At least it says two machines. One for home, one for work.

I've been using paid-for versions of Adobe products since Photoshop 5 and Illustrator 8.

If CS2 does indeed require activation, I'll have to consider either going without or finding a copy that is activation-free. There's no way I'm jumping through hoops each time I get a new machine or something.

I'm seriously all for paying for the software you use, but as far as I'm concerned, any company that requires me to call and beg them to activate something I just paid $1,000 for can walk the plank.

This is one of the big reasons I'm such a big supporter of the Mac in the first place. I've been through enough "activation" ******** just trying to help people transfer to a new PC.

Argh.

I think I'm more pained by the US$449 pricetag just to upgrade from CS1.

Good point. Ouch.

Just another way for Adobe to scam more money, why they couldn't release an update version... well they could but there wouldn't be the money in it for them.

The sooner someone comes up with a good Photoshop alternative the better off we'll be.

I vote for Omni or Panic to develop one! After all, almost all the filters Photoshop currently does can be handled directly with Tiger's new APIs. Some of Gimp's code could probably be used too. The tough part would be implementing colour management and support for all those file formats (including RAW). Add something cool that Photoshop doesn't have, and you've got a killer app.

I'll bet Omni or Panic could do it inside of a year. I'd be first in line to buy it!

None of the new features are relevant to me. I personally feel like Adobe is making their software more complicated actually with the way they are trying to bring the apps together into one package. But regarding the activation thing, someone will hopefully create a krack for it.

All you need then is the secondary code to activate it. No krack necessary it seems.

The app will 'phone home' to verify the code, if the code has been used before, or is on a blacklist, then no activation.
You could possibly stop it connecting with 'Little Snitch' and make the App think it's not connected to the net.

Of course, you don't need to buy the new version if so adverse to it.

There's no need to jump through hoops. You can simply de-activate on the old machine and activate on the new one. All from a single menu command.

I'm not concerned for two reasons. One, Adobe "updates" aren't as critical as they once were. CS1 works just fine as it is. Two, there are always back-doors to bypass the software activation scheme. SW activation is just there to skim off the casual pirates. Perhaps this deters some people, perhaps even a lot but not deticated pirates. I have yet to see a piece of SW that wasn't cracked one way or the other.

What happens when your disk crashes and burns all the data? Can you simply re-install from backup and re-enter the numbers, or do you have to go and try to explain it to some Adobe rep?
I wonder because recently I thought I'd lost my disk with the Macromedia MX 2004 suite -- which has idiotic activation too. Guess what's been the number 1 troublemaker (together with its ridiculous speed on OS X before the point updates) of this suite?

Ok, 2 machines is fine, however, I have a G5 at home that I would definitely put CS2 and of course on my G4 at work. BUT I have a PowerBook G4 that I use when not in either place.

Do any of you think it would be possible to put an activated copy onto the PowerBook, put the book into FireWire mode and run CS2 off it that way through the G4?


Otherwise CS1 is what I'll use at work only.

Not unless you're booting off the PowerBook in target mode. Photoshop will almost certainly look for the registration database in /Library. This is true even in the current version, as far as I can tell.

Actually it's only $349 to upgrade from CS1. It's $499 to go from photoshop only to CS2. For the premium CS it's $549.

Personally I'll probably get the $349 upgrade for a number of features. Mainly for Camera Raw plugin if they make newer version only usable with CS2 and up as the batch processing is something I really want.

[sarcasm]Oh no! They'll never be able to crack that! Heavens, what shall we do?[/sarcasm]



A month, two tops, before there's a patch or a krack for it. Mark my words, matey!

The Adobe reps quoted in that article say it's not meant to stop hardcore pirates. It's just supposed to curb casual sharing. It sounds like an effective way to do that. It's just also an effective way to piss people off.

I hate crap like this, I bought Fireworks MX 2004, then I had it installed on my iMac and iBook. I think I then reformatted my iBook's HD, and then sent it back to Apple when the Logic board died repeatedly, then when I got my PowerBook they wouldn't let me activate it without jumping through hoops. This last time I needed to install it I just found a crack instead of putting in the serial on the CD. It just isn't worth talking to the often grouchy and angry Macromedia reps. Especially since I PAID FOR THE FREAKING APP! I'm not even sure I'll ever buy another copy of Fireworks any time soon because of this crap. I'm likely to go with Photoshop after getting my tablet...

