Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Adobe's Strange Software Giveaway: Goof, Or Clever Marketing?

Posted by timothy on from the all-leaks-look-like-plants dept.

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'?"

13 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. Goof. by Bieeanda · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://forums.adobe.com/message/4974662#4974662

    It's 'free' for people with currently active subscriptions to the product, not every Tom, Dale, and Hates the Gimp, alas.

    1. Re:Goof. by omnichad · · Score: 5, Informative

      From the EULA:
      "2. Software License. If you obtained the Software from Adobe or one of its authorized licensees and as long as you comply with the terms of this agreement, Adobe grants you a non-exclusive license to use the Software in the manner and for the purposes described in the Documentation, as further set forth below."

      There was an official Adobe download page that also lists all the serial numbers, and makes no mention of any other terms on that page. I'd say that satisfies the above term.

      And now, you don't even need an Adobe ID to download - they've since removed even that restriction.

    2. Re:Goof. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Their online discussion now says:
      "36. Community Admin,
      Jan 7, 2013 5:52 PM
      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."

      I say they did it to bump up the price of second-hand PowerPC hardware,
      thank them for the suggested interpretation,
      and let's party like it's 1999

  2. Re:Uhhhh.... by thirdender · · Score: 5, Informative

    +1 VMs. Also, Wine has pretty decent support for Photoshop CS2.

  3. Re:The latter. by jest3r · · Score: 1, Informative

    I'd say they have high piracy because after you purchase your first upgrade you realize Adobe's ripping you off ... and you don't want to keep giving them money for new version which basically amount to bug fixes.

    - I remember Photoshop CS ... mostly how buggy it was ...
    - Then getting excited about upgrading to CS2 ...
    - After upgrading to CS2 realizing it did not offer anything new really ... smart objects but not much else compared to CS ...
    - Mucho money spent over multiple version with only minor incremental upgrades and mostly bug fixes each time.

    Photoshop CS3 was a worthy upgrade but only for speed and stability (again not many new features). So even with CS3 you were basically paying for bug fixes.
    Anyhow CS3 was the last good version of Photoshop as far as I am concerned. Everything since then has been MEH.

  4. Windows 7 64bit by ciderbrew · · Score: 3, Informative

    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

  5. Re:So do they work or not? by omnichad · · Score: 3, Informative

    They turned off the activation servers, and had to release an activation-free copy of the software to continue supporting original purchasers of CS2. The proper thing to do. It's just that they accidentally made the download links available to everyone.

  6. Re:If they are smart... by denis-The-menace · · Score: 4, Informative

    Activation servers only come into play with CS4 and above.

    --
    Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
  7. Re:The latter. by tibit · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's "horrible" only because you're not used to it. That's all, IMHO.

    --
    A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
  8. Re:If they are smart... by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Informative
    Dang...looks like the mac version are only pre-Intel.

    Wondering if the win version would work on a mac running windows on VMWare?

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  9. Re:How will this affect the industry? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The most recent GIMP release lacks important high-end photography features that even ancient CS2 has: native high bit depths, layer groups, and proper blending modes. Full GEGL support will bring these features to GIMP 2.10, but GIMP developers have a habit of rarely communicating their release schedules to the public, and also a habit of missing release dates. I'd be very surprised if 2.10 is released this year.

  10. Re:How will this affect the industry? by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Informative

    > The most recent GIMP release lacks important high-end photography features that even ancient CS2 has:

    I concur 100%! I have a .PSD file I created back in ~2006 and sadly GIMP 2.8 _still_ can't open it properly. Every year it gets a little closer though!

    GIMP 2.8 is still incomplete / broken WRT:

    * nested layer groups is partially broken - doesn't show Layer Effects as sub-groups
    * no native Layer Styles (FX Blend Modes) - they still don't properly work when loading a .PSD file that uses them
        see: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-789ba.html
    * no native option to set the default hotkeys to Photoshop
    * stupid English name

    Note: While GIMP has a layer blend modes that PS lacks, namely: Subtraction, Grain Merge, Grain Extract, Value) that is not the same as the Layer Styles.

    Basically this page lists all the ways that GIMP functionality is lacking compared to PS.
    http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/03/8-handy-tweaks-to-make-gimp-replace-photoshop/

    The fact that you GIMP doesn't work out-of-the-box the same way PS does and you need half a dozen plugins to get the equivalent functionality already built into PS CS2 tells me that GIMP is still immature.

    Hoping one day GIMP will become a viable PS replacement.

    References:
    Blending Modes supported in PS and GIMP
    * http://emptyeasel.com/2008/10/31/explaining-blending-modes-in-photoshop-and-gimp-multiply-divide-overlay-screen/

  11. Re:How will this affect the industry? by Dins · · Score: 3, Informative

    I just downloaded and installed Photoshop from the link with TFA and it works fine on win 7 x64.