16 replies to this topic

[MultiplexMan]

I've spent the last fortnight updating hardware/software that I use in my work.

/rant

I am totally flabbergasted at the disdain that Adobe shows its Australian customers. I just checked online US store prices versus AUS prices.

These are downloads - so GST free, no bricks'n'mortar to support, help desk is off shore as is the download server. You provide the bandwidth for the download...

Product Upgrade USD/AUD
Acrobat Pro 200/315
CS5.5 Production Premium 760/1550
CS5.5 Master 1400/2125

I own three full licences that I will be letting lapse.

To make matters worse, Adobe are actively preventing AUS users purchasing from the US by barring AUS addresses and AUS based credit cards/PayPal accounts through their online store.

To think I supported this company's products from their early start...

/end rant

[GSpot]

To think I supported this company's products from their early start...
/end rant

To think we have a free trade agreement.

[proftournesol]

MultiMan, it's all part of the 'business as usual' approach of the corporate sector:(

[valvelover]

And these companies wonder why people are pirating their vastly overpriced software...what they do is wicked (not meant in a cool way either). The ACCC *should* be vested with the authority to ban such companies from trading and selling their products in Australia imho for what is in essence, anti competitive behaviour and price fixing. As to the FTA, that should be pi$$ed off really quickly, it has no obvious benefit to Australia.

Dave

[MultiplexMan]

@GSpot - That was my first thought too. This has some similarity to the varied pricing structure that was employed with region coded software. Software price gouging has been brought up in parliament. Adobe's response was ludicrious.

@Hi Prof - Obviously there is a section of "management" that were taught or hold a completely different core set of practices & ethics. Business school did not need teach me that one can make profit by employing fair practices. It usually is easier and less effort!


What ever happened to setting a good example?

[datafone]

Might not do everything yo need but a free alternative to Photshop is paint.net, It's very small but near as powerful as Photoshop from what I have read about it.
http://www.getpaint.net/

[proftournesol]

@GSpot - That was my first thought too. This has some similarity to the varied pricing structure that was employed with region coded software. Software price gouging has been brought up in parliament. Adobe's response was ludicrious.

@Hi Prof - Obviously there is a section of "management" that were taught or hold a completely different core set of practices & ethics. Business school did not need teach me that one can make profit by employing fair practices. It usually is easier and less effort!


What ever happened to setting a good example?

Multi Man you're right, but the higher one gets to the top of corporate power in the 'big end of town' the less some feel that those ethical rules apply to them. That's the 'business as usual' approach. Off topic but an interesting look at these businesses and their interdependence. It makes it very hard to deviate from the 'business as usual' approach.

[biologist]

I've given up with Photoshop, I'm using a licensed version of GraphicConverter X and it does everything Photoshop did that I needed and it only cost me $49 to buy a license. Brilliant little piece of software.

[proftournesol]

GraphicConverter is very good. I've used it since v3.

[sjay]

Nuance PDF Creator is an excellent alternative to acrobat pro and its half the price.

its OCR also leaves acrobat for dead but doing forms is a bit easier with acrobat IME.

[JohnA]

i am also adobe.

I purchased student copy of photoshop and you need to send off an e-mail to them with a pic of student or teacher id, then they send you the code.
We did this and took 3 weeks to get anything from them. And that was only after i had to argue with them as they kept saying they never received anything and kept asking me to re-send.

So i pay for an item and cant use it for ages.

Why not just do it like microsoft do it, and present your id when purchasing

[sjay]

the sad ting is its not just software, its everything imported or close to...we get gouged on everything imported...cars, sw, hw , audio, toys, bikes...heck you name it and its almost a sure thing we will pay more for it here then anywhere else....

does the rest of the world really hate us that much for living in paradise?

[biologist]

the sad ting is its not just software, its everything imported or close to...we get gouged on everything imported...cars, sw, hw , audio, toys, bikes...heck you name it and its almost a sure thing we will pay more for it here then anywhere else....

does the rest of the world really hate us that much for living in paradise?

Just keep buying your books, CD's etc through Amazon.co.uk. Its so much cheaper than in the stores here, even after factoring in the delivery and from the UK to Perth it generally arrives quicker than a parcel from Melbourne or Sydney. Go figure.

[MultiplexMan]

Well necessity is the mother of invention... I need to generate documents in PDF. After my experience with Adobe Australia I sought other options.

I started using CutePDF Writer (freeware). What a pleasant surprise. It actually prints to PDF under Windows 7 64 bit unlike my genuine Acrobat 8.3 Pro which freezes. Evidently I need to upgrade to Acrobat X.

CutePDF Writer is such good value, several business units I work with have gone with it instead of Acrobat.

I am going to try CutePDF Professional (AUD50). If this works it will be good bye to Adobe Acrobat for me.

I have a colleague in the US this week and was about to purchase my Adobe software upgrades. On second thoughts - no thank you.

I must thank Adobe Australia for saving me over $3K in upgrades.
This means more music for me

[Super Mustud]

Well necessity is the mother of invention... I need to generate documents in PDF. After my experience with Adobe Australia I sought other options.

I started using CutePDF Writer (freeware). What a pleasant surprise. It actually prints to PDF under Windows 7 64 bit unlike my genuine Acrobat 8.3 Pro which freezes. Evidently I need to upgrade to Acrobat X.

CutePDF Writer is such good value, several business units I work with have gone with it instead of Acrobat.

I am going to try CutePDF Professional (AUD50). If this works it will be good bye to Adobe Acrobat for me.

I have a colleague in the US this week and was about to purchase my Adobe software upgrades. On second thoughts - no thank you.

I must thank Adobe Australia for saving me over $3K in upgrades.
This means more music for me

Many businesses use Cutepdf.

[brumby]

I looked at CutePDF. Perfect for most things but I can't edit text inside a PDF file with it (AFAIK)

Then I looked at Nuance. Looked good on the website and I started to download a trial. Then I realised it was 600MB!!! I just want to make PDF files, I don't want to conquer the world.

Settled on Nitro Pro PDF. So far I'm very pleased with it. The free reader is very good too. As good as Foxit if not better.

I'm seriously contemplating getting rid of ALL Adobe software on my computer. All I have left is Flash. If they get HTML 5 up to speed there won't be any need for that either.

[MultiplexMan]

I ended up purchasing my Adobe upgrades in the US. I upgraded my suites to CS5 Master Collection and the standalone Acrobat licences to X Pro. The same "discounts" (~25%) were on offer which made the US prices even more favourable. I even received a bundle discount on the purchase!

Adobe US is a completely different beast to Adobe AUS. I wish the local office did not exist. They add no value and only cost to local users. I have made my views very clear to Adobe.

I tried a number of the Acrobat alternatives but found their user interfaces to be either clunky and/or their tool suites very basic. I still use CutePDF Writer and would recommend it for users that only need to create PDF files.