This sucks but welcome to the future of software....

and thanks for all you p2p "borrowers" out there! way to go!

Sucks i know, but everyone who copies a product is partially to blame...

(oh wait. let me guess. I am a student and can't afford it. wrong. oh wait. I would never have "paid for it" anyway. well then stop using it.)

Now as a PR and goodwill angle, what adobe should have done is lowered the price of its software and they should "in theory" see more sales. This would be them putting their money where their mouth is. But of course they didn't so it really puts them in even a worse light...

I stopped at PS 7. Golive and all the rest of their products have turned into bloated slugs that seldom have features worthy of a full point upgrade. They are not fooling anyone...they ship these updates and call them a full point upgrade for wall st. and their stock.

I do think the days of monolithic software companies are ending... core image. hello? there is a lot of photoshop in there. And for color correction and stuff (high end pre press) well you earn money with photoshop so pay for the tool.

But if you don't like the road adobe is going there is always "Gimp" cough....

Hopefully by the time PS7 stops doing what its doing, there will be panic-shop or omni-shop as mention above...small companies seem to still be close to the customer's wants and needs...

Heh. That's what I did with Quicken. I was sick and tired of calling them for an activation code (esp. since often times they couldn't figure out how to give me a proper one for my downloaded purchase thru a bank promotion). The worst part was their hours. When they could give me a code was when I was at work. Nobody could give me a code at 9 pm, because they were closed. So finally I gave up and got a copy of it that didn't require activation.

Not quite legal, but I freely admit it.

(This is on the PC. I dunno how it works on the Mac, but I haven't bothered with Quicken on the Mac, because Intuit irritates me to no end and because everyone says Quicken for Mac sux, esp. for people who need to convert files from the PC version.)

Can I upgrade a Education edition PS7 to CS2? If I can upgrade, will I be able to use the PS7 still?

Don't you get it? As their customer, err licensee, you are there to serve their every whim.

Upgrade from Education? Probably not. Usually software companies want you to pay FULL RETAIL PRICE to get a newer release. If you can still get Education software, that would mean buying CS2 at full education price.

And, also, often you lose your license to a past release when you "upgrade," however, if you paid full-price you might get to keep your older license and still use PS7.

Welcome to the world of being a "software licensee."

Even by Adobe's own word, this is absolute BS. Read the article. They specifically said this is to stop casual copying between friends or in an office, not hardcore piracy (since, you know, activation has never managed to stop that before).

Hats off to every one going on about using a [K]rack. Yeah, that is gonna make them rethink the activation schema.

Seriously, people seem more interested in using this as a whine-stone than actually having a moral issue with it. It just something to B|TCH about.

The activation takes less time to do than to post in this thread. It isn't like we are already not having to enter an SN anyhow. What is an extra 30 sec of net time to authorize it?

OH NO, I am getting a new computer. I"M SCREWED. ADOBE iS TeH EVAL!

Please…

Help > Activation > De-Authorize + 30 seconds. My the horror!

Two seats should be more than plenty for a single license user. And so you know, HD clones will continue to work just fine if you need to restore it. If you place the same info back on your machine you had before the restore you have no worries.

I am sure everyone can come up with a 'on my setup this is give me problems.' Then adapt. Adobe has not allowed you to be able to run 2 machines with identical SNs on a network for years. The TOS has always stated you were not install it on more than 2 machines. If YOU chose to create a setup that works outside of that that is YOUR problem. YOU chose to operate outside the TOS.

Honestly, as a person who uses this stuff on a daily basis for many hours I can tell you that when it comes to my business this is so much NOT an issue. Anyone who chooses to make it a make or break issue is just looking to be angry.

Yeah, yeah. Sure to be followed by hordes of 'angries' on how their 'rights' are being infringed, la la la.

T

Again I cracked a copy of Fireworks I paid for. Because the activation got in the way. All I had to do was download a serial that, I don't understand how the heck putting in a single serial cracks it but I don't care if that's all I have to do to make sure I don't have to talk to that obnoxious woman I talked to before. I see absolutely no problem with using a crack on Software that I paid 150 dollars for, simply because my Logic board died.

So yeah. It can be cracked. Bypassed. Whatever.