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Affinity Studio now free

(www.affinity.studio)
1200 points dagmx | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.246s | source
1. nobody9999 ◴[] No.45766127[source]
>Affinity Studio now free

I'd love to have an actually free alternative to the offerings from those rapacious thugs over at Adobe.

/RANT

But this isn't actually free. Rather than paying with currency, you pay with your PII and, presumably, your attention as you're relentlessly marketed to by Canva and by whomever they decide to sell your PII.

This is all too common and folks seem to be okay with it for some unknown reason. If you walked into an art supply store, grabbed the stuff you wanted/needed and headed to the cashier with cash and they refused to sell you anything unless you provided them with your name, phone number, email address, etc., etc., etc. you'd likely walk out without purchasing anything. [N.B.: Yes, Radio Shack always asked for that info, but didn't require it for purchases.]

Yet it seems that selling your personal details and attention is perfectly fine online.

What's more, since you must have a valid "account" with Canva to use their "free" offering, you are also subject (generally without recourse) to changes in the licensing/subscription models and they can take it away whenever they feel like it. What could go wrong? It's not like that's ever been an issue, right?

I'd love to use Affinity Studio. But I won't. Because the price is too high for me.

I'd note that these sorts of shenanigans aren't limited to Canva -- far from it. It's just one more vendor contributing to the further enshittification of the tech sphere. And more's the pity.

/RANT

Why is/isn't it too "expensive" for you? (Note, this is a real question, not a poke at anyone.)

Edit: Fixed prose. Added to rant.