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Adobe's Strange Software Giveaway: Goof, Or Clever Marketing?
dryriver writes "Yesterday, Adobe put up a mysterious webpage from which its now seven-year-old CS2 line of products (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Premiere and others) could be freely downloaded by anyone. The page even included valid serial numbers that will unlock the CS2 apps for anyone who wants to. This strange 'giveaways' page at Adobe.com quickly went viral on the internet after a few tech bloggers reported on it. An Adobe spokesman said initially that the CS2 downloads are for existing owners of Adobe CS2 software only, who may not be able to activate their software anymore, due to the CS2 activation servers having been shut down by Adobe. But the internet at large took this webpage as meaning 'Free Adobe CS2 Software for Everyone,' which was probably not what Adobe had in mind. It seems that at this point, hundreds of thousands of people have downloaded their 'free' CS2 products and installed them, and started using them. So Adobe is in a bit of a PR pinch now because of this — Do you tell all the thousands of people who have downloaded CS2 products in the last 48 hours that 'you cannot use these products without paying us'? Or do you accept that hundreds of thousands of people now have free access to seven year old Adobe CS2 products, and try to encourage some of them to 'upgrade to the new CS6 products'?"
They'll try to turn it into a marketing strategy, with constant reminders to update to a newer version every time you open your "free" version.
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Adobe's creative suite has always had high piracy rates due to their high prices. Like Office, poor version compatibility and deliberately breaking file formats is standard operating procedure; otherwise no one would ever upgrade Illustrator or Photoshop, and the company would be out of business already.
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It's 'free' for people with currently active subscriptions to the product, not every Tom, Dale, and Hates the Gimp, alas.
Sounds like a bunch of bull. Most of the CS2 line requires Power PC systems for Mac or windows XP for PC. Yea... I'm sure many people still use these OSes that didn't already have the software.
I grew up with CS2, and moving out of Uni and in to jobs that lacked Photoshop meant that I ended up using Portableapps versions of the GIMP. It just wasn't the same, and I was never as good on it. Perhaps this is one way of getting people in to the Adobe way of things?
Although I note my Mountain Lion Mac Mini ain't gonna run CS2, as it doesn't have Rosetta installed. I'm not dusting off my old G4 one just to install it!
This would be a rather odd decision for Adobe considering that providing former products with similar functionality actively cannibalizes the for-profit market for the vendor. It would definitely impact the ammount of sales for the newer versions of the same products.
Millions of people are already illegally using more recent versions of the CS suite.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Adobe has been used practically as a case study of the side-effects of piracy to ensure their lock-in. Students pirate Photoshop/CS because they can't afford it, and when they get into the workforce employers suddenly have legions of employees who know how to use Photoshop/CS, making it an attractive choice for licensing because nobody has to be trained. Thus Photoshop/CS continues its reign as the de facto standard, and Adobe gets to set their rates to target the businesses with money without having to worry about the hobbyist market (which is notoriously fickle on legal purchasing of software anyway).
The higher-ups (or the middle-ups) probably saw that the time was right to spike that userbase a bit, that's all.
An Adobe spokesman said initially that the CS2 downloads are for existing owners of Adobe CS2 software only, who may not be able to activate their software anymore, due to the CS2 activation servers having been shut down by Adobe.
Considering how hard they make it even for legitimate purchasers of the latest versions to activate their legitimate copies, I find it hard to believe that they'd bend over backwards to enable activation of seven-year-old versions.
The only other options are to buy second hand, but in most of the cases I've run into the product in question does not seem legit.
It's made for PowerPC Macs, so the rest of us using Intel Macs are out of luck. :(
Sanity.html - Error 404 not found
Quite a cool marketing idea, but interest for Mac isn't that high: these old binaries are for PowerPC, and run slooowly in emulation on intel macs. I am not even sure if the latest version of OSX can still run the emulation.
For Windows users it is however great. Even for advanced photography amateurs, PS CS2 offers already plenty of power and great results.
So Adobe is in a bit of a PR pinch now because of this — Do you tell all the thousands of people who have downloaded CS2 products in the last 48 hours that 'you cannot use these products without paying us'?
What you do is wait for Apple to cave because the web is simply unusable without your product and no one will go without it.
