

Adobe is offering many of their CS2 software for free for PC and Mac.  - govindreddy
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?pid=4485850&e=cs2_downloads

======
ZachPruckowski
Makes sense - people who would actually pay for Adobe software probably
wouldn't settle for a free 6-7 year-old version, and people who wouldn't pay
for Photoshop anyhow will use the free versions, meaning (a) it's now really
hard to be "the cheaper Photoshop" if you're a competitor, and (b) once the
guys using the free CS2 can afford to buy this sort of software, they'll
probably get CS6 instead of a competitor because they're more familiar with
it.

~~~
mistercow
It's also a good way to fight piracy, since so many people currently learn
Adobe's products on pirate copies.

~~~
raverbashing
I think Adobe kind of want people to do that

Also see the big lack of competition in that area (for professional use, I
mean).

There's AI and CorelDraw, Inkscape is "good enough" for home use but it barely
registers

There's PS, some other apps like Pixelmator, Gimp, etc, but PS is the most
used

And then there's InDesign. CorelDraw can do some of its work, still...

------
UnoriginalGuy
I've seen this linked on other sites I use, but what is unclear is if we're
meant to have access to this.

It would be nice to see a notice from Adobe announcing this as freely
available to the public.

I'm just uncomfortable with the fact that this potentially could be some
individual's screw up and that for all intents and purposes we're pirating it
(since there is no licence).

~~~
GuiA
>I'm just uncomfortable with the fact that this potentially could be some
individual's screw up and that for all intents and purposes we're pirating it

A store has a sign that says "free bread", you take a loaf, and later it turns
out that the sign was put out by mistake- are you a thief?

~~~
macspoofing
If you don't return the loaf, I think you're being unethical.

~~~
jrs235
I'm with you and I'm sick of Moral Decay.

Just because something is legal doesn't mean you should do it.

Just because you can do something questionable without anyone probably finding
out, doesn't mean you should do it.

------
nmcfarl
CS2 is not a Universal App on Macs, so this takes a PowerPC Mac, or Mac OS old
enough to run Rosetta (Snow Leopard).

~~~
cygwin98
If you have vmware Fusion, you can install Snow Leopard within your Lion or
Mountain Lion.

~~~
untog
If I had to go that far, I'd be more inclined to install Windows- for all
those other edge cases when you just have to have a Windows instance.

~~~
cygwin98
Agreed. Though I was just pointing out the existence of the Mac way, which
could be much more inefficient performance-wise due to the double hit of
Rosetta and VMware Fusion.

------
gizzlon
Seems to be down now:

 _Site Area Temporarily Unavailable

We're sorry, the site area you've requested is unavailable. Please try again
later_

Or maybe it's US only?

~~~
citricsquid
it was working fine earlier (3 hours ago) in the UK, managed to download and
get a key.

~~~
maxerickson
I got the temporary unavailable message a few minutes ago and then got a
download page on reload.

------
jpswade
I could access this on my mobile about an hour ago, but now it's just showing
this error:

\-----

Site Area Temporarily Unavailable

We're sorry, the site area you've requested is unavailable. Please try again
later.

\-----

It's so frustrating to miss out on stuff like this.

~~~
ddmf
Could it just be that they possibly have a limit on the number of connections
"leeching" their goods?

------
jervisfm
I found this article online which gives more details on this offering :
[http://www.ghacks.net/2013/01/07/grab-adobe-creative-
suite-2...](http://www.ghacks.net/2013/01/07/grab-adobe-creative-
suite-2-including-adobe-photoshop-for-free/)

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
Unfortunately that article doesn't have any more or less information than we
ourselves have. It is just an "article" written about the page the OP linked
to.

------
MarkNederhoed
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/adriankingsleyhughes/2013/01/07/...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/adriankingsleyhughes/2013/01/07/download-
adobe-cs2-applications-for-free/)

"No, You Can't Download Adobe CS2 Applications For Free"

------
laydros
It appears they now have a hard redirect set up, so I would say this was a
mistake.

~~~
kmfrk
Wouldn't Adobe stand to lose a lot of money, since people can use the upgrade
path instead of a full purchase?

I imagine that would be a stopping block to making earlier versions free or
very cheap.

~~~
maxerickson
They only offer upgrade pricing from CS5. They stopped offering upgrades
prices to CS3 and CS4 owners at the end of 2012:

[http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/faq/upgrade-
poli...](http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/faq/upgrade-policy.html)

------
hellerbarde
On the other hand, the links have this string in them: <snip>/CS2_EOL/<snip>

So maybe they decided to give it away, because it's EOL'd sooo hard. Let's see
how this develops :)

------
dannytip
This is great for all the people at work who insist they need photoshop to
crop and resize a few pictures.

~~~
bdz
Well I don't think CS2 became obsolete. I mean 7 years gone but that doesn't
mean that the features are now basic...

~~~
martin-adams
I still use CS2 for all my web design work. I installed the demo of CS6 and
looked at what had been improved in my normal workflow and it turned out it
hadn't really changed since CS2.

While the world thinks its obsolete, it really isn't.

Frustrating however as I now can't reinstall After Effects CS2 as they haven't
resolved the termination of the activation servers for that.

------
theanalyst
Is the site down for everybody now?

