Breaking the Adobe Tax: A Practical Guide to Software Freedom

Setting the Stage: Context for the Curious Book Reader

This entry dives into the philosophical battleground between proprietary, subscription-based software and the world of free, open-source alternatives. It champions the idea of “digital sovereignty,” where investing a small amount of time to learn foundational tools grants users freedom from costly vendor lock-in. The discussion centers on the Unix terminal—a powerful, text-based interface available on macOS and Linux (and now Windows via WSL)—as the gateway to this independence.

The author argues that while commercial products like the Adobe Creative Cloud offer polished convenience, they effectively rent skills back to the user, creating dependency. This piece serves as both a passionate manifesto for embracing slightly more “difficult” tools and a practical guide to getting started. It uses the installation of a specific local-first web application, Pipulate, via the Nix package manager as a concrete example of how a few “magic words” in the terminal can unlock powerful, free-for-life capabilities.

The Illusion of ‘Easy’ and the Price of Proprietary Handcuffs

It is impossible to avoid some “magic words” — the perquisite knowledge required to utter them correctly. All the best high tech spells have just a little bit of this you must cast. Everything else is consumer products designed to install easily and shake you down for money.

If you want to cast powerful spells of automation that don’t break the bank, you’ve got to be ready to learn a thing or two. But only a thing or two. You don’t need to memorize the whole darn Unix command-line spellbook.

The penalty if you don’t pay with just a little bit of your time to learn a new and slightly unusual or difficult thing is being limited to products designed with a very consumer-lean to them. Such consumer-focused products have gone to considerable lengths to purge out the strangeness and difficulty so you can start using them right away and feel like you got your money’s worth. Anyone can take up quickly. And correspondingly, such consumer-oriented products are unlikely to offer you very little ability to competitively differentiation.

FOSS vs. The Adobe Tax: Why GIMP and Blender are Different

But what about Photoshop, you ask? That’s consumer-facing and anyone can take it up and produce work far beyond the capabilities of other people using the same product. The argument that the specialness is in you and not the tools is valid until you realize that going this path locks you into those expensive proprietary products.

There used to be something called the Graphic Artist’s Guild and all graphics artists were a member. You got stuff. Today the guild is your Adobe Create Cloud Suite Handcuffs whatever they’re calling it lately. You’ve gotta pay your $500 to $1000 per year to Adobe to play or your skills go away.

Your hard-won internalized muscle memory skills, something inside you like an extension of of your body — the way musical instruments are to a musician or sporting equipment is to an athlete — is not inside your body and does not belong to you in the proprietary software world. It’s rented and is taken away the moment you stop paying your annual tithe to the Adobe hold-your-skills hostage racket. The alternative is the aptly named GIMP. At least InkScape has some suggestion that you might escape in the name. GIMP on the other hand is brutally honest about what you can expect.

If you’re into 3D at least there’s Blender. That started out with profit-incentive in the proprietary software world and miraculously and against all odds contributed its wonderful self to the free and open source software community once Autodesk 3D Studio Max at the low-end and Maya 3D at the high end (now also Autodesk) ate its lunch (I’m partial to LightWave 3D myself as an old Amiga Computer buff but that’s another story). 3D modeling software is a rare exception where the free and open source software (FOSS) is as good as the commercial stuff. Yay Blender!

But everything else is a little different. You’ve got to live with sub-standard versions insofar as the quality standards of commercial software goes if you want free-as-in-freedom for life. You can always get free-as-in-beer because all the vendors will give you the first does of something free. Then you’re gonna develop habits, eventually pay, and get locked in for life. Truth.

So if you want free-as-in-libre, prepare to use some slightly more difficult software — but that doesn’t necessarily mean worse nor worse results. It just means steeper up-front start-up cost. But you’ll get over it because now you don’t have to pay the half-grand Adobe-tax every year and you can always have it in your back-pocket for the once-a-year emergency project that calls for it, or just practice when the mood strikes you.

