Chip, I feel your pain,
I don't know that the subscription model is the culprit here. The shift was an inevitable outcome of the move away from shrink wrapped boxed applications to digital distribution with fast internet. I too, miss the the old days of installation CDs and bookshelves of print manuals and indeed I have not upgraded beyond CS3 bundle. And I wouldn't want Moi3d to go now this track.
As you infer, in the those days of gold master discs of product versions, the companies had to be damn sure the software was beta tested and bug free before release. But this also meant slower development, and was a significant barrier to entry for new small players.
The issue with Adobe Cloud really is specifically one of corporate arrogance. They was better behaved before acquiring their competition: Macromedia and Aldus before that. Hopefully as Marco alludes to, they will see their margins eaten into by the likes of Affinty, and start to treat their customers more respectfully.
I do wonder how thing may have turned out differently, if the FTC had ordered the divesture of "Freehand" before allowing Macromedia stock merger. It was a fulcrum product that a new player could have built a stable of products around. Although in many ways it lagged behind Illustrator, it was superior in it handling of multiple pages and more elegant with clipping masks. And where it lacked in exactitude, it made up in its freedom of expression.
Anyway, Adobe will go the way of QuarkXPress if they don't change their ways.
And I for one will not mourn their demise.
James
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