When licenses MEAN nothing I PAY for nothing yarrrr
yo ho ho a pirate life for me!
To the people in this thread saying “don’t buy lifetime”, how is that any different than a perpetual license? Your alternative is subscription based… I’d definitely prefer perpetual to subscription.
Software companies don’t want you to know this, but the open-source licenses on the internet are free. You can just take them home. I have 458 apps.
Rookie numbers, I have 307336924 cloned repos
this is why we need FOSS
GIMP or Krita might not be up to the standard as Affinity and Photoshop are, but at least while perfecting my skills in GIMP, I don’t have to worry about having to find a different software because a random company purchases it.
People who claim GIMP isn’t up to Photoshop inevitably reveal the only actual issue is that they learned photoshop first.
I used GIMP first and then Photopea (basically photoshop but web app) and GIMP is worse despite using it first. It’s just bad.
I’m thinking I might switch, I’m only a casual user (Literally just for shitposting) but they changed how the brushes work as far as I can tell, and it’s thrown me off.
Nah, your lifetime license will be fine. They’ll just slightly rename the products, release them as “entirely new, unrelated products” and cease updating it under the old name. You can still use the old, never updated product in perpetuity, if you want…
The first time this happened to me was a MUD client of all things. zMUD discontinued, check out the new cMUD! Also available with a lifetime license just like zMUD was!
I’m still crazy salty about when I invested ~$250 to get the Substance Painter + Designer suite, and got the “We’Re JoInInG tHe AdObE fAMiLy wooo!” Email…
Followed by the “Don’t worry we’ll still let you get indie licenses” email…
Followed by the “It’s gonna be subscription only but you can still keep the never-will-be-upgraded indie version we’re discontinuing.”
How can the likes of Adobe and Autodesk be so garbage and yet everything they taint with their miasmal existence is or becomes “InDuStRy StAnDaRd”? At this point I refuse to touch Adobe stuff partly because their membership is harder to quit than a gym, and the rest is just out of sheer spite.
I just refuse to use commercial creative software at this point. The blatant rug pulling is just expected now.
I bought a lifetime license for Malwarebytes back in 2012 and I’m shocked that they still honor it to this day. I feel like it’s only a matter of time before I lose it.
Subscriptions, here we come! You can’t trust any commercial software company.
What amazes me are the number of companies selling “lifetime” VPN service or “lifetime” cloud storage service with a straight face.
Like… that is TRANSPARENTLY a scam. You’re literally gonna sell lifetime licenses to people with more money than common sense, until the entire system is overloaded, then just go out of business.
Thought it was funny that these two comments were next to each other.
I mean, you ARE getti ]ng what you pay for, just not until the end of YOUR lifetime,
I just bought a lifetime subscription to Nebula (a YouTube-like service akin to a co-op for content creators) and my rationale was
- Lifetime costs the same as ten years of annual priced subscriptions
- It will be cheaper than that due to inflation
- The service has been operating for 5 years, so it’s likely to last at least 10 more
- The service is philosophically opposed to the sort of place that may try to acquire it
Other stuff, no thanks. Too many practical products (as opposed to entertainment ones) have a great supply of methods to screw you and a great desire to screw you.
That’s why open source rules
I love FOSS but GIMP and Inkscape aren’t nearly as usable or feature rich as the Affinity suite, let alone the Adobe suite.
Man i just hate these comments. Imagine you’re gimp / foss developer and you see an uncritical, unactionable, and dumbass comment about how a multimillion dollar company beats your software. Like of course mate Affinity & Adobe developers get money thrown at them, while gimp developers have to stand your ungrateful ass.
‘It doesn’t meet my needs’ seems like light criticism but I understand your point. I’m eternally thankful to devs but at a certain point it either does what you need or it doesn’t.
GIMP is a special case. GIMP is being getting outdeveloped by Krita these days. E.g.:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/9284
Or compare with:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Krita-2024-GPUs-AI
GIMP had its share of self inflicted wounds starting with a toxic mailing list that drove away people from professional VFX and surrounding FilmGimp/CinePaint. When the GIMP people subsequently took over the GEGL development from Rhythm & Hues, it took literally 15 years until it barely worked.
Now we are past the era of simple GPU processing into diffusion models/“generative AI” and GIMP is barely keeping up with simple GPU processing (like resizing, see above).
From what I understand, GIMP fell behind because it refused corporate donations while Krita accepted them. This lead to GIMP reducing in scope as the 1-3 part-time* developers (at least when I last really looked into it) realised they’d never catch up, leading to people donating less as they weren’t satisfied with GIMP’s simultaneous underpromising and underdelivering. Meanwhile Krita managed to receive enough money to hire a team of full time developers for several years, leading to better software, to more donations. It’s like the poverty trap, but with software.
