digiKam any use to you? seems to be a very good replacement for Photoshop Elements, but I'm not overly fond of KDE so haven't installed digiKam recently (it will work on other desktops, but you have to have all the required packages)

Could be of use on my dual-boot laptop, thanks! More choice in tools is a good thing. :)

greedy bastards, hope they choke on their profits

With GIMP you can do (almost) everything you can do with commercial software, so it should be enough for at least 95% of users. I have been forced to use GIMP sometimes for educational purposes, so I am more familiar with it than I ever wanted to be.

The biggest problem is that GIMP is a real pain in the a** to use. Often it doesn't seem to have any internal logic, except for backwards logic, if one menu works one way, the other menu is sure to work just the opposite way.

And when they seem to have corrected something (adding the long-awaited one window mode), they do something absolutely f***ed up next, like dividing the old "Save" and "Save as" so that "save" is now more or less a workspace save, and you need use "export" to save as jpg, png, gif, etc.
If I had big problems adjusting to this, those poor souls who are maybe using image editors for the first time ever are completely lost with this "innovation".

And then there's the issue of having to restart the program to reset some tools, which may or may not reset when restarting. And so on.


Still, having said all that, I have a commercial image editor only on my desktop PC, for my two laptops I have installed GIMP, and actually get everything done with it. But as with most free software (unfortunately), they haven't really spent too much time thinking about usability and user-friendliness.

Have you tried the new Adobe CC?
You can first try and then decide if you pay the annual subscription (cheap) or not.

I'm not a fan of the rental model, I prefer to buy it and be done with it, at least with software. Though as Corel has just proven, even flat-out buying a product is not always the end of the matter...

I'm not going to defend any company or say that it is the right way to do business, but, can you name a software company that allows you to update/upgrade indefenitely without having to pay after a few years of free updates?

As stated above, I don't think it's the right approach, but unfortunately, no software company will ever have a lifetime license. The worst thing is that it is easier to disable EOL software because everyone is connected.

I feel your pain and I believe you are doing the right thing by not supporting them anymore.

I can understand that, and in fact I have been updating my boxed copy of Corel (Suite 11) with paid updates for a while now. But this was just a standard update package of fixes and changes, and totally free. It's not the update that I'm complaining about, but rather that it seems the release of the update coincided with some new anti-piracy scheme which invalidated my key.

So a free update cost me $150, or would if I cared to buy a "legitimate" key to replace my was-already-legitmate one. Since I'm not buying the key, the update really cost me the initial $500 I spent on the product, plus the $150 I paid for a now-invalid key, plus another $150 I paid for another upgrade between Suite 11 and X6. So $800 on a product I cannot now use, because their desire to inconvenience pirates outweighs their desire to support customers who fall through the cracks of their latest scheme.

And yet, somehow I suspect the pirates are still running their copies just fine.

That's really horrid.
They should just label the program anew and stop updates for the old customers, this way the stuff you paid for could still be used and people can decide whether they want to pay again and upgrade.

All those backdoors... :/

I'm sure they certainly do, pirates are rewarded by DRM loving companies in so many cases and ways...

That really sucks.
What software are you going to use then? I'd also be interested in GNU vector graphics editor.

btw I made a thread earlier asking people on their advice on open source graphics software
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/open_source_graphics_and_publishing_software
If any of you would like to check it out or suggest some more software, here it is. And there's also a Torchlight key there which has not been grabbed yet.

But that wouldn't "incentivise" customers to buy upgrades, which is the only thing that matters. The "revenue stream" must be maintained. Gold hubcabs and cocaine parties don't pay for themselves.

Great business model - don't find new customers, just find ways to exploit the ones you already have. I wouldn't be surprised if the next edition has micropayments. "You need 50 more CorelCoins to save this image - click here to refill your CorelWallet!"
Going with GIMP and Inkscape for now, both of them are programs I've used before with good results. I expect they've grown significantly in features since that time.

I have a copy of Painter as well (another pricey purchase). But since Corel owns them now, I expect it will invalid itself at some random time down the line too.

Good move to leave them behind if they treat you this way. I like GIMP, have made the jump from Photoshop a longer while ago and am fine (I'm a light user though, not a professional). Good move; the freedom! the money saving! the righteous support of GNU! Well done.

I've been playing around with the freebie version of Skitch lately: http://evernote.com/products/
So far it's been a quick and easy way to make notes on screenshots which is actually really helpful for keeping my brain straight.

I've used Skitch on my tablet, maybe I should look into the desktop version as well for quick work tasks. Cheers!

Or, for those rare cases were you need some function that GIMP doesn't have, go over to TPB and get a working version of CorelDraw. You own it legally, so you might as well use a working 'backup copy'. It is indeed sad that in more and more cases you need pirated copies if you actually want your software to work.