No, I’m not kidding. Adobe is no longer able to (or that bothered with being able to) afford its activation server for the older version of its Creative Suite software, CS2. In simpler terms, it means that the company is making the full suite of programmes available for download and use without having to pay. You can download the full suite, or individual programmes here. This suite includes Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro, to name the big ones.
If you’ve been wanting to get your hands on a creative digital package but just can’t fork out the kind of money required, this is an opportunity! While the Creative Suite has come a long way since CS2, I can vouch for its usability and stability – it’s still a great, professional product package, and got me through many varsity projects! If you don’t believe me, here’s PC Advisor’s article on it, with instructions.
What’s the catch?
There isn’t one – as the description on Adobe’s help page reveals:
Effective December 13 2012, Adobe disabled the activation server for Creative Suite 2 products and Acrobat 7 because of a technical glitch. These products were released over seven 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, Adobe issued a serial number directly to those customers. While it could be interpreted as Adobe giving away software for free, Adobe did it to help its customers.
You may have spotted the sentence “These products… do not run on many operating systems”. That could be described as the catch. But if you happen to have an older machine, or an outdated operating system (which surprisingly many people do!), this may be your lucky day. The cut-off for operating system support is detailed in the system requirements below:
CS2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- Mac OS X v.10.2.8–v.10.3.8. PowerPC® G4 or G5 processor
- Microsoft® Windows® 2000/Windows XP. Intel® Pentium® III or 4 processor
From someone whose Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 application just crashed (again!) while running on a Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8.2) Macbook Pro, I hope this helps someone!