Inkscape is good. It is far less glitchy than Illustrator, but I can't get over the UI. It is my go to alternative for vector programs. It isn't for raster though.
I am holding out for the possibility that all Windows 10 devices are ticking time-bombs.
Having Windows 7, with updates disabled, might just mean I'll be the only one who can use a PC when they pull the plug. No Internet, sure, but I can still print off signs and memes to hand out to people the old-fashioned way.
What has keeping me back is that not all the programs I run will run on Linux, so I need to figure out how to properly allocate RAM and HardDrive space to a virtual machine running Windows.
I did that before in the past using virtual box, but the memory allocation process is completely foreign to me on Linux systems (as if I even managed to understand it on Windows when I got it to work there.)
Yeah I see. I'd imagine you only need to allocate 2 or 3 gigs to run a lite version of Linux. Then you just gonna make a decision on what's more important to you. Security vs ease of access to same programs. Shouldn't be a tradeoff but it is
We’re all forced to choose one of the two at this point. Adobe can get away with the heavy handed approach because of their lead over the competition. The online licensing DRM is such a pain.
Between removing features from programs that have been there for years, moving tools around for no reason, and bricking my CS3 Suite it looks like they are getting ready to cut loose ends and liquidate.
I'm a big fan of Ultra-Edit, and I have a lifetime subscription. Unfortunately it is a subscription, and it does phone home, so I'm up the proverbial creek if they change their business model; but now they are pushing the UltraEdit Suite With!All!The!Freebies! for only $99. Per year.
No thank you very much. I just download the latest UE upgrade and keep paying $0. I'll be very sad if they go that route (sunsetting the lifetime subscription.)
Affinity is the closest thing I've seen to Adobe. They've had a sale since the lockdown for half off their Photo, Designer, and Publisher. The 3 work well together. $75 one time price for a quality product. (Or just buy what you need for $25 each)
I'm using Affinity Photo right now, but I'm not happy with a few things -- namely it has no way to create paths from selections or crop to selection. Really, anything that has to do with selection by raster to vector is completely absent in it, and, bizarrely, for no discernable reason. On top of that, its masking system has some severe redundancies and notable exclusions to the norm.
I'm not happy having to bounce between Affinity Photo and Designer to do what I can in Photoshop alone. Unless they update to include something that is quite fundamental, I'm gonna keep looking.
Seeing how I already have the code and the CD (if I can get it to work again) all I need is a crack that disables the call-home scripts, I'm probably gonna go that route.
That's literally the only thing stopping me from using a $400 product I have been using for at least 7 years now.
Oh yeah it is. I stopped updating since 2015.5 because they moved a lot of features to open a separate settings window. Doing so increases the time it takes to compute the filter task exponentially for every active layer being affected.
Only problem now is, at work, they have removed the old downloads for past versions. It's a living hell dealing with Adobe right now.
I have a VMware version of a Windows 10 machine provisioned with 10GB RAM and no Internet access enabled. It has Adobe installed on it.
I drag and drop any files I've downloaded from the Internet and using for my latest Photoshop creation from my physical machine into the VM and drag the finished project out.
There's no danger of it autoupdating without Internet access that way.
While neat, I need something I can use offline.
I'm still shopping around, but thanks for the alternative possibility.
Edit:
Photopea is also a Subscription. That's no good for me.
If I want to download it, I need to be subscribed.
Foxit PDF can do just about anything acrobat can do and has an unlimited trial.
For photoshop gimp or inkscape
Check out Gimp.org and there are other open source things thse can be used instead.
Linux works great now. I've been using it for 20+ years.
Inkscape is good. It is far less glitchy than Illustrator, but I can't get over the UI. It is my go to alternative for vector programs. It isn't for raster though.
GIMP doesn't have a good vector organization.
And you can't have vector masks.
That's a no-go for my workflow (non-destructive).
Windows 7 is extremely outdated
I know.
I am holding out for the possibility that all Windows 10 devices are ticking time-bombs.
