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HUGE thumbs down for Macromedia/Adobe
My lovely Mac laptop died and so now I’m forced to transfer everything over to my PC, because a new Mac is not in my budget at the moment.
Among other things, this means transferring over Macromedia Studio, which I use mainly for Fireworks and Dreamweaver.
After a very long phone call with their customer support person, we finally were able to dredge up my serial number (and I have to say, whatever I feel about the company right now, the customer support service person was great—she looked up every single number I have on my packing list until we were able to find my account information, which is something like four years old and apparently not in any of their primary databases).
We finally get the serial number, and then I find out that since I installed the software on a Mac first, I’m not allowed to install it on my PC.
I’m sure this was in the original license somewhere and so there’s nothing I can do about it, but, seriously? WHY DOES IT MATTER if my one copy of the software is on a Mac or PC? My Mac is dead. Kaput. One fancy paperweight. My PC is alive and being a PC, which means it’s not healthy but it’s probably not going to die today. The software runs on either platform; I know, because the trial version is working on the PC right now. But I’m not allowed to switch my license over because I switched platforms?
What a crock.
My choices are to spend $2000 on a new Mac, or spend a couple hundred on a new license for Fireworks. I would really rather spend $2000 on a new Mac, frankly, because I prefer the Mac to the PC. And this licensing rule is just stupid. As much as I love Fireworks, I’m not sure I love it so much that I need to pay for two licenses so I can use it on one computer, you know?
I guess I’m going to have to learn to use Gimp, which I hate, or else I’m going to have to go find another graphics program. Unfortunately, I think Photoshop is now owned by Adobe as well, isn’t it? There goes that option.
Anyone have suggestions for a non-Adobe graphics program?
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Comments
Download trial versions before you buy. They all do things differently, and if it’s not intuitive to you, the program is frustrating as all get out to use.
That’s my problem with Gimp—the way it handles layers drives me insane.
On May 25, 2008, risingrainbow said:
Not me, I know nothing about these programs. Only that i want one but no idea which one.