
Adobe almost does something amazing by accident - Libertatea
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/01/adobe-almost-does-something-amazing-by-accident/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Technica+-+All+content%29
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pippy

        This is not to say that CS2 is necessarily superior to the GIMP; it may or may not be. It doesn't really matter;
    

Oh god no. As someone who has used every image editor under the sun, a good
image editor _does matter_. It has a direct impact on how productive you are.

I love open source. I really do, but GIMP is one of the most horrid
applications I've used. Not just graphics applications. All applications.

GIMP is anti-user. You to get frustrated doing simple things, and expect to
spend more time on Google than GIMP. And not in the good blender way where you
learn a new shortcut and you become more productive. The "oh I'd never expect
to see that option there" way. Even something simple as basic window
management is a pain in the ass.

MyPaint, .NetPaint, and Inkscape make GIMP look like a joke. I hope the
unusable mess that is GIMP either dies or gets it shit together.

~~~
lurkinggrue
I had a friend tell me I should try the GIMP and I mostly deal with Camra Raw
files... The GIMP does not have a decent workflow for this.

Photoshop was worth the money.

~~~
aw3c2
GIMP is not meant for Raw management, that was not a good recommendation. Try
<http://www.darktable.org/> or <http://rawtherapee.com/> . Both free software.

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gigantor
Adobe's official PR stance on this is somewhat confusing; are they releasing
license keys to allow for an easier 'try before you buy', with the
understanding on the honour system that you'll purchase a license (almost a
humble bundle with a fixed fee)? Or is it a completely free license with the
hopes to wet your appetite for CS6 and up?

UPDATE: You still need a paid license to use it legally. This is a service
Adobe is providing to make life easier for existing licensed users of CS2 to
enable continued usage. " _While this might be interpreted as Adobe giving
away software for free, we did it to help our customers_ " (
[http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2013/01/update-on-
cs2-a...](http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2013/01/update-on-cs2-and-
acrobat-7-activation-servers.html))

~~~
nileshk
My understanding is that they wanted to shut down the product activation
servers for CS2, so they released an update for it that removed the product
activation check (and made the updates available on a publicly accessible web
page), so that existing CS2 users could keep using it without things breaking.

~~~
blumentopf
It's not an update. The software is the same as released in 2005. Only the
license keys are special keys that make the software bypass the Internet
activation.

So why did they make the software downloadable at all and not just the special
license keys? The Macromedia Studio MX 2004 suite they acquired uses the same
activation servers. In that case they only made special license keys available
and not the software.

This smells like a thinly veiled strategy to penetrate the market without
saying so (for whatever reason).

~~~
fusiongyro
I'm with you until your conclusion. Hanlon's razor. I think it's much more
likely to be an accident caused by some incompetent support agent. Adobe is
very bad at even basic strategy, let alone sneaky strategy.

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jpxxx
The great majority of the pirated creative suite installs I see are virtually
never used. It appears to be more of a status behavior than anything else.

If you have real work to do and you want to be "legit", you have one of the
many superior free or low-cost alternatives available. And if you're making a
living with creative suite at the core of your toolset, you have a copy of
creative suite by hook or by crook.

~~~
hackmiester
I am a software developer, but sometimes I work with front-end guys, and doing
a mock-up is in order. I use Photoshop because those guys use it, and can help
me make changes and work with it. Is this an uncommon scenario?

~~~
lmm
I guess I can imagine a freelancer pirating in that scenario, but if you're
working for a company a) they usually have a strict policy against pirate
software b) they'll probably already have a site license for the front-end
guys' copies.

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nicholassmith
They could have branded it almost as a Photoshop Lite, a friend remarked if it
was legitimate then it becomes the drug dealer model, cheap entry to get you
hooked then the prices go up. Could have helped Adobe capitalise off the large
base of people who pirate it because they can't afford it.

~~~
eli
Isn't that Photoshop Elements?

~~~
vl
It is, but apart from being somewhat strange - I doesn't have just some
functions removed, they are implemented differently from mainline Photoshop,
it still has not Retina support, unlike Lightroom, for example. Clearly and
surprisingly Elements is not a priority for Adobe, I tried the trial, but not
going to buy it, looking for something else.

~~~
eli
Agree that it's not well implemented.

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ynniv
I assume that most people glossed over the details of this new article, so
here is a link to Adobe's page with the installer and a serial number. No
registration, no checkbox saying you already own it, just CS2 for Windows XP.
This appears to be a change of philosophy since this morning.

