> Simple maths: Subscription to new CS6 photoshop, $20/mo. Current cost of Photoshop CS5 standalone from amazon, $578. How many weeks do I have to use the standalone version for before it becomes more effective than the cloud one? 28.

Months, not weeks. You'd have to use the standalone version for 2 years and 4 months before it became more cost effective. And that assumes that a new version doesn't come out in that time.

>> You'd have to use the standalone version for 2 years and 4 months before it became more cost effective.

You'd have to use it continuously for that time. If you use Photoshop less frequently, ownership makes even less sense. For example, I use Photoshop maybe every few months. It would take me a lot of years of $30/mo to get to $578. And I'd be happier with Adobe when I got there, because I'd be on a current version of the software.

I hope they don't mess this up with crappy DRM, like in their standalone CS editions.

As of CS5, don't they do effectively nothing DRM-wise? IIRC, there wasn't even a crack necessary, just a modification to the hosts file during install (to point it to a fake licensing server, presumably). It makes a lot of sense to not invest heavily in DRM once you're where Adobe is.

Crack? I wasn't talking about how they made it hard for people to circumvent their DRM. I was talking about how hard they made CS to use after you give them over $1,000 for it.

I decided to delay any further spending with Adobe for as long as possible after how sorry their install/DRM process was for legally-licensed CS4.

What I'm saying is that with CS5 they stripped the DRM down to basics, as far as I'm aware. Outside of a check to the licensing server on install, I don't believe there was anything more to it.

"I hope they don't mess this up with crappy DRM, like in their standalone CS editions."

No kidding. Adobe is a prime example of a company that doesn't understand DRM. I don't need your application to constantly hog my bandwidth after I already gave you several hundred dollars.

Oops. My bad. Thanks for the correction! :)

Looks like it could be a very sensible option then! At least, if you feel like you are going to need all the latest features of the newest version of photoshop and can't just 'make do' with CS5.

That's 28 months - not weeks. So assuming you would normally upgrade every 2.5 years then it's about the same cost. If they release a new version each year then the subscription service would win easily.

More importantly, creative suite is now affordable for a huge range of people. Freelancers, students and small businesses can now afford a legal and full version.

The upgrade is usually $200 or less. So $20 a month is way more expensive than it is now. Assuming I upgrade every 2 years that's $200 to upgrade outright or $480 at $20 a month.

Err, you mixed up your units. It takes 28 months for the break-even point, not weeks. That's damn near two and a half years of use before it makes sense to buy it outright.

I think you mixed up months and weeks. The period is actually 28.9 months, ie. almost two and a half years.

I think it's pretty attractive, especially considering updates will likely be automatically included in the subscription.