I'd just like to make a remark (and possibly open the floor to discussion) that I've been reading a lot of grief about Adobe's move to CC. I've recently experienced a spat of CC syncing outages as well as missing files as Adobe attempts to collect themselves for the upcoming release and yet, even through all of this trouble, I still feel that Adobe is making the right move. I often found futurists, such a Kurzweil, to be inspiring people who push the envelope of modern technology and ideas even if they are wrong.
It's interesting that the most common complain that I hear is that Adobe hasn't listened to their client base. I don't agree. I've taken at least five surveys offered by Adobe over the past year asking about my opinions on CC and the CS product line. I believe Adobe has listened to the majority of people who cared to make their voice heard BEFORE announcing the switch.
The second-most common complaint is that Adobe CC is too expensive. I don't agree. It's cheap. Rdio is 10 bucks a month to listen to music, for 10 bucks more I can get a piece of software that will allow me to create amazing artwork, and for 30 over that I can get a complete creative suite of tools retailing at close to $3000. And all of this doesn't even speak to the cloud services that are included such as storage space, DPS, TypeKit, and Muse.
The other aspect of the cost argument is that "over time" it will be more expensive ... that's true, but it also overlooks a completely obvious point ... namely that by the time it does become more expensive, years will have passed and the persistently licensed software I'm using will be far far out of date.
I have a friend who's a freelancer like me and he's got a Netflix account, a Rhapsody account, Hulu Plus, and numerous other consumer accounts. He's complaining about the $29 a month special upgrade price for the whole suite ... really? Stop consuming and make something. I can do one website in Dreamweaver CC and BAM my whole year of CC is paid off.
As for the negative ... are the recent service outages annoying? Absolutely. I was enraged when some of my files disappeared, but Adobe did eventually restore them. And I think the design community isn't giving Adobe enough credit for having the foresight (and balls) to try to lean ahead of the curve and move to the cloud model, which I (and many futurists) have been predicting will be the major computer paradigm of the new century. There ARE going to be kinks. There ARE going to be problems. This is a MAJOR move. The only people I can't see benefitting in both the short and long run are people pirating the software or designers who aren't serious enough to earn the $1.75 per day needed to maintain an annual subscription.
As for me, a freelancer, Adobe's new pricing model means I have more tools and more power which means I get things done faster, better, and cheaper ... oh, and I make more money.