New computer needed - well not quite - but still not happy

John, I didn't think it needed the internet to work only to receive updates. So far as I know, if you stop paying for it, the updates will stop but the app will continue to operate. Must admit that I have never tried it. Martin????
 
Well I’m a lucky guy, one of my Sons is part of a small team who develop computer games, in his job marketing he needs PS etc and shares it with me, also, every 5 years or so he buys a new PC and I have his cast offs, in fact Ian B has just helped me set up another cast off from him.

So because of that the costs of software or hardware doesn’t impact on me, however, I do think that it’s all getting to expensive, especially when your an OAP, even if your working it can still be hard for some people.
I think we as working people are been ripped of with everything we do so it’s just a fact of life until the revolution of change comes and we are allowed to live a decent life again without the fear of the establishments attacking us in every corner of life.
 
I couldn't agree more Martin. When costs increase, they are passed on and the fact is that we are at the end of the line. Two things irritate me. When there are genuine cost increases for some businesses, there are others that jump on the band wagon. The second is the the greedy manufacturers who have pushed everything abroad to take advantage of cheap labour. The result is a loss of UK manufacturing capability, a loss of UK jobs and we have to pay to bring the goods back on shore. Sorry, rant over!
 
John2 said:
I couldn't agree more Martin. When costs increase, they are passed on and the fact is that we are at the end of the line. Two things irritate me. When there are genuine cost increases for some businesses, there are others that jump on the band wagon. The second is the the greedy manufacturers who have pushed everything abroad to take advantage of cheap labour. The result is a loss of UK manufacturing capability, a loss of UK jobs and we have to pay to bring the goods back on shore. Sorry, rant over!
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I understand why it must seem like this but it is only part of the story. I speak as someone who spent much of his career working in factories abroad.

Manufacturing is mostly an outsourced activity, particularly in the consumer market. It is still labour intensive and the manufacturers' margins are very tight. The majority of profits are generally made further up the food chain.

Additionally, factories need supply chain infrastructures to provide raw materials and for the distribution of finished goods. These structures grow organically around centres of manufacture over the course of decades. When manufacture ceases these support activities die off.

I know this because I was involved in an exercise to try to bring medium scale manufacturing back into the UK twenty years ago in an effort to improve the green footprint of our products. It proved too difficult simply because the cost of labour (even if we operated in the "leanest" way with a high degree of automation) and the difficulties of materials supply would have made the retail price of our products totally uncompetitive.

This is something I guess that nice Mr. Trump may have overlooked in his efforts to reintroduce manufacturing to the U.S. but that is another story entirely.
 
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About this time yesterday my internet became unstable and unreliable and at 9pm it died altogether. I continued using PS though for another 2 hours before bed-time called. It was still down this morning so to kill time before I went out on my volunteering job I started working on a RAW file and it was still working as before.

I am quite happy with the PS version I have at present on both a Laptop and a desk top. I don't need any updates to complicate my world so I may disable the desk top from the internet for say 3 months (which also has PS installed) and see where I get from there. If it continues to work as it should I may look into discontinuing my account with them. The laptop is by far the most up to date of the two so if the desk top goes belly up I still have the Laptop as a fall back. Why keep paying for something I consider to be so far in advance of my capabilities and needs when I don't really want or need to. All this A.I. rubbish is not what photography is about
 
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It must be a way forward for given that some are still using CS6. If it does all that you want, that's good enough. Just keep in mind the fact that if the machine with PS is connected to the internet, you won't be getting any security updates.
 
John2 said:
It must be a way forward for given that some are still using CS6. If it does all that you want, that's good enough. Just keep in mind the fact that if the machine with PS is connected to the internet, you won't be getting any security updates.
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But presumably he won't be getting any security threats either?
 
I don't know if I mislead you. Yes I have a CS6 disc but don't use it, but I do have the current offering from the web. As I said I don't need updates , so if I decide to turn my desktop off from receiving them what have I got to loose.

I had considered Elements but don't know what it has to offer, then I saw the post on the Adobe website where it stated the the licence is for 3 years - no option and the way they put it was expressed like a triumph that they have cut off a source of freebies where they were loosing out. I just didn't like the way it was put, it had a air of greed about it.

Doe anyone use Coral's Paintshop Pro? I have heard about it but what can it offer? Even the information on the web is a bit sketchy
 
Toby Webster said:
But presumably he won't be getting any security threats either?
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If the machine is connected to the internet, there is still the possibility. Hackers are always looking for doorways into a system which might exist in any app that you are using. Security updates are designed to close those doorways. Hence regular update from the likes of Adobe, micro soft etc. Some good security software helps.
 
John King said:
....................... Doe anyone use Coral's Paintshop Pro? I have heard about it but what can it offer? Even the information on the web is a bit sketchy
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Haven't used it for years John but in the absence of other replies..... It always used to be the go to alternative to PS in the early days but was seen as limited by the fact that it couldn't host some of the more popular plugins. I haven't seen it listed for compatibility in some of the current plugin offers. I think they have a free trial pack that you could try.
 
The computer I would use if I was to go down that route would be completely divorced from the internet, and would be used for nothing but PS. my desktop. Surely if they were going to do something then they need an outlet away of the computer to cause any damage or live links to any nefarious sites.
I have two pretty good laptops on which I can do pretty well anything else I wish to do and they are connected to the internet. No one is safe even with top end security - ask M&S, Harrods, or the Co-op!
 
There is a lot of software nowadays, that requires an internet connection to "phone home" regularly - Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.

As for security, I switched to Macs more than 15 years ago ago and have never installed antivirus softwar and never had a security breach.

We never pay for OS updates and got all the productivity software we have ever needed for free. Even when I was developing software, all the tools are free and Apple provides an automatic backup software that is always on and can even recover accidentally deleted files.

Yes they cost more than M$ machines but the money have saved and the lack of worry makes them worth every penny. YMMV.
 
You're right Joanna and if I hadn't invested in the PC route to the extent that I now have, I would have swopped to Macs years ago. I spent my working life in a large company that used PC's end to end except for the Technical Publications Dept. who insisted on Macs and nothing else.
 
Martin Henson said:
Everyone wants to know, spill the beans ,Toby
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Oh, its just me, I used to love Apple when it was a bit niche and ran DTP software far better than anything else, but I can't abide the whole quasi-religious devotion and Steve Jobs as dead guru thing, and the way they tie you into their ecosystem so tight you can't get out again, the built in obsolescence, and all those oh so cool but American childlike symbols. It just irritates me.
 
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