So yes, you can be a super-powered InkScape or GIMP user. It happens. I’m expert at neither but can squeak by on both. All that layer and bitmap vs. structured graphics and selection stuff is the same everywhere. They all copy each other. Learn one, learn them all. It’s just which one you become spontaneously expert at in that muscle memory musical instrument flow-state way is the question: ones where you have to pay (and keep paying) someone the privilege of our internalized skills to be usable or ones where you don’t.

Debunking the Myths: You Are Not the Product

There are myths perpetrated to keep you in this mode of thought. The first is If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. FALSE. True altruistic software like GIMP, InkScape and even Linux itself prove that false. There are good guys in tech. There are people dedicating big chunks of their lives to projects so that you can enjoy the fruits of their labor out of passion and love of the craft. Don’t buy the line about nothing’s free. Plenty’s free.

But without the polish of commercial software, the cost is your time. Yeah, that’s true. No myth there. You’re gonna pay with your time. Totally worth it. Master a few tech crafts that will be with you for your entire life. Stick it to the vendors.

Another falsehood is that the pace of change is just so fast that by the time you learn something it’s already obsolete and you just have to live with it — somehow that the hamsterwheel churn of tech is just inevitable and you have to accept that. FALSE. That’s only true of proprietary software that’s trying to get you to pay for everything over again for the sake of quarterly profits — or better still: get you on a perfectly predictable recurring revenue subscription plan that you set it and forget it.

Don’t buy it. Quite literally, don’t buy it. If you don’t buy it in the first place and start the cycle of Mac/Windows/whatever-dependency, you won’t have to break the cycle. Proprietary software from public companies exists for one and one reason alone: so that they can meet their legal responsibility to turn a profit for shareholders. That’s capitalism, baby! And I’m not actually opposed to it. I just think choice is important. You need to understand column-B.

Your Gateway to Power: The Humble Unix Terminal

Alright, so what about right now. What about the now moment?

Here and now, I’m talking about Unix Terminal.

Don’t go running for the hills just yet.

Magic Keystrokes for Mac Users: Finding Your Terminal

Unix Terminal is built into Macs. They haven’t removed it (yet) so it must have some validity and utility, right? It’s there by default and not terribly difficult to get to. So that means it’s a cool kid thing, right? I’m not just talking to the Linux dweebs, right. It’s a macOS thing! I mean Apple is exposing the Unix Terminal to users — really think about that.

For those not familiar with it, that’s Command+Space+t+e+r+return

Oh, there’s other ways to get to it, but on the Mac, the Spotlight feature accessed with Command+Space to do a system-wide search is your friend! No matter how Apple tries to bury something and hide it from you in menus and obscure paths, you can short-circuit the path by typing its name, and this is now the way with the terminal program — one of the last remaining vestiges of a bygone era where Steve Jobs kicked Bill Gate’s ass all over town and back.

Re-basing the Macintosh operating system back in 2007 from proprietary OS9 to the first version that was Unix-based, OSX roughly at the same time as changing the hardware architecture the Mac was based on from the Motorola 6800-lineage, by that time referred to as PowerPC and sometimes CELL architecture to the much cheaper higher clock-speed economies-of-scale Intel (Pentium and such) CPUs was a stroke of genius and one of the more colorful tech miracles that happened.

Today it seems like no big deal switching architectures with everything becoming ARM-based and RISC-V, but that’s because we’re almost 20-more years into it and everything’s that much more baseline powerful and the path has been well-worn and proven. Back then it was a friggin miracle and Steve Jobs did it and it was a major contributing factor to the Mac still being relevant today.

Proprietary is a dead-end when it comes to component parts.

Economies of scale and cheap parts come from commodity parts and standardization.