Oh, sorry, wrong Adobe product.
I don't get it. If the serial numbers unlock the applications what is the relevance of the activation servers being off? When someone downloads this stuff and uses those SN do they get a fully working copy of an obsolete version of Adobe software or not?
Remember CoolEdit 2000 and CoolEdit Pro? Those were way better. Re-release those along with all the plugins and extras and then I'll be happy.
Damn, Framemaker isn't there :(
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
What is this Adobe thing on my computer? I see updates for it more than I use it!
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
It'll be interesting to see if they've introduced enough new features since cs2 to make people want to upgrade and what those costs will be, an upgrade is A LOT cheaper than a full version, but... they'd be losing money upgrading from free cs2 to upgrade version of cs5.
I'm thinking only advanced users can really benefit from the upgrade as I remember cs2 and it had most of the basic features found in today's cs5.
Claim billions in losses and sue the shit out of some random 14-year-old. At least that's what I'd do.
-- Dodd
...you accept that hundreds of thousands of people now have free access to seven year old Adobe CS2 products, and try to encourage some of them to 'upgrade to the new CS6 products'.
Yes. And fire the guy/firm who made the website publically visible.
Sorry Adobe, one of your guys or contractors fucked up and now you gotta eat it. But if the above posts are true about it being just for old Macs (pre-Intel), then there isn't much lost, is there?
OTOH, whoever is at fault for this has got to go. And if it was some web firm doing for you, then they have to go because obviously they can't control the project or their people.
It's like a free pile of shit. Sure it's free. But yeah. Still shit.
I could go pirate any adobe product they have ever made. But i don't.
Preempting my install fun when I get home I looked this up. I post here to help the lazy. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_programs/windows-7-is-not-compatible-with-adobe-photoshop/6f1b4955-7166-4b8f-ad9b-5d19150f803f
between having Acrobat Standard and Gimp, I really dont have any use for the software. It would be nice if more companies opened up their legacy software to be free after so many years. People in industry are gonna use the latest anyway due to service contracts.
Adobe has run out of compelling new features to add their main line of products. Sure, there are new bells and whistles in every new release of Photoshop and Illustrator, but the CS2 versions (and even a couple versions back from that) will let you achieve the same results as the CS6 results, just maybe with a little more work. It's not their fault, really; it's the quandary of having a mature set of products. So pretty the main reason anyone upgrades these apps anymore is because they no longer work (or work quite right) on the latest operating systems from Apple and Microsoft (e.g. CS2 for OS X is PPC-only and requires Rosetta, which has been discontinued). That's part of why Adobe (like Microsoft, which is in the same boat with Office) is pushing for a subscription model for their software (rent it by the month) rather than the traditional buy-it-once approach.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
This is from a company that can't handle case sensitive filesystems. I tried installing Adobe PS and Premiere Elements on a case sensitive Mac and it wouldn't work - installed but never ran. Ended up installing it on a separate filesystem. I later ended up getting a newer version, they had "Fixed" it, the installer would pop up a window refusing to install the software on case sensitive filesystems. How hard would it be to clean up the code? A few lookup tables somewhere with file names? A few hours work? I have no respect for Adobe.
As much as people lambast MS, Adobe for "costly" software, they did not pursue end users for piracy, which is a good thing for the companies as it helped develop a userbase.
But some users have a moral issue when using pirated software. Many of them move on to use FOSS products. FOSS software is great, but development on many is slow due to monetary issues. For-profit companies giving away older versions of their software for free will help cover this base of users who will not pirate and cannot pay for the latest software.
(This might have been a PR exercise or an accident and the products might not be meant for use by everyone thus negating my premise but the point still holds)
If it was a real problem, they would have at least pulled the download links. However, a day later, you can still download everything. Obviously, not a mistake.
I downloaded it, but will not be installing it. Why? I have a legal version of CS3/CS4 and obviously I don't need CS2.
But I downloaded just-in-case Adobe goes "whoops sorry folks this isn't free" and removes the page. I'm more interested in having software that can be installed into a VM without having to do the activate-deactivate hassle for doing video tutorials.