- Edit: part-time isn’t the right word, more like casual
Not only software license, I believe any products “lifetime” comes with a lot of caveates.
Case in point, I purchased a fountain pen a decade ago, and started to leak (a crack around the threads) a few year back. The company is known for its lifetime warranty and good customer service, as per the warranty, it said if the product is defective (which I believe leaking pen body is), I am entilted for a replacement part or a new model of the same price if the pen is no longer in production. I reached out to customer service and was told, they can’t supply a replacement part because the pen is no longer in production and I’m not entitled to a new model because they doesn’t deem a leaking body a defect.
Why would you not name the company? If they won’t protect you, you are not obligated to protect them.
You are absolutely right.
The company is “Franklin-Christoph”
they doesn’t deem a leaking body a defect
Does that mean they purposely design their pens to leak? If it’s not a defect, it must be by design, right? Unless the user did something to break it, accidentally or otherwise
I believe they just chalked it up as normal wear and tear.
Update: The leak is from the threads where the pen cap screws on the pen, there is a argument here as to I twist it too tight, and over the years there developed a crack. You can barely see the crack, but its enough for the ink to leak bleed through.
Twsbi - a Korean pen manufacturer - had some bad plastic in one of their production runs, the body of the pen would crack in its threads at the tail of the pen
They handled it properly, I sent them an email with a photo of the damage, they asked for my postal address and sent me a replacement body. The reassembled pen has been working happily now several years later
I now have five twsbi pens (four piston fillers, one vacuum filler - the vac mini doesn’t leak on planes)
I have never tested the warranties on Zippo lighters or Maglite lights
*Edited spelling of twsbi
You meant Twsbi, its a Taiwanese manufacturer. Yes, their customer service is top notch! I also have a cracked cap from my Twsbi mini, and they sent me a replacement even without a picture (infact they sent it twice, because I didnt specified my pen color, so they sent it again).
That’s the one :)
Whelp… the Affinity Suite was pretty awesome and robust. Too bad they never did a proper linux port.
Ah so this is how I find out. Sweet.
FUCK
Ah damnit I love affinity. Can Someone fix Gimp already??
It’s worth mentioning that GIMP is mainly developed by two developers. If you wish for the development to be faster, you should consider donating.
GIMP is an odd project, one that I’m not sure is actually being held back by money, considering they’ve been sitting on a donation of bitcoin since 2014 that now amounts to 1.3 million, and just… haven’t used it, at all?
Krita seems like a more promising project, IMHO.
I think it should be clarified that GIMP’s structure isn’t able to make use of donations to GIMP as a single entity. Edit: or at least wasn’t, I hear they can now.
I agree that Krita is more promising though, I switched to Krita years ago and have never looked back.
Ah, thank you for the info, I was not aware. I hope they’re able to put that money to good use now.
Tbh I don’t think it’s fixable. Need to make a fresh start.
Literally every meme I’ve ever made was done in GIMP. I can say that the software needs non-destructive editing that applies to transforming layers. So far there’s only non-destructive effects on the layers, but discarding 20 years of work because the software is not a 1:1 copy of Photoshop seems silly.
What are you talking about ?
Adjustment layers are literally coming this year via GEGL.
For Context here is one Email I got from Affinity yesterday:
To our amazing Affinity community,
Today marks a momentous new chapter in our journey together.
I am thrilled to announce that Affinity is joining the Canva family.
This is a moment of great excitement, anticipation, and profound gratitude for all of you who have been part of our story so far.
We know that those of you who’ve put your faith in Affinity, some since we launched our very first Mac app, will have questions about what this means for the future of our products. Since the inception of Affinity, our mission has been to empower creatives with tools that unleash their full potential, fostering a community where innovation and artistry flourish. We’ve worked tirelessly to challenge the status quo, delivering professional-grade creative software that is both accessible and affordable.
None of that changes today.
In Canva, we’ve found a kindred spirit who can help us take Affinity to new levels. Their extra resources will mean we can deliver much more, much faster. Beyond that, we can forge new horizons for Affinity products, opening up a world of possibilities that would never previously have been achievable.
Canva’s revolutionary approach to design democratisation and commitment to empowering everyone to create aligns perfectly with our core values and vision. This union is a testament to what can be achieved when two companies that share a common goal of making design accessible and enjoyable for everyone come together.
I want to express my deepest gratitude to our incredible Affinity team. Your passion, dedication, and relentless pursuit of excellence have been the driving force behind our success so far, and I can’t wait to continue this journey with you all.
To our loyal users and the creative community, your support and feedback have been invaluable, we hope this this FAQ will answer many of your questions.
