online photoshop beta launched
 

Well,

I have mentioned it before in previous threads, but here is the beta and it is finally out. It is a free online version of Photoshop. I read about the pantent a year or two ago and here is the beta.

https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html

Check it out!

I had a look at this the other day.... its cool.... but.... I don't like the idea that software companies are gonna start moving towards 'online' apps and subscriptions...

It is the wave of the future, soon everything will be web based.

Like Photek, I too don't like the idea of moving to 'online' apps.

While it may be the "wave of the future," that does not necessarily mean it's good. Loss of any privacy is also a wave of the future, and that's not good. Hmmm...perhaps these two are related...?



Edit: To your point tlarkin, I'll still go check it out too. Thanks for the link.

web based is far from taking over locally ran applications, the platfrom is just there and being tested out.

What this does do, is say, allow for a company to host a web server internally, then all the company workers access the internal web server via their favorite browser and use applications.

This allows for easy software deployment, and less software being loaded on each machine. The license can dictate how many connections can use it simultaneously and once you exit out, it frees up that license.

You then just have a couple of nice web servers hosting all your companies applications.

While your concerns are valid, and i agree, I don't think it will always go that route.

I also found this, and just got an invite to their beta, even more interesting

http://a.viary.com/tools

you sound like the marketing guy from Microsoft/Adobe/AutoDesk !!! :eek:

Big Business LOVES the subscription model..... only problem is that the end user's dont.....

and that very firmly includes ME :D

Why do you think Apple jumped into webkit and open source web browsers?

They too have an web based model, but we won't ever hear about it until they get ready to release it since they are sooo secretive.

I think it is a great idea as far as managing software goes, however on the end user end, I don't see it taking over the consumer market. They will still have licenses to take home and install on home computers.

For example our 500 seat enterprise site license of CS3, also allows for 50 additional "take home" licenses that users are allowed to take home and load on their personal machines to do work at home.

I don't see it taking over the home computers, but in enterprise networks from my point of view it makes sense.

I assume that the iPhone and web apps was part of this plan.

Oh yeah totally, and I even see the iPhone being one of the web based platforms in the future.

Imagine remotely administering your network from your iphone. It is already possible via the new remote desktop update and ssh, but imagine a full web based interface. Then add in web apps on top of that, and you have a nice mobile web based platform to work from.

Just wait until they make an even smaller version of the airbook, like the Eee PC that Asus makes.

It's an expansion, not a replacement. We shouldn't fear web-based apps any more than we fear TV killing radio or airplanes killing cars. We just have one more option now. Wake me when it will be as fun to edit a 300 dpi 100MB file over the Internet as on a Mac Pro loaded with drives and RAM.

I think that is the key point...

Well, no, it's only the point as to why this is Photoshop Express and not Photoshop. It is not the point as to why web-based can work. The concept of Express can work as web-based because it's targeted not to big file pros but to people already uploading compressed JPEGs to the Web from their pocket camera or phone.

There really is no debate about whether web apps are viable, it's too late, they already are. The only remaining debate is where you draw the line between web client and desktop app for each of your computing tasks. It's really not much different from saying it's OK for Apple to offer .Mac mail both as webmail and through your Mail app and when you decide to use either.

I'm saying all this as a person who probably will never use Photoshop Express.

I think that will be a long time coming. Internet connections simply aren't fast enough yet. I have a 1.5 Gb/s connection to my hdd, but only about a 600 kb/s connection to the web on a good day, which is only 1/2500 as fast.

Granted, with some apps, the speed isn't as big of a deal. I've found web based word processors that I don't mind (I won't use Google apps due to their draconian user agreement.), but I can't see Photoshop being usable over my slooooow connection.

sure, but in cities like Tokyo, where fiber is ran to every building, it won't be as bad as a problem.

I don't think it will replace everything. I don't see you editing terrabytes of digital film with a web based application.

I fthis is the future, we need better internet connections and channels

It may be, in the distant future. As Styrafome said, it wouldn't be as fun as editing on a Mac Pro.

While yes, this is very slick, current problems hold this up. The first being our connection quality here in the U.S., which would make things difficult. I'm an AT&T customer and my connection is dropped once a day at the least. My friends have Comcast and they get dropped, throttled, and pretty much abused left and right.

So what happens when you click that Save button during said outage? Oh dear, error. All your work may be lost. (I'm not sure, never used Flash Photoshop).

To expand upon Sty's post, we probably can't support a massive move toward web-apps...yet. Until the connections bridging the computers together can become faster and more reliable, no one can fathom this happening.

If we had a connection that is very reliable and reached SATA speeds, we would probably have no problems moving toward web apps.

But then exists one more problem: People wanting to use said product offline. Some corporations depend on PS but don't have an internet connection. Same with the mere end user, who may not have a connection to the internet or wants to use the application somewhere away from their internet connection (and nothing is available at their destination). Then again, this can be solved by having a downloadable app on hand.

Once again I think the debate is mostly over. Connection quality as an issue, of course. File size performance, again this is targeted to casual users with small fun files, not deadline pros.

They already thought of that.
I don't know much about this technology but I hear that Google and others also have dev efforts and full plans for offline capabilities for these web apps.

Just because it is web based does not mean you must go over the interwebs to use it. I could easily at my company, host a web server, have gigabit or fiber even running to the desktop, and then you have a very high speed connection and your apps run off a web server.

It doesn't look like the revised one is out, but the EULA never said that in the first place. There is a lot of hearsay-based fact distortion going on over the Internet about this. The first line of the "bad" version says "Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content." They made a bad choice of a few words, but 95% of that EULA is the same as the EULAs seen on any other web site. Which most people don't read.

That sounds very similar to Google Services EULA, which says the author retains ownership, but adds that Google essentially has all the (non-revocable) rights normally associated with ownership, including the right to transfer the IP to other businesses that they do business with.

While, I understand your people's concerns, and while some EULAs can be very, well tricky and not really benefit you. My main point is not really that this is the wave of the future, but really more like you hosting your own web based apps with in your own network. Which would allow for very fast and efficient application deployment.

I am very excited to see exactly where it goes, because I think a lot of things need to migrate to being web based. That way you get around the platform war, and if you can run your apps from any web browser it then allows you the freedom to run whatever hardware and OS you want to.

I also think that it will not replace everything, just some things.

Nice idea about on-line photoshop. It may save your money, I think. For example, a person who have windows-prog only could run them on mac avoiding any virtual machines. By the way I bought parallels because of wish to save money. I have a lot of progs for PC only. Now on mac I run them via parallels :)

Sorry, I've registered and realized that this site is simple for sharing photos... Like a lot of others. Are you sure that there is an on-line prog photoshop?

It is suppose to have some photoshop like features, but I haven't played with it too much.

IANAL, but I would interpret that to mean that if you don't give them that right, they feel that they cannot take advantages of outsourced services like Amazon S3 to optimize storage and retrieval of customer data because they would be transferring your IP to a business that is not theirs.

What I wish companies would do is tell us why they have to say these things. When they don't, it sounds like an out-and-out rights grab, when in reality, it may just be that their lawyers said they cannot execute their heavily outsourced and cross-media business plan without the proper licenses to move customer data to all those places and media.