Originally posted by BarryE I've never really got the open source model. Yes, the development intent is there, but support is where paid for services are likely to win out in the end. After a career in software it was the times I spent in support (and test) where I appreciated where so much time/money was being spent. Yes, paid for software companies fail, but the non-development tasks are factored in from the start. Open source depends too much on goodwill for me to make the investment in time, so Adobe's model frees me of these concerns.
I wonder if those who think £10 pm is too much are users of LR rather than PS? My workflow of Bridge-CameraRaw-Photoshop(often as smart objects) feels so smooth that re-learning a new method horrifies me. Guess I'm happily trapped with Adobe.
To be clear, I don't have a problem paying for software, but I don't like subscription models. I like to buy something and own it, with the right to use it for ten days or ten years as I see fit. I paid exactly £100.05 for Adobe Lightroom 6 stand-alone version in 2015. I only once needed support from Adobe, but as an owner of stand-alone rather than subscription software, I only had access to their online forum for support - and it failed miserably. Still, I didn't expect much, and this in itself wouldn't have been enough to lose me as a customer. Rather, it was a combination of being forced into a subscription model and the total cost of ownership compared to stand-alone software. Over three years, a subscription would currently cost me well over three times what I paid for LR6. That it comes with other benefits is immaterial to me. I'd happily pay double what I previously paid for a stand-alone copy of Lightroom (if such a thing existed now), in return for an up-to-date product I own and can use as I wish for as long as I wish.
I tried several free trials of other paid-for raw tools before Darktable. None of them supported all of the cameras I own as well as providing the level of raw processing capability I was looking for, with a workflow and user interface I found appealing. Darktable, when I finally got around to trying it, came close enough, and so I stuck with it.
Darktable and RawTherapee are both long-established (in Darktable's case, 11 years), and they've gone from strength to strength in capabilities and refinement. There's generally a queue of developers waiting to be part of the distrubuted core development teams. I not certain what their motivations and rewards are, but presumably it's mostly the experience, growth and reputation from working on such software. As developers move on, others fill their shoes.
Well-established open source applications like these with large, enthusiastic user bases are highly unlikely to just disappear. Still, if they did, I'd find something else to use - either open source or paid-for stand-alone. I'm experienced enough with raw processing that I can now switch back and forth between tools - even those I haven't used before - and achieve more-or-less what I want after a little orientation, so if I need to switch from Darktable and/or RawTherapee in future, I'm OK with that. I doubt it will happen, though.
For those who get what they want from Adobe and are happy with the subscription model, I say "go for it". The tools are fantastic, and if they feel they're getting value for money, that's all that matters. I feel neither superior nor inferior in my software choices and reasons for them. Each to his or her own