I've been following the events closely and was trying to figure out how this will affect the industry. What has gone down is clearly a goof, not a marketing plan. Some say that it will help sales of CS5/6; others say it will hurt them. My best estimate is that the net effect on CS5/6 sales will be close to zero. However, as parent stated, if Adobe doesn't walk back their "permission" to use CS2, they have effectively killed off Elements. PS has the much higher price tag, but I'm sure that Adobe makes much more money off of Elements due to volume.
Elements: dead
Paint.net: dead
GIMP: dead on Windows
any other photo-editing software already struggling to survive: dead
Aside from PS, the other big release was Acrobat 8 Pro. This is really bad for Adobe, too, as there are no free, _usable_ tools for creating PDFs. Acrobat 8 Pro has everything most people would need to create PDFs, so this particular goof will definitely hurts sales of the modern version.
Adobe is between a rock and a hard spot: kill major sources of revenue or take on a PR nightmare. If I were them, I think I'd take on the PR nightmare instead of losing Elements and Acrobat. Let's see how this plays out.
If you need some legal photo editing software at your company, but it's not justifiable to buy Photoshop, you can now use this old version for free. That kills the competition with cheaper products. And if at some point you need something more powerful than this old version, you're probably going to buy a new version of PhotoShop instead of learning to use a new software.
Premiere and Encore were not added to the CS Suite until CS3. Dreamweaver and Acrobat were not added to CS until 2.3. No After Effects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_CS#History No 64 bit support or GPU support. So they are pretty much giving away 7 year old versions of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign? Sounds good to me - create some brand loyalty for your products. I say Adobe's PR department should just let this one slide.
GIMP is really great on both Linux, Mac and Windows. It takes some time getting used to, but it's a great software package.
Slowly?? I've just tried it, and it doesn't seem to be slow at all under OS X 10.6. I have used Illustrator CS2 since ancient times under VMWare Fusion anyway, so this was just to try out how the more native version works -- seems perfectly usable.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Wow! Free Adobe Creative Suite. CS2 is a bit old, but it still very usable. A couple years ago I would be tempted, but these days I'm a happy user of GIMP and Inkscape. Downloading free Adobe stuff. . . . nah, not worth the effort.
As of 2:00pm EST it seems the links are still available. I even downloaded and installed the programs to see if they actually work, and they do (only tested Acrobat Pro). Anyway, I have uninstalled it seeing as how I only use Adobe's products to read PDF files, and there are newer versions with security updates via their free Reader.
Well, no, it couldn't. Some forms of intellectual property have some kind of protect-it-or-lose-it rules (trademarks and patents both have rules that fall under that broad umbrella), but copyright doesn't. Copyright is automatic on creation and for the full duration that applies based on the form of creation, whether or not you actively protect it.
The EULA gives you the license in paragraph 2 (see above). And it states that if you obtained it from Adobe, you are given a license to use it.
If you've downloaded the software from Adobe's site, I think you're in the clear.
Disclaimer: 1) I'm not a lawyer nor do I want to be one; 2) I've have a legit version of (parts of) CS6, so I have no horse in this race.
Providing an activation-free copy, but requiring validation with their key and ID, isn't really activation-free, its just moving the activation to a different medium. Redundancy department of redundancy. The only way to cut out the activation server without requiring another form of authentication was to do what they're doing.
It seems to me this is just a variation on Adobe's old marketing strategy of releasing some of the most easily cracked software products back in the '90s.
Most people I know that use fully licensed Adobe products professionally, learned how to use them on the freely available pirate versions available from a wide variety of sources.
Step
1. Buy Magazine with 30 day trial of PS 5.5, Illustrator, Pagemaker, etc.
2. find serial online after 30days
3. Learn how to used it and switch form Print paste up to DTP
4. Buy legal versions after newer, shiner, cooler versions are released.
I would disable PDF support in your browsers unless you want a million trojans on a weekly basis and use Foxit.