But for a Macintosh?!?! you might ask. Yeah, Steve Jobs didn’t like that aspect of it all much either, so most of Unix is hidden under a chocolaty Cocoa exterior. For those who like their Linux desktops, this is Apple’s equivalent of GNOME or KDE Plasma desktop manager. Apple made their Unix desktop manager. It’s called Cocoa and it keeps Mac users almost totally insulated from Unix…

…unless you type: Command+Space+”terminal”

And that’s the magic. Or at least it’s the first hand-gesture that activates the more verbal incantations to follow. You need a magic keystroke which is a hand-gesture for the more spoken-like magic words. I mean of course the magic words are also types and are thus also hand-gestures but they’re not quite so much like the magic hand-waving of keyboard shortcut combos. I mean Command-key, Spacebar?! How Apple can you get? The biggest key on the keyboard and the one immediately to its left, haha!

It’s not too hard. Not even for a Mac user.

Okay, so the terminal is up. What next? If I were you I’d click the full-screen button — that little green globe once called the “Zoom button” but now makes true full screen easily accessible — unlike Windows that’s still stuck on the far inferior maximize which is not virtual desktops at all. Kudos to Apple for a decent virtual desktop implementation that lets users benefit from it without thinking about it too much. All PCs — Macs, Windows and Linux — now give you this wonderful horizontal ribbon of virtual desktops if you know how to use them. You can lead a horse to water but you can only use virtual desktops without thinking about it if you’re on a Mac. Click the green globe gadget.

The First Incantations: pwd, cd, and ls

Ahh, full-screen terminal. How does that feel? You’re almost future-proofed already. Now you just need to know these additional commands:

• The pwd command to know where you are.
• The cd command to set where you want to be.
• The ls command to see what’s there.
• How to type one of the things you see to run it.

And sometimes ls isn’t really going to show you everything you might have to type, like if the command is python server.py you might only see server.py when you use the ls command — and just have to trust that Python’s gonna be there when you type it.

More on things in your path environment variable later. Too advanced for right now. But there are shortcuts, aliases and all kinds of ways to make your magic incantations simultaneously easier and in need of more prerequisite knowledge.

Insider stuff.

Now you’ve got an in. Welcome to the inside.

Learning how to learn has been given a lot of lip service over the years.

It’s not important to specifically know a thing that takes up too much space in your head in everyday life. It’s much better to know how to learn that thing quickly when you need to know it. This has often been said multiple ways. The multiplication tables, for example. A lot of people commit this X-by-Y lookup table in their heads so that rote memorization, what we call heuristics, can make them faster at basic math.

But if you understand what the multiplication table is doing, you can also get their with addition by brute force. Three times seven is seven three times or three seven times. Add it up. True ‘nuff.

So you don’t need to learn the multiplication tables?

Well, it depends on your everyday life. It’s gonna take awhile to develop those instantaneous muscle memory skills. I never fully did and to this day stumble over some particular cells in the table, and the 11 and 12 rows? Forget about it.

So it is with all things Unix-terminal, which is also Linux-terminal. Without going into a long diatribe (another one), Linux might as well be Unix. Sure there are differences and we’ll cover them as we go with progressive reveals. But Unix is the blueprint. Linux is an implementation off of that blueprint. Macs are Unix. The rest of the world (including Microsoft) is Linux.

Most of the commands are compatible.

But it’s all just different enough to be infuriatingly frustrating — and plays right into the profit-incentive of vendors who can offer you cloud services to do away with all those pain-points.

So long as local-first software remains difficult, they remain profitable.

They get you onto cloud software billing it easy peasy… and then billing you easy peasy. Add one then another and another cloud service, streaming service, AI service, service, service, service… and pretty soon you’re in service of the greater corporate organism.

