancy, imho. It still creates far too many weird artifacts to be as useful as it promises to be. People who want to just click a button to get “professional” results will love using AI to process their images or automate their graphic design projects. For me, processing my photos by hand is an integral part of the creative process. I wouldn’t give it up for anything, and I don’t need AI assistance for my design projects either. I suspect that many other creative professionals feel exactly the same way.
Exactly. My son is a graphic designer for an international commercial real estate corporation. He sees his colleagues getting laid off due to AI, and his creative friends in other fields having their work stolen and reappear as AI knock offs.