AmbientShade posted at 2:38PM Thu, 15 August 2019 - #4359517

That stranglehold is made possible by their customers. Every one of their customers have the option to buy Corel (for now - as they're moving to subscription-only later this year) or any number of other graphics editing software, or use the free gimp, krita, etc. They choose not to, because for whatever reason they prefer Adobe.

That reason often has to do with business - either they got/get it free from work, or they're so used to the workflow, that they cannot spare the time and risk learning (and then relying on) something else (and then explaining to prospective clients when they ask that "oh, this is just as good as Photoshop if not better!", etc.) I don't even have to mention (but will) the fact that most artist-oriented jobs out there, more often than not, specifically mention Adobe CS by name.

Bit of a trap, really.