[David Lawrence]

[Andrew Kimery] “Might this become one widely used, cross platform, high quality codec to rule them all? ProRes is becoming ubiquitous but AFAIK it’s still not a smooth ride if you are running Windows, and Avid has been doing a lot with DNx but many (most?) people think it’s an Avid-only solution even though it’s less tied down than ProRes is.”

It’s great news. I’ve spent the past year working in Cineform for a stereo 3D short project. Image quality is outstanding and active metadata allows for very efficient workflows.

Unfortunately, with this news comes the EOL of the GoPro Studio Pro and Premium products:

https://cineform.com

The handwriting has been on the wall for some time since it’s been a while since the last upgrade and these products are still very buggy on the Mac. It’s unclear to me if Cineform active metadata is in the VC-5 spec and what tools will be available to manipulate it in the future. Hopefully it’s still supported.

_______________________
David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Walter Soyka] “How does that reconcile with the yearly CS releases Adobe’s business was dependent on? There just wouldn’t be an Ae CS9 this year?”

Maybe not. Or maybe it would come mid-year? How did it work before with CS? Weren’t there some years where some applications in the suite got more attention than others?

[Walter Soyka] “It’s funny, but we never called it “forced license sales” when that was the only option.

Perpetual license sales are transactional. Subscription-only makes the vendor completely dependent on creating long-term relationships with their customers to realize any significant value.”

Yes, I agree when the subscription model allows the customer a fair exit. Avid’s subscription model creates fair incentives in both directions. There are other service agreement type models as well. But with CC Adobe holds all the cards. Stop paying and the software stops working. No other choice. I respect your opinion but to me, this is the most consumer-hostile move I’ve ever seen from a major software vendor.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Walter Soyka] “I’d love for them to figure something out for you, David, but I hope it doesn’t hurt what I’ve come to appreciate about the CC model. Sadly, I don’t see how our wishes are compatible.”

It’s not rocket science. The technology is already in place, all they have to do is flip a switch. When Adobe management decides they want to sell perpetual licenses again, they can easily do so. And I promise, it won’t hurt the things you like about CC. Development and sales/licensing are two different things. Adobe is a big enough company that they can give us both what we want, if they want to.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Walter Soyka] “I’ll drop the wherefore for a moment. CC has been really, really good to me, as an artist who actually uses this software everyday. I like this development trajectory a lot better; it’s very user-focused.”

I hear you. I just think there’s nothing stopping Adobe from also making their yearly desktop software versions available to users like myself who won’t rent. Best of both worlds. They’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Walter Soyka] “Ae’s 21 years old. It could have used a new architecture a decade ago. Why do you think it didn’t get that re-design sooner?”

Because deep software development is impossible under perpetual licensing sales?

Or maybe because management didn’t think it was a priority for 21 years and now users are beginning to notice?

[Walter Soyka] “They’ve chosen a schedule, but isn’t this Ae release (that you would choose to skip because there’s no compelling value for you) the opposite of this “big marketing feature” idea?”

It is. But it’s also incomplete. Normally it would be held until ready and customers wouldn’t be expected to pay for it until they could use it.

Forced rental changes the power relationship between vendor and customer. And not for the customer’s benefit. You pay whether you can use the new version or not, and if you stop paying, you’re left with nothing.

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[David Lawrence]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Every year around NAB there’ll be some announcements and things will move along in a mostly a yearly cycle, and anytime between Apr and June we will download what Adobe had announced in April. “

Same as it ever was… except now with great new feature that your software stops working if you ever stop paying Adobe! 😉

https://youtu.be/I1wg1DNHbNU?t=1m41s

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Walter Soyka] “When you sell what you develop, so you develop what you can sell. CS created perverse incentives for product managers to focus on what’s doable in the short term at the expense of the long term. CC is a much longer game.”

I disagree. The market created the incentive for Adobe to up their NLE game and deliver Premiere CS6.

Now that they’re free of the CS model, what are the perverse incentives forcing them to do yearly full install releases, complete with big marketing features?

I agree it’s a long game btw, I just don’t think it’ll play out the way Adobe management and their Wall Street cronies expect.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Walter Soyka] “The fact that you’re disappointed in this release is exactly why I wonder if this kind of development could realistically be planned under CS.”

Why couldn’t it? The only things different would be marketing, licensing and public transparency. What does that have to do with development timelines?

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[David Lawrence]

[Oliver Peters] “You are making the assumption that users want a company to blow up the software and rebuild it. They almost always don’t. Look how many Word users hate, hate, hate the MS ribbon menu concept. Re-imagined software is for new users more than anything else. When you stray too far, you alienate the existing users. The reason is that existing users don’t want to be in a mode of constantly relearning software. They want to use it and have the thought precess of using it move into the background of their mind.”

This x 1000. ^

A big reboot is highly risky for large vendors with millions of users – again Microsoft comes to mind with Windows 8 for example. A big vendor has to tread a fine line between modernizing code, revamping UI and pissing off users. It’s not easy.

That said, I think the place where these companies tend to fail is with UI. Users could care less about the code under the hood. They just want their software to be bug free and fast. But make the UI confusing or take away important features and the users will howl. (They’ll howl if it’s buggy or slow too).

Adobe is walking the fine line as they gut and rebuild AE’s foundation. they have to modernize without blowing up the huge AE ecosystem that millions of users depend on. No easy feat. I have nothing but the highest respect for the development team pulling this off. It looks like they’re doing a great job.

Just wish Adobe management would start selling software again.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Release it when it’s not ready about once a year is obviously the path forward.”

And pay for it whether you can use it or not. Forced software rental is awesome! 😉

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David Lawrence
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