Among the most significant changes with this year’s Elements releases has little to do with new features but instead concerns the ways users purchase and own the software. While prior versions of Photoshop and Premiere Elements have been lifetime licenses — the user buys the software and then owns it indefinitely — this year’s release has moved to a three-year license term.
GIMP 3.0 RC1 will come very soon (this month) & offers a lot of missing features users expect like adjustment layers (I’ve been waiting a decade for this).