An update from Affinity and Canva on the acquisition of Affinity/Serif by Canva. They have made 4 pledges, including to maintain perpetual licenses.
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cough cough
Aged like milk…
It’s 2 years ago
That is pretty old for milk.
Once bitten twice shy.
I would like to believe the pledges were positive news. But Affinity has already broken their promise on acquisition, so I’m having a hard time now taking their word on licensing.
What was the context for this? Were they denying rumors of a 2022 acquisition?
Long story short:
- They pledge to keep the status quo. (IE perpetual licenses in new versions)
- Development is going to speed up.
- Subscriptions are 99% coming. (Albeit optional at least at the start)
- Free in schools. (IE training new artists in the Canva ecosystem. So they can be milked later. Here’s a personal anecdote: Maya, the paid 3D alternative to Blender is free in schools. Come out of school and it’s 235$ a month)
&
- Now throw all those pledges out because words mean nothing. This is not a partnership, this is an acquisition, and unless the contract is provided for us, in writing of the agreed upon terms. Nothing else matters but the actions that we’ll see in the near future.
This all feels a lot like any low- or mid-range CAD suite that gets acquired by Autodesk, Siemens, or PTC. Promise enough to avoid a revolt, but start eroding with the next release.
The educational licensing for lock-in is also par for the course. It can be done well (Rhino 3D is legendary for letting small-shop designers use their cheap edu license forever, even commercially), but generally it’s just there to maintain the supply of baby drafters and get subscriptions from employers.
But Blender is also free in schools, so why not use that?
If the assignments are in Maya, you’ll have a hard time passing the class in Blender.
Blender is not a CAD program. Basically, this means 3D models are more freeform. In CAD, everything is done with measurements.
Blender is used for 3D artists all around schools. CAD software is used for engineers and such.
Edit: and Affinity is not used for 3D modelling at all. It’s for images.
I mean it’s reassuring, but I’m still cautious.
At this point, I may as well enjoy it for as long as it that’s. I already bought V2 when it came out, so at least I’m set for a while.
At least that’s one plus with actually buying software vs renting it like Adobe. If they close down/go belly up, I still have what I paid for.
True, but people who purchased Photoshop outright also still own it. It’s just super old and lacking most of today’s features.
That will eventually happen to affinity I’m sure, but at least affinity is ~5% the price a perpetual CS6 license was.
I bought v2 because they built faith and trust with v1. Well That’s gone. Time to move on.
This is like when bluebeam was bought. Bring on the enshitification and monthly subs then phase out support for perpetual license versions until the product isn’t worth using anymore.
Nothing here is contractual. It’s just words. The founders at Affinity are now employees. Canva feel no connection to the community - if their agenda for Affinity was exactly the way things are now, there’d be no need to acquire them.
This pledge isn’t worth the bits its written on.
Hahahahaha.
In 5 years time they’ll whittle the pledges down a bit.
In 10 they’ll remove it altogether.
Just got this email. It’s better news at least but I’m not totally convinced by it just yet.
Well, at least they’re not being purchased by Adobe.
“At least it’s not Adobe” is such a cope.
For sure. When they had our livelihood by the balls because ‘industry staaaandaaaard’ then they stick it in a perpetually cranking vice called subscription model, we reach for any cope available. Its been decent cope and now we need a new cope.
inkscape needs more contributions, both financially and in the way of code.
The new advanced snapping system is as good or better than Affinity, path effects are an experimental feature that allows you to do batch shaping of a paths nodes using logical and mathematical parameters, CMYK support has landed and Inkscape is charting it’s own SVG standard specifically for vector graphics, design and drawing.
The font handling was my biggest gripe, but even that’s gotten better.
Besides the lack of art boards and certain other “nice to have’s”, I think I’ll be switching to Inkscape as a replacement.
Or what? If they back down do they execute the executives in charge? This means nothing.