And that’s fine. That’s just fine. It’s capitalism and I drink my share from the teats of mother big tech. How are you not going to? We don’t burn our computers from sand. We must stand on the shoulders of giants. There is no other way. We are social animals and no monkey is an island. Even if you turn on, tune in, drop out or try to cut the cord and go off-grid as a Montana mountain man or something, you’re still doing your occasional Walmart runs. And you’re probably gonna want that Internet connection once in awhile, ‘cause you know, you can learn the things you need to know to survive. Independence is an illusion. The best you can hope for is a sort of interdependence that minimizes the greedy hands in your pocket that are part of the deal.

And when you do let greedy hands into your wallet as we eventually must, the idea is for you to be in control of that deal. There being just one StarNet would be a problem for example. But if Amazon has their own satellite network and maybe a 3rd company someday, then you can use your power from your solar-powered RV (goodbye landlords) to make them compete for your business. Hopefully more than just Tesla are making solar powered RVs. Google up the Stella Vita because a decent version of minimized corporate dependence is on the horizon. Solarpunk and popup communities to the most competitively attractive States — or countries because if you can drive there… borders? Pishaw! — is around the corner. THANK YOU Eindhoven University of Technology students in the Netherlands who did that! The world owes you a lot. Hopefully some disruptive manufacturers will follow their design. Also google-up the Aptera solar car — not an RV but a production-vehicle start.

Where were we? Oh yeah, the Unix terminal. Linux terminal. Whatever. It’s always there. If you’re on Windows, install Ubuntu from the Microsoft Web Store and you too have a Linux terminal capable of running Pipulate. Apple got to Unix (*nix) in 2007. TEN YEARS LATER Microsoft got to Linux (*nix) in the form of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). If you don’t want to use the Microsoft Webstore just open a CMD or Powershell window and type wsl --install. Magic words. Sprinkles the *nix fairydust even on a Windows system.

*nix won. Have I mentioned that?

Oh, and there’s a version of *nix called Nix. There’s a whole operating system built out of it called NixOS — or if you’re a cool Mac kid, nixOS if you prefer. But you don’t have to use Nix OS to use Nix. No, it’s a floor wax and a desert topping. Use Nix just to create little micro-installations of Linux in subfolders of your Mac or Windows (via WSL) systems to normalize an always-the-same code-running environment.

In this way you don’t have to write a separate installer for Macs and PCs. Or the developer doesn’t, at least.

You the user have to learn a few things. One keyboard-shortcut magic hand-waving gesture to get the Unix terminal to pop up on Macs. Windows people just choose your Ubuntu icon from the Start Menu after the install. Either way, you’ve got a *nix-terminal.

All that’s left is to install Nix so your *nix-terminal can run normalized Linux web apps — or in other words, a practical alternative to cloud apps.

Cloud apps have been driven up in popularity so enormously because a local install is not necessary.

From Philosophy to Action: Installing Local Apps with Nix

But what if you could install local software with just a few additional magic words beyond getting up the *nix-terminal?

The first is:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install

…That installs Nix. and the second is:

curl -L https://pipulate.com/install.sh | sh

…and that installs Pipulate.

Now the hard part.

Once Pipulate is installed, you have to:

cd ~/Pipulate
nix develop

…and that does it. The locally installed web-app will auto-inflate and start running, keeping itself up-to-date every time it’s run.

A few magic words.

A little bit of getting around.

Not nearly as hard as learning Blender, haha!

Book Analysis

Here is a multi-task analysis transforming the provided journal entry into a structured, enriched format for a future tech book.

