Timm, I cannot agree with you more wholeheartedly with regard to illustrator AI and paying subscription payments for updates that I don't want or need.

AI in illustrator has yet to give me anything remotely helpful for my professional life that I would ever consider using. Maybe these are helpful for the prompt jockeys who don't want to invest in learning actual artistic skills, but all I want from illustrator is to be bomb proof reliable and take advantage of the power of my hardware. This is one great bit of software that I do love and use everyday but it drives me mad with how little value is added for the professional user.

Updates I treat as beta for at least a month to see what new buggy nonsense has been added. A couple of bad experiences that were then a nightmare to roll back and never again. I pay extra for Astute Graphics and their myriad of genuinely useful functions, including the autosaviour function that saves a rolling three version backup at timed intervals as you work. That has saved me many times.

I'd absolutely buy a bloat free fast version of illustrator with no AI, but it'll never happen. This is what the new consumer wants! Maybe?

Avinash, I know I am not alone here. If Adobe feels it must constantly be improving their software to justify the expensive subscription model then maybe keep offering that to those that are actually excited about all those updates. But for me personally, I feel I am just paying more for something less valuable. I bet 90% of users would prefer something consistent, reliable, and free of constant updates. Is there a chance Adobe would ever consider releasing a less expensive option along those lines? How bout an AI free version? I know it's in beta stage but as someone that's been an Adobe customer for over 2 decades, take my vote as a hard no on those features.

Hi Timm,

I'm truly sorry you've experienced these frustrating issues with Illustrator. Losing your work is absolutely unacceptable, and I can only imagine how incredibly disheartening that must be, especially when you're trying to focus on your creative process. It's painful to hear that our software has let you down when crashes and performance problems are exactly the kinds of issues our team is now laser-focused on fixing.

Could you share which version of Illustrator you're currently using and when you started experiencing these crashes? This would help us identify if it's related to a specific update.
If you're willing to share more details about your specific workflow and when these crashes occur, it would be incredibly valuable for our engineering team who is actively working to resolve these exact issues.

Again, I'm genuinely sorry for the negative experience you've had. We're committed to earning back your trust.

Here we go, force quitting illustrator 2025 again... I should be billing Adobe for all the re design time I have to do.