Adobe does not update products these old and wants you to get hacked so they can sell you $299 version that you do not need instead. That and Java drive me crazy and keep my busy when I work in a corporate clients office. Lots and lots of infections and costs add up more than the cost to upgrade fast but the cost accountants do not see that. Only savings.
http://saveie6.com/
Adobe had priced its tools for professionals only because only a professional could possible afford to spend several thousand dollars for a personal software suite. This is a tremendous boon to Adobe and they'd be insane not to capitalize on it. Tens of thousands of people download OLD software and becoming skilled at its use will hunger for the features of the newer versions. If they would also allow these new owners to become part of the Adobe family for a reasonable upgrade price understanding that they got here by free introduction, Adobe could be looking at a huge explosion of interest in its products and a whole new community of users. At a time when companies like Adobe are getting killed by smaller software developers selling less expensive tools to get the job done, this could be a fantastic way to "Shake off the fleas". Even better, because it was an accident "wink, wink", they can't be poked for noncompetitive practices.
For Adobe who isn't selling CS2 to anyone any more, here's a chance to get great consumer acceptance and press, hook a whole new population of fish, and put the squeeze on their competition all at the same time. If it wasn't done on purpose it was a lucky accident, and if it was done on purpose somebody should be promoted to one of the corner offices... he's a sly dog that should be included in a lot more decision making. Kudos, this is either a very bright move or a fortuitous accident, either way, hang on and enjoy the ride!
Blender has had its UI completely redesigned. I think it's one of the best designed in any kind of 3D software now.
I use sumatra to view pdf's (just wanted to try a different one that foxit and have never been given a reason to try another one). I only need acrobat to make minor changes to pdf's generated internally. And I really don't absolutely need it for that. That was just the one I could justify trying out.
and it's the user's fault and not the program's.
I've used GIMP until it was "usable". Just like Open Office, I had to download and install convoluted plugins or find obtuse import/ export workarounds until my productivity plummeted. In PS, I can pick/ match spot colors or turn to CMYK with no problems. I'm always confident the receiving end will be able to open or import my assets into other industry standard programs (Quark, InDesign, 3DS Max, Maya, etc)
Professionally, I'd never use those free tools again - at least in the art dept. I'm all for linux and whatnot for the backend server and scripts, but as an artist I'm expected to create art instead of wrestling with the computer's internals to make something work; just as you wouldn't expect the professional F1 driver to change tires or tweak the engine settings - he has engineers for support.
GIMP sucks, IMHO. But if you're stuck in a linux environment, it does its job like an etch-a-sketch.
I'm still using Photoshop CS3 (version 10), which I only upgraded because Photoshop 7 was so seriously out of date that it would not work on my new computer. I did download Photoshop CS6 when it was in Beta and I do like many of the capabilities of it, but nothing there was make or break for me.
I am using Dreamweaver CS 5.5 because it actually does more. I can see how web pages will look on iOS as well as Android smartphones. I also can work much more easily with HTML5 and CSS3. It also does a lot better work checking my php and JavaScript. So that upgrade was actually useful. I am very pleased with the fact that I have not paid every one to two years for the upgrades, which would have cost a lot more than simply buying new versions as I really needed to upgrade.
Adobe's upgrade policy, until December, was that if anyone still owned CS3 applications they would have to pay full price and get new software. They have since modified that stance because someone who is really smart must have told them that the upgrade path is an actual incentive.
Adobe's correct stance should be crystal clear: They ought to offer an upgrade path from the CS2 applications that is time-limited. There are always people who are going to buy gray-market or "used" software who will never pay what Adobe wants and never properly register their software. But there are people who may well be very attracted by an upgrade path.
Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.
For example Serif gives away software that is a couple versions old here http://www.serif.com/FreeDownloads/
I think they also have a discount on buying older versions too. I even purchased a copy of drawplus a couple years ago because I liked some of its functionality and it was just a few $.
Well you are smarter than 90% of the people who run old Adobe in corps. I wish their IT departments would see that if they are cheap and refuse to upgrade. I heard good things with Sumatra but like you I see no reason to change as well. :-)
As long as they are secure.
http://saveie6.com/
Wow. CS2, for free? They're *current* products are buggy as hell. Their legacy vulns make MS look rock solid by comparison. Caveat emptor, man.
Anyone who is doing any serious work with XSL-FO and PDF needs at least Acrobat Pro X. I think CS2 came with Pro 8 which doesn't work well.
Not downloading this until it's legit.
My PS7 from 2002 must be SOOOO dead. Except for RAW development it does the rest for me. I tired GIMP on Linux but for the last 11 years I'm so used to the old PS7 UI I can't get over it.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Sadly the Adobe product is a default install on the work PCs, and it took me ages to sabotage the Adobe Pro installation to stop that breaking things even more.