<http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/>

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eli
I'm not really sure encouraging people to use really old versions of your
software is a smart strategy.

For one, it's unsupported and doesn't run so great on modern hardware and
operating systems.

~~~
laserDinosaur
Why? Just because it's old does not mean it's bad. And unsupported is great
for them - they don't have to spend resources supporting it!

~~~
eli
Wouldn't the whole point be to impress people with CS2 so that they upgrade to
a new version and Adobe gets paid? So... yeah, it needs to work and it needs
at least basic support. If I download my "free" version of Photoshop and the
installer crashes I am less likely to buy the new version.

A crippled version of the most current version of the software would make much
more sense.

~~~
benologist
I think you're reaching too far - 7 year old, 4 versions obsolete software
isn't even worth _pirating_ today. This isn't an advertisement.

~~~
azov
I disagree. CS2 could do _almost_ everything I'm doing with PS today. To take
even more extreme example, I would be pretty happy with MS Word 1997 if I
never had to open new document formats introduced in the later versions. Yes,
it's 15 years old and I don't even know how many versions obsolete.

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6thSigma
Wouldn't either 1) fixing the "technical glitch" that caused them to shut down
the activation server or 2) just giving away CS2 for free be better solutions
than this?

~~~
eli
1) I don't think it was a glitch, I think the activation server for this
outdated, unsupported software was being sunsetted. 2) I don't know, but
there's a _huge_ difference between CS2 that can legally be used by anyone and
CS2 that can legally be used only by people who paid for it.

~~~
6thSigma
1) I'm just calling it what they called it. 2) There is a big difference but
it doesn't mean it's a smart decision. If they said "Here you go guys, we
aren't supporting this anymore so feel free to use it however you want" Adobe
would gain some respect by a portion of their target market. Instead, they
posted download links and said "please don't download this!"

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MarkNederhoed
Couldn't they have made a simple password protected download page? The licence
holders this whole thing was intended for already have registered an 'adobe
id' (have access to the backend of the adobe website).

Learning to work with a big software package makes it harder to switch to
another editing suite. Free cs2 does make sense.

~~~
eli
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think an Adobe ID was required to legally
buy, install, or use CS2.

~~~
MarkNederhoed
But there is a licence required to legally use the software. They have
(contact) information. To avoid confusion, Adobe could've used some kind of
login to hide access to this download to people that don't have the required
cs2 licence. Instead of this, Adobe gave you the option to register for a new
Adobe ID. This process didn't check if you had any business on this download
page. If this is truly an accident, as in, if they don't want you to use the
unlicensed suite, why is this page still up? They know there's a lot of
traffic coming from the blogs.

From the forums:

" Dov Isaacs wrote: What is true is that Adobe is terminating the activation
servers for CS2 and that for existing licensed users of CS2 who need to
reinstall their software, copies of CS2 that don't require activation but do
require valid serial numbers are available."

On that same page users mentioned that this "looked like a legitimate product
form the official web-site."

<http://forums.adobe.com/message/4974662>

~~~
eli
I'm not really sure what you're getting at. You think it is not an accident?
(They changed the URL, by the way. The one all the blogs were linking to is
404.)

~~~
MarkNederhoed
The blog link is still up.
[http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=cs2_dow...](http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=cs2_downloads&pid=4485850)

Earlier HN threads called this whole thing 'marketing', I'm not going to say
this wasn't an accident. I'm saying that: a thing like this, where people get
excited over nothing could have been avoided with just a little notice on the
download page. That would've been enough to stop this as it was going on.
Giving people access to software you don't want them to use is silly.

~~~
eli
My mistake.

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vii
If this is what passes for an apology from Ars Technica for wrongly reporting
on this story from the start, when I believe it claimed that this was free
Photoshop for the masses, it is a weak apology. A news organisation should
stand behind its stories with its reputation and sadly Ars believes it has
little reputation.

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nnnnni
Also, CS2 is PowerPC only on OS X.

~~~
ward
Yes, that's mentioned in the first paragraph of the article.

~~~
nnnnni
Some people don't read the articles, only the comments...

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mattupstate
Download page pulled. Bummer.

~~~
eli
It's illegal to use it if you don't already have a license. If you're willing
to download an illegal version of Photoshop, you might as well just get a
cracked version of CS6.

~~~
CamperBob2
Except I'm assuming that the one I download from Adobe doesn't include a
value-added rootkit or a bonus VNC trojan.

~~~
homosaur
Sure there is mate, it's called "Flash"

