Quote: indefinitely adverb
1. In a manner that is not definite.
ex. "an indefinitely determined fossil"
2. For a long time, with no defined end.
3. Forever.
lit. without definition
In vernacular English the common sense is "without foreseeable end".
Originally posted by lsimpkins A few things to remember: many of our cameras output DNG files if we so choose, so we don't need a converter if running an older version of LR.
This is a common misconception. Tool compatibility for DNG in Adobe product is not fully reliable for other than Adobe-generated DNG and even then backward compatibility depends on how the DNG was made. (DNG is not intrinsically source or backward lenient.) Such is easily demonstrated by attempting to import a Pentax HDR DNG into any version of Lightroom. The exact extent of backward support for various DNG target versions and/or ACR versions is poorly defined and reportedly camera specific. Go figure.
If Ricoh/Pentax continues with DNG 1.2.0.0 as its backward target and also supports the optional embedded profiles, compatibility to most versions of Lightroom should remain good*. Even better would be if compatible camera/lens profiles continue to be available through download or the DNG Converter utility. With any luck, the format for .acp files themselves will remain fairly static and backdoor access to new profiles will continue to be an option.
As for Chicken Little...There are good reasons why many of us have not moved to the subscription and why software as service has been a hard sell for core business tasks for the last 20 years. For many of us, the CC model presents incredibly poor value and inserts unacceptable elements of risk with no strictly defined service level agreement** from Adobe. In two words, "It Sucks".
Steve
* I would have said "excellent" except that the embedded profiles are minimalist extremely simplistic when compared to Adobe-supplied files.
** Having been in the position of building interfaces to consume remote services, test frames to break and monitor such, and applications to provide software as services, the weakness are well known to me. Without a strong use case, this is silliness from the end user perspective.