You’ve inspired us to push boundaries and continuously improve, and we’re excited to embark on this new chapter together.
You helped us start a movement.
Today, that movement becomes a revolution.
With heartfelt thanks, Ash Hewson - Affinity CEO
Ashley Hewson
CEO
Another Email I got today:
The Affinity and Canva Pledge
By the Affinity and Canva Teams
As we step into our shared future, we are committing to four pledges that we’re excited to share with the current and future Affinity community.
Earlier this week we shared the news that Affinity had been acquired by Canva. As the dust settles on the announcement, we wanted to say more about our future and our commitment to the Affinity community.
Since our inception, both of our companies have shared the same mission and vision. We were both founded with the belief that design shouldn’t be limited to those who can afford complex software. Our goal has been to make the highest quality design tools available to the largest number of people with fair, transparent and affordable pricing at our core. By joining forces, we’re looking forward to accelerating this shared vision.
Above all, together, we’re committed to continuing and amplifying Affinity’s position as the highest-quality professional-grade design suite on the market, while continuing to empower millions of designers to unlock their creativity and achieve their goals.
1. We are committed to fair, transparent and affordable pricing, including the perpetual licenses that have made Affinity special.
We share a commitment to making design fairer and more accessible. For Canva, this has meant making our core product available for free to millions of people across the globe, and for Affinity, this has meant a fairly priced perpetual license model. We know this model has been a key part of the Affinity offering and we are committed to continue to offer perpetual licenses in the future.
If we do offer a subscription, it will only ever be as an option alongside the perpetual model, for those who prefer it. This fits with enabling Canva users to start adopting Affinity. It could also allow us to offer Affinity users a way to scale their workflows using Canva as a platform to share and collaborate on their Affinity assets, if they choose to.
2. We will double down on expanding Affinity’s products through continued investment in Affinity as a standalone product suite.
We believe Affinity is the highest-quality professional-grade design suite on the market. It’s non-destructive, super fast, and easy to use. As such, we want to reassure you that it isn’t going anywhere.
In fact, we’re committed to using our shared resources to continue expanding Affinity’s products through further investment in Affinity as a standalone product suite. We’re looking forward to accelerating the rollout of highly requested features such as variable font support, blend and width tools, auto object selection, multi-page spreads, ePub export and much more.
These additions will further cement Affinity as the best advanced design suite on the market and will be released over the coming year as free updates to V2.
3. We will provide Affinity free for schools & NFPs.
Canva, which has pledged 30% of its value as a company towards doing good in the world through its two-step plan, offers premium plans at no cost to schools and NFPs all over the world. More than 60 million students and teachers, plus 600,000 charities and registered nonprofits, benefit from this each month.
We’re excited to extend this programme to include free access for schools and nonprofits to Designer, Photo and Publisher. These professional-grade tools will add enormous value to this free offering, helping millions of students to master the craft of design, and empowering mission driven organisations to amplify their voices and maximize their impact.
We’ll share more details on this in the coming months, including what it means for our education and NFP customers that already use Affinity.
4. We are committed to listening and being led by the design community at every step in this journey.
Affinity and Canva were both founded on the basis that their respective communities – of expert and non-expert designers – deserved better. The tools available were overly complex, overly priced, or both. We know designers deserve better. They deserve the highest quality tools to serve their needs and they deserve to be treated fairly.
We also believe the design community also knows best what it needs. As such, we are committed to shaping our products based on your ideas, your feedback and your needs. To kick things off, we’d love to learn more about what you’d like to see as we embark on this next chapter of our journey. What would you like to see in Affinity? What features have you been dreaming of? What would you love to achieve? We’d love to hear from you here.
Thank you to everyone who has been an integral part of the journey so far. We’re excited for the future and can’t wait to see what we can build together.
With gratitude and excitement, The Affinity and Canva Teams
All links and images are from the email and not mine. I also replicated their email formatting in Markdown to make it easier to read on Lemmy.
None of that changes today
(It’ll take weeks, at least before we start screwing you)
I’ve bought VPN lifetime several times, 2 of them have disappeared, 2 are still running. On the other hand, just think about it from the company point of view, lifetime support is not a sustainable business model, so it necessarily must be a scam.
Nah not necessarily. It can be a great way to get money early on without venture capital.
Yeah, you will have to provide the service to them forever but they are usually a small bunch so they aren’t a big deal if you manage to get big later on.
I suspect most companies that offer lifetime even when they are big have statistics showing that they lose little money or none because the high price means that the average consumer won’t use the service for the required amount of years to break even.
I bought one on sale for 20 bucks like 9 years ago. It’s still running, though it’s not a particularly great VPN. Performance is meh, the clients are really basic. I still use it because after this long it’s basically free