Having Windows 7, with updates disabled, might just mean I'll be the only one who can use a PC when they pull the plug. No Internet, sure, but I can still print off signs and memes to hand out to people the old-fashioned way.
Linux my friend. It's actually not anywhere near as hard. Google ubuntu and install on your laptop. It's the only way
I've been heavily considering it.
What has keeping me back is that not all the programs I run will run on Linux, so I need to figure out how to properly allocate RAM and HardDrive space to a virtual machine running Windows.
I did that before in the past using virtual box, but the memory allocation process is completely foreign to me on Linux systems (as if I even managed to understand it on Windows when I got it to work there.)
Yeah I see. I'd imagine you only need to allocate 2 or 3 gigs to run a lite version of Linux. Then you just gonna make a decision on what's more important to you. Security vs ease of access to same programs. Shouldn't be a tradeoff but it is
Windows 7 works for absolutely everything I want to do. Why on earth would I want to upgrade? My "outdated" software does not need improving.
Just keep it away from any internet and probably any USB drives that connect to any other computer.
We’re all forced to choose one of the two at this point. Adobe can get away with the heavy handed approach because of their lead over the competition. The online licensing DRM is such a pain.
This, Adobe is asshoe and Win7 is old and no more security updates.
Between removing features from programs that have been there for years, moving tools around for no reason, and bricking my CS3 Suite it looks like they are getting ready to cut loose ends and liquidate.
Keep an eye on this junk.
Everybody's doing subscriptions now. It's a dirty trick to push users still on old versions into subscriptions.
I'm a big fan of Ultra-Edit, and I have a lifetime subscription. Unfortunately it is a subscription, and it does phone home, so I'm up the proverbial creek if they change their business model; but now they are pushing the UltraEdit Suite With!All!The!Freebies! for only $99. Per year.
No thank you very much. I just download the latest UE upgrade and keep paying $0. I'll be very sad if they go that route (sunsetting the lifetime subscription.)
Windows 7 was already deprecated by Microsoft
I used to use Corel Photo Paint and found it to be a superior product back in the early to mid-2000's.
Gimp is free.
Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are $50 each and well worth it! No subscriptions neither!
Affinity is the closest thing I've seen to Adobe. They've had a sale since the lockdown for half off their Photo, Designer, and Publisher. The 3 work well together. $75 one time price for a quality product. (Or just buy what you need for $25 each)
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/
I'm using Affinity Photo right now, but I'm not happy with a few things -- namely it has no way to create paths from selections or crop to selection. Really, anything that has to do with selection by raster to vector is completely absent in it, and, bizarrely, for no discernable reason. On top of that, its masking system has some severe redundancies and notable exclusions to the norm.
I'm not happy having to bounce between Affinity Photo and Designer to do what I can in Photoshop alone. Unless they update to include something that is quite fundamental, I'm gonna keep looking.
Time to sail the Seven Seas again.
Seeing how I already have the code and the CD (if I can get it to work again) all I need is a crack that disables the call-home scripts, I'm probably gonna go that route.
That's literally the only thing stopping me from using a $400 product I have been using for at least 7 years now.
A single call-home script...
That is exactly what I had to do a year or so ago when they blocked my CS3 from college.
There's certainly a crack for Mac and CS (I think it's CS5 but possibly others).
https://www.hebcal.com/converter?hd=5&hm=Av&hy=5781&h2g=1
So 5:5 on the Hebrew Calendar is July 14th.
Datefag?
On a related note, I've also found that the latest version of Photoshop is much buggier than usual.
Oh yeah it is. I stopped updating since 2015.5 because they moved a lot of features to open a separate settings window. Doing so increases the time it takes to compute the filter task exponentially for every active layer being affected.
Only problem now is, at work, they have removed the old downloads for past versions. It's a living hell dealing with Adobe right now.
I have a VMware version of a Windows 10 machine provisioned with 10GB RAM and no Internet access enabled. It has Adobe installed on it.
I drag and drop any files I've downloaded from the Internet and using for my latest Photoshop creation from my physical machine into the VM and drag the finished project out.
There's no danger of it autoupdating without Internet access that way.