March 2, 2020

From Gerald R. Lucas

Adobe Sucks

I know that sounds pretty juvenile, but I’ve finally had it with Adobe.

Until a couple of days ago, I was very content with my university-licensed versions of Acrobat and Photoshop (Creative Cloud 2018). I use Acrobat often for OCR—otherwise, it’s a pretty crappy program. I launch Photoshop every so often for photo tweaks. Well, both expired two days ago, so I asked the university tech support for an updated license. And I just have three words: Why, Adobe, why?

Adobe cc sucks.jpg

Everything is so complicated. Why do I have to install so much junk just to have two programs? Start with some app installer that runs all the time—I guess so Adobe can monitor everything I’m doing. I guess it’s their version of a crappy app store. I think, after a couple of tries, it’s working in my office, but on my Power Mac, it will not connect to the server (see image above). I get all sorts of error codes—none of which seem valid; it says there’s no internet connection. There is. I have asked university support, but as I figured, they had no idea. Even Google didn’t help. Adobe’s troubleshooting is just as cryptic as their stoopid app installer. You know what, Adobe, I think you do not want me to use your software, so I won’t. I know: that really hurts you, right? Well, I’ll also let the university know that we should no longer purchase your software, since it doesn’t work. There must be alternatives.

Uninstall? No way!

(Oh, and I can’t even uninstall their software. Are you kidding me? And, for the record, I do not have any Adobe apps on my MacBook Pro. Just unbelievable. I know why this happened, too. I tried to run the uninstaller for Photoshop (CC 2018), and it told me the uninstaller needed an update. Uh, right.)

So that leaves me to find alternate programs. I already know Gimp would be a fine replacement for Photoshop—especially as much as I use it. As for Acrobat, I have to find something that pairs with my scanner, since I make PDFs all the time. How hard can it be. Surely someone has made a better version of Acrobat than Adobe can manage. I guess I have some looking to do.

It really is a shame, Adobe.