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English => News => Topic started by: Redaktion on October 09, 2025, 23:44:56

Title: Fans up in arms over Adobe alternative's mysterious site takedown — AI push and subscription pricing expected for Affinity
Post by: Redaktion on October 09, 2025, 23:44:56
Serif, the company behind the popular Affinity software alternatives to Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, has taken its software store offline, sparking concern amongst users of Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher, especially in light of the recent acquisition by Canva.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Fans-up-in-arms-over-Adobe-alternative-s-mysterious-site-takedown-AI-push-and-subscription-pricing-expected-for-Affinity.1134253.0.html
Title: Re: Fans up in arms over Adobe alternative's mysterious site takedown — AI push and subscription pri
Post by: A on October 10, 2025, 00:04:40
That is why open source is the safest, you don't have to worry about a buyout ruining everything.

Krita is a good open source alternative.
Title: Re: Fans up in arms over Adobe alternative's mysterious site takedown — AI push and subscription pri
Post by: julian.vdm on October 10, 2025, 00:52:00
Quote from: A on Yesterday at 00:04:40That is why open source is the safest, you don't have to worry about a buyout ruining everything.

Krita is a good open source alternative.

Krita and GIMP ftw. Although GIMP has a way to go before being a full PS replacement, tbh. Krita is quite powerful when you get the hang of it.
Title: Re: Fans up in arms over Adobe alternative's mysterious site takedown — AI push and subscription pri
Post by: TruthIsThere on October 10, 2025, 03:59:53
Quote from: A on Yesterday at 00:04:40That is why open source is the safest, you don't have to worry about a buyout ruining everything.

Krita is a good open source alternative.

Exactly!

Oh... Affinity will likely be going subscription-based; if not on October 30, then soon after. Greed is real, folks!

Just like Topaz Labs, which shifted from offering a $orta of perpetual license (with one-year of updates, but continued use of the software post-expiry) to a fully subscription-based model with Topaz Studio, & it's trickery by name to confuse some people... on purpose, ofc... e.g. Topaz Video AI, Topaz Photo AI, & Gigapixel AI... is now labeled; Topaz Video (Studio), Topaz Gigapixel (Studio) & Topaz Photo (Studio).

Worse still, every sector of Topaz suites in software... from Video, Gigapixel , & Photo software suites are still broken in many ways, especially  Starlight & Starlight Sharp; and/or unfinished; & to show Topaz's annual customers its appreciation, & for many users; we are talking about years of support (money every year); Topaz gave its users little to no warning (only days... & many of its users still don't know what's  going on and/or just confused, today... almost a month later) before this huge change, acting with a striking lack of transparency & integrity. I recall discussions on Reddit suggesting the CEO, Eric Yang (or something  like that) made statements that Topaz was losing money on his new (broken) diffusion model; a project that wouldn't even exist without the financial support of perpetual license holders (ironic, eh) who annually renewed.

Now, those users are being left behind once again. I guess to Eric, that is how you say... "thank you for supporting Topaz," right.

Wake-up, folks!
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