FREE Photoshop.....OR MAYBE NOT? *Update*

Jimmy_Lemon

Jimmy_Lemon

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Pretty sure this is legit, but the Adobe site is being hammered so hard I am struggling to find out.

But it seems Adobe are giving away the Creative Suite CS2 (so not that new) but it includes Photoshop!

You can see more details here - http://www.hotukdeals.com/freebies/adobe-cs2-creative-suite-free-1437132

EDIT - Please note, Adobe now appear to be stating you need to have an existing CS2 license to use this software, see here for more details http://forums.adobe.com/message/4974775#4974775
 
Finally managed to login and got me a load of serial numbers for all the CS2 suite produces, so seems it is legit :D
 
Thanks! Just signed up and i will download this when i get in.

Even if it is old software its spot on for what i need it for!
 
Is elements 5.0 too old for me to use now?

Scratch that got confused
 
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Can't argue with that... Though I suspect that in comparison to the latest versions of everything CS#, people might find them all rather primitive?
 
Woodsy said:
Can't argue with that... Though I suspect that in comparison to the latest versions of everything CS#, people might find them all rather primitive?
Click to expand...

Can't be any more primitive than Gimp :LOL:
 
Its just got to be better than nothing.

Thanks for the link, slow but got what i wanted in the end.
 
Ross2 said:
i guess you cant upgrade from this version?
Click to expand...

Good question. If you download CS2, can you just pay for the upgrade version of CS6? :naughty:
 
I think that this is technically not free?

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4919014#4919014#4919014?sdid=KCHDS

Adobe have released a version that doesn't require activation as they have shut down the servers for CS2 and a suite of other software.

the download is their standard download and a serial has been posted that doesn't need activation?

Please update if I have misunderstood.
 
Buck said:
I think that this is technically not free?

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4919014#4919014#4919014?sdid=KCHDS

Adobe have released a version that doesn't require activation as they have shut down the servers for CS2 and a suite of other software.

the download is their standard download and a serial has been posted that doesn't need activation?

Please update if I have misunderstood.
Click to expand...

Well I can't find any mention anywhere of having to pay for it. They're just letting everyone download a now unsupported version of the software from their site and dishing out a generic serial number to allow it to work.
 
It's all a mistake.

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4974775#4974775

"On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated ...

You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!

What is true is that Adobe is terminating the activation servers for CS2 and that for existing licensed users of CS2 who need to reinstall their software, copies of CS2 that don't require activation but do require valid serial numbers are available. (Special serial numbers are provided on the page for each product download.) See .

You are only legally entitled to download and install with that serial number if you have a valid license to the product!

- Dov"

"Special serial numbers that work with these downloads are included on the download page.

However, please note that you are only legally entitled to download and install with that serial number if you already have a valid license to the product!

- Dov"

Quite what they're going to do now that this has gone viral remains to be seen.
 
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Hmmm....I'm suspicious Darren.

I'm wondering if this is all a marketing strategy.

Someone told me years ago, I've no way of knowing if it's true, that Adobe made sure the first releases of PS could be downloaded for free while maintaining it was illegal to do so.

Apparently it was all part of establishing a market presence.
 
I was told that about 3ds Max when I asked about student versions at university (i.e. just pirate it because Autodesk are happy with you doing that as it hooks you on their software). While it certainly makes sense I don't see any reason to believe it's anything other than something made up to justify piracy, I've certainly heard much thinner excuses.

But as I say I don't see what they can do about it now, it's all over some seriously big news sites and the if the whole point of the serials is that the activation server is off they can hardly stop people activating it. They can take the serials down but they're "out there" too now along with direct download links.

Personally I'm going to wait and see what they do, I wouldn't have pirated the software so I'm not going to use these keys if I'm not supposed to and I don't want to do anything that has the slightest change of affecting my legally owned Adobe software.
 
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New staff posts on the Adobe forum:

"Terri Stone" (Rank - Staff):
"I don't think you have to worry about Adobe coming after you for this, [User asking wuestion about comeback for using the serials without an original license].
As soon as our execs have approved an official statement on this issue, I or another Adobe staffer will post it here."

Newer post than the above, by "Community Admin" (Rank - Staff):
"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."

Those are from this thread - http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1130893


The later post is being repeated in various threads on the subject which suggests they're trying to tell people not to use it.

The download page is back up now with the same serials, you'd think they'd add a bit of text clarifying what it's for but they haven't.
 
All publicity is good publicity, and perhaps they are hoping the people that cannot get it to work, buy a more up to date version?
 
I agree; it wasn't exactly clear what Adobe were up to, so no wonder people got carried away. Good find for people with pre-2006 Macs or XP machines though.
 
It's being reported as working fine on Windows 7 and with some tweaks on 8. I gather it flat out doesn't work on newer Macs.

I run much older software than CS2 on my Windows 7 PC so I see no reason CS2 wouldn't work, it's odd that Adobe's line is that it doesn't work on newer systems when it so clearly does. In fact I recently upgraded from XP x64 to 7 x64 (on the same hardware) and there wasn't a single thing that I lost in the transition, even all the old hardware has working drivers.
The only thing I thought might not transfer well was PS CS3 because some people had had problems but that worked fine too.

I've just noticed the only things on the download page are the links, the serials, some system requirements and an advert for Creative Cloud. I suppose they can be happy that advert has seen some serious traffic.
 
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DazJW said:
I gather it flat out doesn't work on newer Macs.
Click to expand...

Yes, as has been said, only works on Macs using the old Motorola PowerPC chipsets, which Apple dumped in favour of Intel in 2006.
 
So here's another twist. Yesterday people were saying you needed an account (it auto signed in to mine so I didn't check myself) but today you don't need one to see the page. So despite what staff are saying on the forums the people running the website have made it even easier to get at.

Some people are also concluding that the license terms you get during install say that if you get the key from Adobe you're meeting the terms and as such should be able to use it anyway.

It looks like some sort of intentional leak that they won't admit to but don't want to stop either. Very odd.
 
Just downloaded CS2 for my window XP machine, website was down yesterday, but up today, seem to be no issue, although AVG found 2 spyware files, not sure if part of download.

Had CS1, so free upgrade and my plugin's seem to work without issues, time will tell.
 
Does anyone know how the features/functionalities of Photoshop CS2 (fully featured but very old) compares to something like Elements 11 or 12 (cut down features but much more recent) - I'm thinking that many of the features from PS from 7 years ago have probably made it into Elements by now?
 
I take it there is no RAW plugin available for newish cameras, such as my D5100?

Unfortunately Elements 9 that I already have doesn't either. :(
 
No, but I believe Photoshop CS2 supports DNG files? If that's the case you can use Adobe's free DNG converter to convert the D5100 files to DNG, then process them in CS2 (or even Elements 9).
 
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