Also, that's why I hate Adobe's subscription: I do take photos and process them. But I don't often do that. Maybe several times a year, then why do I have to pay 10 USD a month?
Although Affinity Photo 2 is not that great to use compared to lightroom, it is functionally capable. And I don't need to subscribe to it. I just pay once and use whenever I want to, no extra fee.
----
Maybe spending like 40 or 50 USD per year is much cheaper than paying for a full royalty-free software pack. But if you think in that way, then there is much cheaper software out there, like affinity photo 2. I like Photoshop and Lightroom because of the features and functionality. I can take the price since I know I can use it whenever I want after I buy it. But now Adobe is forcing everyone to switch to their subscription model and revoke the licenses they sold, even with such brilliant software, I don't trust the company.
@zleap Yeah, free software are great to have, but without a strong commercial support and fairly good management, it's really hard to support serious usages. You can't hope for some editors to know how to properly submit a GitHub issue. I emotionally support those software, I use GIMP some times, but I do prefer some paid software that I can yell at them when something goes wrong because I paid for that. And by "yell at them", I don't mean physically, I can report the problem, let them figure it out, and I can actively keep asking them when I can get the fix. With free and opensource software, nobody should bear this burden, and thus the user can't expect a proper "growth" for the software.
Yeah, with @libreoffice they have the document foundation behind the project and backing from others supporting the open standards.
@zleap @skyblond ...and a commercial ecosystem providing development, custom features/fixes and long-term support: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/
@skyblond
I fully appreciate that those who use Photoshop etc look at free software such as GIMP and say that it is no where near as good. What can the community do to build tools that can serve their needs and help transition away from big tech solutions, where big tech calls the shots all the time.?