CorelDRAW Upgrades are Ending!???????????????!!!!!!!!!!

I have been using CorelDRAW since 1990, nearly the entire time the product has existed. Back when the program was really primitive in the pre-Windows 3.1 days. CorelDRAW has weathered a lot since the late 1980's. But this new move, which is likely inspired by greedy vulture capital scumbags (current company owners Vector Capital and future owners KKR) is, I think, pretty much the beginning of the end for CorelDRAW.

Taking away the perpetual license upgrade program has to be one of the MOST STUPID decisions I've ever heard of in regards to graphics software distribution. It's sheer lunacy.

Bear this in mind, we all know about Adobe, Creative Cloud and their subscription-only thing. That's Adobe. They have a pseudo-monopoly on much of the graphic design software market. FWIW, the $54 per month you pay for that CC subscription delivers quite a lot. I would go broke many times over just paying for the commercial fonts made available thru Adobe Fonts and a CC subscription.

Corel DOES NOT have that kind of leverage. CorelDRAW is not an industry standard application. I've used CorelDRAW for many years, as part of my work in the commercial sign industry (where CorelDRAW does have quite a good following). But all the assets I receive from corporate clients are NOT in CDR format. Logos and what not are traded in AI, PDF and EPS. Not CDR. My company is now up to 3 Adobe CC licenses just keeping up with handling client assets and large format printing duties. That's because CorelDRAW is becoming increasingly irrelevant to that work flow. But now the hedge fund guys who own Corel think they're going to strong-arm long time CorelDRAW users? Are they delusional?

I had little problem paying $199 once every TWO YEARS for a full version upgrade of CorelDRAW. Then the hedge fund people moved to wanting that $199 EVERY YEAR to "upgrade." And I put that "upgrade" thing in quotes because lately the past few version upgrades have been really really really underwhelming on what was offered for the money. Now us long time CorelDRAW users are BEING THREATENED with having our licenses and all the upgrades we've purchased through the years being made of zero value for if/when Corel releases a new version of CorelDRAW that's worth buying as an upgrade??? We get fined $500 if we skip a lame upgrade and wait for something worthwhile? Yeah, that'll work!

The hedge fund guys running this company have totally lost touch with reality. This move on their part to do FORCED UPGRADES OR LOSE YOUR LICENSE is an absolutely hateful move against long time, loyal customers. What's next, taking down the activation servers for CorelDRAW X6 thru CorelDRAW 2018? This garbage is nothing short of a path down the road to SUICIDE for Corel. They better wake up fast. If they want Corel's customers to buy new versions of CorelDRAW they need to INNOVATE!!!! Put some new features in there that are worth buying! Do not strong-arm customers that have used the product going on 30 freaking years!!!!

I'm already working out my worst case scenario on this. I already save a lot of my art files down a few versions anyway (X3 usually). So it's not going to hurt me to install a virtual machine to use a vintage version of CorelDRAW. Or even freaking Macromedia Freehand! How about that!? And we'll just transition to Illustrator and any number of other vector apps out there. And there are plenty. I have several alone on my iPad Pro!

Bobby Henderson said:

This move on their part to do FORCED UPGRADES OR LOSE YOUR LICENSE is an absolutely hateful move against long time, loyal customers.

The Perpetual Licence doesn't end. Nobody force you to upgrade if you don't want. For example, you will be able to buy CorelDRAW 2020 as perpetual program, without subscription