At home I use LibreOffice to create PDFs and Sumatra to view them. At home and work I disable PDF viewing within the browser, because.. it's just not needed.
Trying to parse the triple-negative reply.
I'm thinking http://warez.adobe.com/ could host this.
im in ur pngs
rooting ur fotoshops
Perfect Potential for the OLD gdi exploit again.
I'd be checking
https://isc.sans.edu/tools/gdiscan.html
for old versions of this file "gdiplus.dll" being installed
There's a couple other files IIRC like for .bmp and targa you need to MOVE..
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb07-13.html
There's a .png one too, but I be damned where the fix is
http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/3812/
get them here: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/collection.jsp?collID=1&platform=Windows
Adobe's been getting really bad about allowing older versions of CS to open files created in CS5 and CS6. Indesign has always been a problem, but now that you can't open an .ai that was created in CS6 without explicitly savings it for older versions? Give me a break, Adobe. Handing out CS2 is only going to make people pirate CS6 faster, anyway.
Though I have to say thank you for letting Photoshop CS5 paste in place. Indesign and Illustrator have only had that feature since the dawn of time.
http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2013/01/update-on-cs2-and-acrobat-7-activation-servers.html
"Effective December 13, Adobe disabled the activation server for CS2 products and Acrobat 7 because of a technical glitch. These products were released over 7 years ago and do not run on many modern operating systems. But to ensure that any customers activating those old versions can continue to use their software, we issued a serial number directly to those customers. While this might be interpreted as Adobe giving away software for free, we did it to help our customers."
It's rather fascinating and somewhat indicative of a completely dysfunctional company. It reads almost like the head of support wrote an apologetic explanation that tried to downplay the issue a bit to the rest of the execs who then didn't quite understand the issue itself or the gravity of it. The solution, obviously, was to then just forward it directly to PR who then faithfully published it letter for letter. Wow.
... you hate running pirated software, but not enough to actually spend money on something that's useful to you? Please tell me what software you've written so I can pirate it. Or give me your wife's phone number so I can organise sex with her. I'm sure your mindset allows that, yes?
... since Win8 is the next ME/Vista :-)
Am I the only one that is bothered when a URL contains index.html (or equivilent) at the end? Remove it and the link still works; so why include it?
At the high price that Adobe products typically are, there were simply a lot of people that weren't going to buy them especially since for many, Adobe products are "overkill" anyway. IMHO, free CS2 does more damage to the environment of Adobe workinsteads like Roxio products and others. To argue that the free releases cost Adobe $$$ makes the assumption that each download represents a lost sale. Free CS2 is cheap enough to bootstrap the student with an interest, the starving artist with a vision, and the underfunded entrepeneur with a dream... any of whom, if able to turn a profit would probably gladly pay for upgraded versions to get the level of support that they would probably prefer.
I don't think Adobe is losing anything. If you are the kind of user that will take the free download and never upgrade, I doubt that you would have ever paid full price for any of their products. You'd have bought a workinstead or used a pirated version. Putting their products in the hands of as many people as possible only enhances their position by cementing them that much more as the standard for media creation tools.
Looks like Adobe has pulled the page. It now redirects to the CS family page.
http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2013/01/update-on-cs2-and-acrobat-7-activation-servers.html
"Update on CS2 and Acrobat 7 Activation Servers
POSTED BY ADOBE CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS ON JANUARY 7, 2013 4:05 PM IN CREATIVES, DIGITAL MEDIA
Effective December 13, Adobe disabled the activation server for CS2 products and Acrobat 7 because of a technical glitch. These products were released over 7 years ago and do not run on many modern operating systems. But to ensure that any customers activating those old versions can continue to use their software, we issued a serial number directly to those customers. While this might be interpreted as Adobe giving away software for free, we did it to help our customers."
Thanks for the link. I have some really ancient versions of these apps that I bought before electricity (literally, I think they run in DOS)... will be interesting to check out newer versions.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Once all those "free" copies are downloaded Adobe can not only make money by offering upgrade pricing... but can write off the fair market value of each and every registered copy as "advertising cost"
Someone could get a big bonus this year if they spin it right!