Quote from: CRKrueger;616104It's a marketing ploy.

The servers are still up, you can still download the software for free, you can use the serial number, however, you can't do it legally without a license (even though there is no way to stop you from doing it illegally).

Basically Adobe is providing software for free without "legally providing software for free", ie. getting people to use older Adobe products instead of the host of free tools and cheaper competitors that have been steadily eroding Adobe's marketshare.  It's an advertising campaign in an attempt to gain marketshare.

It's working.

Outside of games and OSes, back in the 90s Adobe products were the most pirated things I ever saw.  More than Office or any other apps.

(that I saw; certainly I didn't move in all programming circles)

if you get the registration window with CS2 every time you start, (even though you click do not register) run once as administrator and click it one more time. it should go away

It asked for disk 2 from me. Do the exe files need extracting, somehow, first? Burning to disc?

Quote from: APN;616529It asked for disk 2 from me. Do the exe files need extracting, somehow, first? Burning to disc?

If you are talking about installing the Creative Suite as a whole, I would suspect that you would have to run all three of the exe files before trying to install; the exe files seem to be just executable zips.

For example, the Acrobat Pro 8 exe installed a directory called Acrobat8 and then extracted the installation files. It then installed the program from those files to another directory called Acrobat 8.0. I think the original Acrobat8 directory could then be deleted.

But I did not try to install the full Creative Suite so I could be talking out of my butt.

I am having trouble with the CS2 install. The install pdf talks about finding the diskss in folder the unzip creates, but I'm not seeing anything like that there, so when the install asks for disck 2 I have no idea where to point it.

Meh, just ended up installing each component separately. I used CS2 when I was a pro photog. It's actually nice to see it again. Been using GIMP so long I've forgotten how good even older PS is. Kicks the heck out of Elements too, even though for what it is Elements isn't that bad either. I just can't do without Curves anymore, use it on pretty much every image. Still a combo of GIMP with Faststone and either UFRaw or RawTherapee works great on windows machines and combined with Inkscape for Windows they can be used to make some dang good maps from what I've seen. Can also get Krita for Windows, which is nice too. I sprang for the top-shelf Art Rage and LOVE it. I can hand-draw maps with my Wacom on the computer. I'll try to sketch out a quick one to show off this weekend.

I still have Photoshop Elements 2.0 on my machine (don't laugh, people) and it works fine for my maps. Honestly.

Quote from: Benoist;616979I still have Photoshop Elements 2.0 on my machine (don't laugh, people) and it works fine for my maps. Honestly.

I believe you. I upgrade mainly because I use the software for digital photography, some of which I get paid for, so I like to have the biggest and bestest toolbox I can get. For maps I'm currently, and slowly (due to a too full plate irl) practicing with Hexographer and Dungeonographer. I'm really digging Art Rage though. Fantastic software.

So people know, there is the free and open source software Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/) that works great for mapping. It is vector graphic drawing program and has 95% of the features that I use in CorelDRAW to draw my maps with. The main missing one, symbol management, is due to be added in the next major release.

Unless you just have a real hard-on to work with PhotoShop, Paint.net does everything PhotoShop does and is free.

http://www.getpaint.net/

I work with PhotoShop quite a bit with work (I'm a photojournalist) and at home I work with Paint.net. I don't really see a great divide between the two.

I've never got a good handle on GIMP, that program has a terrible interface, IMO.

Quote from: Kaz;617012Unless you just have a real hard-on to work with PhotoShop, Paint.net does everything PhotoShop does and is free.

http://www.getpaint.net/

I work with PhotoShop quite a bit with work (I'm a photojournalist) and at home I work with Paint.net. I don't really see a great divide between the two.

Does it do the same basic things with layers and so on?

Quote from: estar;617004So people know, there is the free and open source software Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/) that works great for mapping. It is vector graphic drawing program and has 95% of the features that I use in CorelDRAW to draw my maps with. The main missing one, symbol management, is due to be added in the next major release.

What does inkscape do that stuff like GIMP, Photoshop, Paint.net etc don't? How would that benefit my maps, with the caveat that I work first by hand then scan the hand-drawn maps and edit them on the computer after?

Quote from: Benoist;617017Does it do the same basic things with layers and so on?

Yeah, for basis stuff, it's really good. Does layers, adjustments, all that. It doesn't have the Masks capabilities PS has, but otherwise a very strong photo editor.

Give it a look, I mean, it's free!

Quote from: Kaz;617012Unless you just have a real hard-on to work with PhotoShop, Paint.net does everything PhotoShop does and is free.

http://www.getpaint.net/

I work with PhotoShop quite a bit with work (I'm a photojournalist) and at home I work with Paint.net. I don't really see a great divide between the two.

I've never got a good handle on GIMP, that program has a terrible interface, IMO.

There's also a plug in floating around that allows you to import .psd files into Paint.net.  It's like MS Paint on steroids in terms of ease of use and user friendliness.