During the last months my computer crashed several times in a row. Each and every time I had to reformat my hard drive and re-install all software. My boot sector got messed up every time and I couldn’t figure out how to repair it. It was very frustrating and I kept replacing parts until I finally got what I believe is a stable system (but who knows, its still running Windows).
When I tried to install Photoshop CS3 the last time, I got an ominous message that I had too many installations and needed to deactivate the software on another computer. What other computer?
After several tries I gave up and called Adobe. The lady on the other end was very friendly and forthcoming. I explained my situation and she walked me through a manual (phone) activation without any problems.
I asked her if Adobe could kindly wipe all my installation records from their licensing servers. After all, I had no computer with Photoshop installed except the one I was trying to install to. According to her there is no way to do this. As if I would believe that.
Anyways, Photoshop runs now, but I will have to call them each time when I need to transfer the activation or my computer crashes again! I feel that an honest person shelling out $650 for a piece of software should be treated as such and not like a criminal trying to steal something.
Basically that means Adobe is not in the business of selling software but rather renting it. If they go out of business or decide to drop activation support, you can forget your software.
Despite all the wonderful new features making this software so desirable for me (yes it really rocks), I am going to think twice about an upgrade. I will rather donate my upgrade money to the Gimp project and hope they will support all the cool stuff one day. Or maybe keep all the money and buy a cool lens or a plane ticket. At least a lens will not need activation by todays standards and a plane ride gets me somewhere nice.
