I often open 5-8 tabs in a window while I'm researching, and sometimes have 4-5 windows going if it's a complex problem. However, once I've answered my own question, I close the tabs and windows, until I don't have anything open in the browser.

What is the point of keeping more than about 10 tabs open? Wishful thinking that you'll get around to reading an article that's 40 tabs deep? I honestly don't get it—can anyone explain the use case that would lead to close tab 127 and spend time in tab 128?

Your use sounds pretty professional to me. Your options are: pay $20 / month for Photoshop, buy an old copy on eBay and forget about upgrading, or fork GIMP and start coding.

If you can't justify the ROI on $20 / month for Photoshop, it must not be very important to your business.

You would be shocked to know how many different industries rely on Photoshop. It's not just magazine retouchers. There's a reason why Photoshop is such big business. If GIMP was going to have an impact on Adobe, it would have happened already. It's fun enthusiast software, but it's basically a red herring when discussing whether or not Adobe can make money selling Photoshop.

As a photographer who writes photo software, I do not think it would surprise me.

If you really need to move a bridge to the other side of the shot, or replace one person's face with another, then yes, you need Photoshop. But the vast majority of photo edits can be done in Lightroom.

Right, because at 1KB a pop, I'm sure your network will be brought to its knees. How many megabits do you get on Game of Thrones torrents? Just saying...

You're paying for Google and Google Docs via ads. I really don't want ads in my Photoshop.

If you still need Photoshop after you reach the four year "break even" point, then I don't think you'll blink at paying $20 / month for it. This is a professional tool for professionals. If you don't need Photoshop, don't subscribe. If you do, it's likely one of the cornerstones of your work or business.

Of course it will be pirated. Was this ever in dispute? How would you make software that CAN'T be pirated?

You don't need to be connected to the internet to use the Creative Cloud. It's just software that's on your computer. It checks your license once every 30 days, so you need to go on the internet once per month.

I hate to break it to you, but professionals will continue to use Photoshop, and GIMP will continue to be GIMP. If daily Photoshop users could switch to GIMP, they would have already done it.

Honestly, for photo, all you need is Lightroom. Now that you can do local adjustments in LR, there's really no reason to use Photoshop for photography tasks. It's overkill.

What "control" did users have before? No, really... You still were forced to upgrade periodically to maintain your... ability to upgrade. Isn't that just a different kind of subscription? At least this is more honest.

GIMP is not a Photoshop alternative. GIMP is an interesting tool, but if you need Photoshop, you need Photoshop.

Yeah, for light photo editing, Photoshop is overkill. And GIMP is just not very convenient to work with due to the interface. My strong suspicion is that online photo editing tools will pick up the slack left by people abandoning old versions of Photoshop.