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You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

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Re: You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

#381
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve noticed a few companies seemingly pricing things higher than you’d think was sensible (the one that struck me recently is Contentful, who’s pricing tiers quickly jump up to “far too expensive for a small company”)... my assumption is they’ve made a decision that they are better served going after the customers who can pay more and leaving the rest to the competitors. I guess maybe this is based on projections ab…

Affinity Designer is my best purchase this year. I don't need to use my graphics editor every single week or month, and it does not make any sense to pay Adobe on a subscription basis.

Same. But I switched because I felt that Adobe got very abusive with customers that paid for a $2,000 and had the misfortune of having a serial number tied up in a crashed machine that wasn't deactivated. The interrogations and scoldings were ridiculous. The lack of an online deactivation instead of having to call every time was annoying as hell too. For a company like that, the subscription model was a "no deal" because then they'd have zero incentive to improve. I don't miss Adobe at all.

Re: You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For CS2, they offered Activation-free replacement installers and generic serial numbers on their support page. This is the only reasonable way it should be done with old software. > This resulted in a bunch of press about it being a omg completely free Creative Suite Just write it in bold - something like "it's not free, you are only eligible if you have purchased a license". Whoever wants to pirate will pirate any…

We're talking about CS4 here: Flash was basically THE way to build UI back then. I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the motivating factors for Adobe buying out Macromedia (aside from just quashing potential competition from Macromedia Studio). Hell, a lot of high-budget video games around the same time used a little thing called Autodesk Scaleform. That's basically Autodesk's reimplementation of Flash Player (A…

THE way to build a UI that worked and looked consistently across platforms at the time as well. It was a great time! Even now it still takes some work to achieve the same!

Re: You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

#383

I discovered this at the start of lockdown when our hackspace got donated some older iMacs and full copies of CS3. Apparently if you got in contact with them when they first announced the retirement they were giving out activation-free installers to people who could prove ownership. It'd be lovely if someone has these archived somewhere for those of us that weren't quick enough.

It will really appreciate if someone has the same but for Windows install. I help a very poor shop and we had the same problem so we are using activators as Adobe won't help anymore.

Re: You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

#384
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Affinity Designer is my best purchase this year. I don't need to use my graphics editor every single week or month, and it does not make any sense to pay Adobe on a subscription basis.

Affinity looks like the most promising replacement for Adobe applications like Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. The Affinity applications get a lot of things right, and do some things better than Adobe already. And obviously the pricing and permanent sale model are much more attractive than Adobe's subscription model. They do also have some almost unbelievable limitations, where what you'd expect to be entry-leve…

>They do also have some almost unbelievable limitations, where what you'd expect to be entry-level functionality simply doesn't exist

Are there any specific examples that come to mind? I recently heard about Afinity and am planning to give it a try next time I need a Photoshop or Illustrator replacement.

Re: You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

#385
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about a replacement for Adobe Acrobat Pro on (Windows)? That is the one app that keeps me having a Creative Cloud subscription. In a business setting I find it essential.

have you looked at foxitPDF ? this is a comparison table from Foxit's site against Acrobat Pro: https://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf-editor/adobe-acrobat-alter... (not associated with Foxit in any way shape or form nor a user)

I recently switched from Foxit to PDF-XChange and I'm enjoying it so far https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-editor

Re: You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you looked at foxitPDF ? this is a comparison table from Foxit's site against Acrobat Pro: https://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf-editor/adobe-acrobat-alter... (not associated with Foxit in any way shape or form nor a user)

Be careful with Foxit software, though. They have a history of doing some very unsavoury things. Their Wikipedia page has some details for those interested.

Do you have a specific link? Their Wikipedia page is pretty short and I don't see anything notable in there.

Re: You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

#387
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? To give just one example, if I press cmd-T in PS, I go into an editing mode where I can translate, rotate, and scale a layer with intuitive, contextual mouse controls for each. With GIMP it's broken up into separate commands. I didn't spend so much time with it, but with PS things got guessable very quickly, where with GIMP it felt like the features are just stuffed in there wherever they can fit.

That proves the point, you simply don't know how to use Gimp yet. It is called "Unified Transform", available on the default toolbar or by pressing "shift-t". So the difference is literally pressing shift instead of control, a trivial difference by any standard, and reconfigurable as well.

Yes it does prove the point. So if I look at these docs[0], this tool, not only does it do translate/rotate/scale, which are the most fundamental image transformations in 2D editing, but it also does shearing and perspective transformations which are rarely used by comparison. This tool was clearly designed from an implementation-driven perspective (just put all the affine transformations in one place) rather than a UX driven perspective (no designer places these tools together conceptually).

On top of that, this tool still sits along side other single purpose tools for scaling and rotating, which are the first results if you search "how to rotate in GIMP", so why should I even expect this tool to exist?

This is not intuitive UX which is "trivially different" to PS, this is a mess which can only be learned through laborious trial and error, or reading the documentation like a book.

[0]:https://docs.gimp.org/2.10/en/gimp-tool-unified-transform.ht...

Re: You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

#388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be careful with Foxit software, though. They have a history of doing some very unsavoury things. Their Wikipedia page has some details for those interested.

Do you have a specific link? Their Wikipedia page is pretty short and I don't see anything notable in there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxit_Reader#Issues

Re: You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

#389
post #49

There are special no-activation-required versions of the entire CS2 and CS3 product line! Adobe killed the product activation servers for CS2 products in 2013, and for CS3 products in 2017. For CS2, they offered Activation-free replacement installers and generic serial numbers on their support page. This resulted in a bunch of press[0] about it being a /!\ omg completely free Creative Suite /!\, so for CS3's 2017 shu…

> For CS2, they offered Activation-free replacement installers and generic serial numbers on their support page. This is the only reasonable way it should be done with old software. > This resulted in a bunch of press about it being a omg completely free Creative Suite Just write it in bold - something like "it's not free, you are only eligible if you have purchased a license". Whoever wants to pirate will pirate any…

Flash is cool and very good at certain things. I just prefer a more native-feeling UI.

Re: You can no longer reinstall CS 2 or 3 even if you have the original disks

#390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a specific link? Their Wikipedia page is pretty short and I don't see anything notable in there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxit_Reader#Issues

Ah, my bad. I was reading the page for the company not the product.
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