I finally converted over to Win 10 Pro.... Still not impressed....

[Bobby Henderson]

Yep, my CS 4 still activates and updates... I last updated it about 6 months ago.

The last actual update for Photoshop CS4 was 11.0.2, released in 2010 as a security update. The last update for the CS4 version of Camera RAW was 5.7, also released in 2010. If Adobe is actually pushing through any updates whatsoever for any CS4 application I can only guess it would have something to do with the activation system and anti-piracy efforts.

Typically once Adobe moves on to another full version cycle, like from CS4 to CS5, the previous version does not get any more real updates. No new features, performance improvements, etc for that old version. The same holds true for Creative Cloud applications. New features and improvements only get added to the latest, current versions. The only times I've seen Adobe go backward to update old "legacy" versions of software is to patch security flaws. Adobe will let CC users go a version or two backwards with some applications out of compatibility concerns. But generally they push pretty hard to keep users current.

I used to use Premiere, Audition, and Encore quite a bit, but almost never touch Creative Suite now. Da Vinci Resolve is a more intuitive video editing tool (IMHO), Diamond Cut is way more powerful for processing older recordings (e.g. captures from 78 RPM shellac records, of which I do a lot) to apply legacy EQ curves and noise reduction, and it's been many years since I've needed to master a DVD or BD - everyone wants files, now. GIMP does everything I need to with photos.

Blackmagic Design has a pretty impressive video editing suite. You get a LOT for a relatively low price. But I think Blackmagic Design uses the software as a loss leader to sell its professional hardware (which isn't nearly as inexpensive).

Premiere Pro has suffered a good bit lately and Adobe appears to finally getting some issues resolved. But it has created an opening for users to check out rival video editing suites. Still, at least for my uses, the integration Premiere and After Effects has with Photoshop and Illustrator is just too valuable to give up.

GIMP is a good image editing program for any kind of casual, non-professional use. I have a list of free or low cost applications I recommend to non-designers wanting to do occasional DIY graphics work -such as a small business owner wanting to make his own logo for us to use in a sign design. I don't recommend that, but some people insist on doing the DIY thing anyway. GIMP is not very good in an actual advertising production environment. There's too many limitations when stacked against Photoshop. The same goes for Inkscape when pitted against Illustrator.

I don't think Adobe CC is a rip-off for professional use. Yes, I have my fair share of problems with some of the Adobe products, who doesn't, but that doesn't make CC a rip-off product in itself. Still, it would be great if there was a bit more competition.

I'd like it too if there was better competition with Adobe. It varies regarding the creative field. Competition is fierce in the video production and web development spaces. Adobe's teams are fighting just to keep up there. In the general graphic design field and print publishing spaces Adobe is dominating hard. From my own experience the rivals to Adobe in those spaces are the ones struggling. In the case of Adobe Illustrator its lead is widening considerably.

I don't just use Adobe applications and am not a 100% zero sum game Adobe fanboy either. I've used CorelDRAW heavily for 30 years and have the current version. I've also tinkered with Inkscape for many years. I have the PC & iPad versions of Affinity Designer. My iPad also has Vectornator and Autodesk Graphic loaded. I don't play with as many pixel-based image editors; I'm far too used to the Illustrator-Photoshop combo.

Except, why on earth would people, especially supposed professionals, want to use something that is vastly inferior to other available products?

Mark, please specifically name applications that are superior to Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, particularly for advertising and publishing purposes. I would even throw After Effects in there even though that motion graphics application does have some credible rivals.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Premiere Pro has suffered a good bit lately and Adobe appears to finally getting some issues resolved. But it has created an opening for users to check out rival video editing suites. Still, at least for my uses, the integration Premiere and After Effects has with Photoshop and Illustrator is just too valuable to give up.

Premiere's stability issues were sufficient reason for us to almost completely give up on it, even though we heavily relied on the integration especially with AfterFX. While Media Composer and Nuke have a steep learning curve, once you're there, you don't really want to look back again. That's also the strong point of Adobe products, the integration between Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc. is pretty hard to find in any other products.

One area where I see Adobe running behind the pack is 3D, while with ever-increasing processing capability, this will probably a large market for the potential future, which is now largely filled in with AutoDesk's product, who silently bought out almost all relevant 3D software solutions over the last decade and a half, so there's little left for Adobe left to buy, other than buying AutoDesk itself... I guess the only serious contender in that area not owned by AutoDesk is Blender, which is an amazing piece of Open Source software.

Adobe has been trying to keep up with Adobe Dimension, but other for some computer generated product packaging pictures, I've never really seen it being used for anything serious. But I do think there is a whole lot of market in the integration of 2D and 3D... It would be great to have the texture-editing abilities of something like Photoshop, right there in your 3D software for example. Often I wished there would be an Illustrator-like engine to edit stuff like splines inside 3D software, other than the often clunky options available. Or why not use vector-based textures, live from Illustrator? Dimension offers many of those features, but it lacks a lot of others.

[Bobby Henderson]

For years Adobe has been sort of circling around the 3D field without fully committing to a full-blown 3D application that does modeling, rendering and animation. They are getting their feet more and more "wet" in the 3D field. But I think they're still trying to figure out what product niche of the 3D industry they think would be best to tackle. For the time being it looks like they're trying to assemble important pieces, technology and assets together so if or when they do decide to launch a full blown 3D application it will be complete and competitive.

Currently Adobe's 3D offerings are really limited. There is a "lite" version of Cinema 4D that integrates into After Effects. And there is a similar Cineware app that side-cars into Adobe Illustrator. But that's far from having a full blown version of Cinema 4D. Both Illustrator and Photoshop have some basic 3D-like effects in their standard tool sets, but it's not real 3D. There are signs Adobe may incorporate actual 3D tools within those applications. You can't build models in Adobe Dimension, just wrap graphics over pre-existing models and arrange them in scenes with other pre-existing models. Substance Painter is a popular texture materials application for 3D models. Adobe now owns and further develops the Substance suite of applications (Painter, Alchemist, Designer and Source). Source is the only one of those included in an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

The key missing feature is a modeling program. But what kind of modeling program would best serve Adobe's user base? There's more than just 3D modeling for film/video. For instance product package design is a big market for graphics work. There are 3D applications dedicated to modeling retail product packaging and even the store displays for those packages. Some of the applications will even fold-out the package designs into flat 2D form to send into Adobe Illustrator and/or Photoshop for applying the graphics.

Adobe has some difficult choices to make with 3D. Meanwhile other tools on the market, including Blender, are getting better and better.