Crafting Compelling Narratives: Title & Filename Brainstorm

• Title Option 1: The Magic Words That Set You Free
  • Filename: magic-words-software-freedom.md
  • Rationale: This title directly uses the author’s central metaphor, making it evocative and memorable. It appeals to readers looking for empowering knowledge rather than just a dry technical guide.
• Title Option 2: Breaking the Adobe Tax: A Guide to Digital Sovereignty
  • Filename: breaking-adobe-tax-digital-sovereignty.md
  • Rationale: This is a punchy, benefit-driven title that targets a specific pain point (expensive subscriptions) for a clear audience (creatives, developers). The term “Digital Sovereignty” elevates the concept for a more thoughtful reader.
• Title Option 3: Don’t Rent Your Skills: Mastering the Terminal for Lifelong Tools
  • Filename: dont-rent-skills-mastering-terminal.md
  • Rationale: This title focuses on the core philosophical argument about skill ownership, which is a powerful and unique angle. It promises a practical skill (mastering the terminal) as the solution to a deeply felt problem.
• Preferred Option:
  • Title (plain text for YAML): Breaking the Adobe Tax: A Practical Guide to Software Freedom
  • Filename: breaking-adobe-tax-software-freedom.md
  • Rationale: This title is the strongest because it’s both provocative and clear. It identifies a well-known antagonist (“Adobe Tax”), making the problem relatable, and immediately offers a “Practical Guide” as the solution. It perfectly balances the philosophical (“Software Freedom”) with the actionable, appealing to the widest audience.

Book Potential Analysis

• Strengths as Book Fodder:
  • Authentic Voice: The passionate, slightly irreverent, and highly personal tone is a compelling antidote to dry, impersonal technical writing.
  • Strong Central Metaphor: The concept of “magic words” and “spells” for the command line is a sticky and effective teaching tool.
  • Connects Philosophy to Practice: It masterfully bridges a high-level rant about capitalism and software with a concrete, step-by-step tutorial, answering both the “why” and the “how.”
  • Timely and Relevant: The critique of subscription culture and vendor lock-in is a widely shared sentiment, making the content immediately relatable.
• Opportunities for Enrichment (for Book Adaptation):
  • Add a ‘What is Pipulate?’ Box: The entry tells the reader how to install Pipulate but offers zero context on what it is or why they would want it. A brief sidebar explaining its function would be essential.
  • Illustrate the Terminal: For a reader truly new to the concept, a simple annotated screenshot showing the terminal prompt, a command being typed, and the output would demystify the experience immensely.
  • Create a ‘Key Takeaways’ Summary: A bulleted list at the end summarizing the core philosophical points (e.g., “Pay with time, not money,” “Own your skills”) and the key practical steps (e.g., “Find the terminal,” “Install Nix,” “Run nix develop”) would reinforce the message.

AI Editorial Perspective: From Journal to Chapter

This entry is an outstanding piece of raw material, perfect for anchoring a chapter on “Digital Sovereignty and the Philosophy of Tooling.” Its primary strength lies in its authenticity. The stream-of-consciousness style, far from being a weakness, offers a “behind the scenes” look into the mindset of a dedicated open-source advocate. It captures the culture and passion of the FOSS world, something often lost in polished, purely technical documentation.

By framing the command line not as a chore but as an empowering “spellbook,” the author makes a potentially intimidating subject feel exciting and accessible. In a book, this entry could serve as a powerful introductory case study. It starts with a relatable frustration (expensive software), builds a compelling philosophical argument for an alternative path, and concludes with a clear, actionable quest for the reader to embark upon. The raw nature of the dialogue, once lightly curated with subheadings and annotations as suggested, becomes a feature—a genuine, persuasive voice guiding the reader from passive consumer to empowered creator.

Suggested Next AI Processing Steps

1. Task Suggestion 1: Generate Explanatory Analogies
   • Potential Prompt Snippet for Next AI: “Based on the provided text, the author uses a ‘magic spellbook’ metaphor. Generate two new, simple analogies a beginner could understand to explain a) what the ‘PATH environment variable’ is, and b) what Nix does to create a ‘normalized’ environment.”
2. Task Suggestion 2: Create a Skeptic’s FAQ
   • Potential Prompt Snippet for Next AI: “Read the attached manifesto on FOSS vs. proprietary software. Identify the three most likely points of resistance or skepticism from a reader who is happy paying for commercial software. Draft these as questions in an FAQ section and then provide answers that are consistent with the author’s tone and philosophy.”