I was digging around the files for my first personal site so I could share another template/premade based on it but the source files for the layout are lost to time because I stupidly saved them in Ad*be's proprietary format instead of something PDF-compatible. Of course I can remake it with what I have, but the inconvenience inspired me to share some recommendations for alternatives to some of Ad*be's offerings in the meantime!
This year I've made a conscious effort to reduce my reliance on companies that go out of their way to disrepect their users. Forcefeeding AI is just one grievance of many. And piracy isn't going to cut it anymore because I really just don't want it in my life or on my computer. So here's a summary of the things I've used a lot this year instead.
Bad
Affinity Photo 2: Not a great replacement for Photoshop but it's much better than GIMP, so...
Ok
Affinity Designer 2: Good replacement for Illustrator if you only need to make vector objects.
pencil and paper: Clients might disagree but it's superior for prototyping to both XD and Figma
Good
Affinity Publisher 2: Pretty much identical to InDesign which as far as I know is already a rip off of QuarkXpress, so... low bar to match something that was nearly perfected decades ago.
Inkscape: Does pretty much everything Illustrator can do but with a UI that I like a lot less than Affinity Designer. I use it to fill in the gaps.
Kdenlive: Very good alternative to Premiere for very basic video editing. I think I even prefer it to Premiere but I've not needed it for anything professional.