Macaw - The Code-Savvy Web Design Tool

> The problem with Adobe (specifically Photoshop) is their price points were so high, most people starting off were forced to pirate the software.

Adobe is a company in the business of making software for design professionals not hobbyists it's priced according to the value it has for those professionals given the prices professional command for their services. If you are being paid for your design work then you shouldn't be stealing. If you aren't being paid then you don't need professional tools yet you can cut your teeth on graphic tools designed for hobbyists. Widespread pirating of commercial software is largely about public perception of a company people feel it's ok to steal software they don't actually like.

To be honest James, I think you're getting a little too defensive and misunderstanding what I was saying. I have never pirated Adobe software and I'm not advocating for doing so. I understand Adobe products are built for design professionals, but as with any creative professional, not everyone starts out with hundreds of dollars to spend on industry standard software. It's incredibly important for there to be options for everyone to start designing no matter what their budget. I'm also speaking in the past tense, I think Adobe's new model of charging less upfront and paying monthly makes their software much more accessible to the average designer.

There is no reason to be condescending. Not only have I never pirated Adobe software, I've been a paid user since 2005. While you and I are both in the fortunate position to be able to afford industry-standard software. Not everyone is so fortunate. The good news is, competition is growing and Adobe is changing for the better.

James I see you helping out a lot around the forums. You give really good advice most of the time. I really don't want to sound disrespectful. Have a good day!

I didn't mean to imply you personally ever used pirated software as your post in no way implied that. The you I used was the generic you in lieu of the term one.

Sorry for any misunderstanding.

Ben Ackles -

I just came across a very interesting article about piracy of Android apps. It offers some very interesting context on software piracy in general. I think this is my favorite quote.

"Piracy is a symptom of failure to find an effective business model. “Effective” here means the whole gamut of product quality, availability, platform, marketing, price, delivery, support and so on."

I think that's an excellent analysis, so by extension Adobe's business model in particular it's pricing/delivery of Photoshop has failed and resulted in piracy.

That's an interesting quote. It seems to really capture the variety of motives behind piracy. It's not quite as simple as people being cheap, resentful and entitled.

Once it's released to the general public, I'm hoping to get some first hand accounts from some experienced designers about how well it does the job day-to-day.

Yeah it is and it really bugs the crap outta me! It's been a huge disappointment so far. Thankfully I didn't buy it!