Adobe, I Am Judging You So Much Right Now
It is seriously easier to install (and get support for) pirated versions than it is for me to install my purchased copy of the CS2-era Adobe Production Suite.
I am exhausted and irritated and the opposite of impressed. I am one of those weird people who made it a point to have a legal version of my Adobe software (and Corel Painter, Paint Tool Sai, and the Microsoft Office Suite) despite having the means to obtain and install pirated versions. I feel like I'm being punished for trying to do things the legitimate way.
After spending approximately a zillion years installing the entire suite (yes, with After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition, etc) it turned out that the software wouldn't activate. I know I have a legitimate key (the perks of having purchased it through Adobe, and not second-hand through any other party) so I was surprised when the activation failed. I waited for a while, tried again, received the same error message, and finally decided to activate by phone. At this point, the robo-voice leads me on a merry flurry of entering way too many numbers before directing me to a message telling me to go to a specific URL which will allow me to download a version of CS2 that does not require activation.
I go to the site, and download the absurdly large files and instructions. (Seriously, they couldn't just patch the install somehow? I had to download all of it, instead.) Unfortunately, the instructions are flawed; they refer to files that are not available for download. Downloading the similarly named files in the same directory led to plenty of frustration as I entered my serial number in the 'new' installer only to be told it was not valid.
Hop to the internet and on to the forums, where it looks like people are getting CS2 for free. (With dubious legal standing, obviously). These people obviously had more success than I. Additionally, not all of the programs from the suite I'd purchased appear to be available in the small set of packages I'd downloaded, even *if* the installer had actually functioned.
The moral of this story? Pirates are nicer than corporations, and actually provide better support, shocking no-one and confirming the belief that evil is relative when it comes to facing the vast oceans of sheer incompetence. Or something.
Just, ugh.
I can't even figure out how to post on the 'help' forum to complain. That is how completely useless Adobe is being.
ETA: Still miserable. Got told on the live help chat how to do what I'd already done, before being referred to a number to call that says it'll be over two hours of hold music before I can reach someone to help (who -- let's be real -- is going to tell me more things that I already know, and won't be able to help me with my installation.) ETA 1.b: Hahahaha after 3 hours on hold, nothing. Nothing but 3 hours of bad hold music. FML.
ETA 2: In Mysteries Of Tech -- this entry kept showing up as saying "That is ho completely useless Adobe is being". Adding a 'w' had no affect. Adding a trail of 'w's did. Went back and changed it to one, and it went back to having none. *Weird*. Finally, typing out 'howw' made the entry show up as 'how'. Technology, why do you do this to me?
I am exhausted and irritated and the opposite of impressed. I am one of those weird people who made it a point to have a legal version of my Adobe software (and Corel Painter, Paint Tool Sai, and the Microsoft Office Suite) despite having the means to obtain and install pirated versions. I feel like I'm being punished for trying to do things the legitimate way.
After spending approximately a zillion years installing the entire suite (yes, with After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition, etc) it turned out that the software wouldn't activate. I know I have a legitimate key (the perks of having purchased it through Adobe, and not second-hand through any other party) so I was surprised when the activation failed. I waited for a while, tried again, received the same error message, and finally decided to activate by phone. At this point, the robo-voice leads me on a merry flurry of entering way too many numbers before directing me to a message telling me to go to a specific URL which will allow me to download a version of CS2 that does not require activation.
I go to the site, and download the absurdly large files and instructions. (Seriously, they couldn't just patch the install somehow? I had to download all of it, instead.) Unfortunately, the instructions are flawed; they refer to files that are not available for download. Downloading the similarly named files in the same directory led to plenty of frustration as I entered my serial number in the 'new' installer only to be told it was not valid.
Hop to the internet and on to the forums, where it looks like people are getting CS2 for free. (With dubious legal standing, obviously). These people obviously had more success than I. Additionally, not all of the programs from the suite I'd purchased appear to be available in the small set of packages I'd downloaded, even *if* the installer had actually functioned.
The moral of this story? Pirates are nicer than corporations, and actually provide better support, shocking no-one and confirming the belief that evil is relative when it comes to facing the vast oceans of sheer incompetence. Or something.
Just, ugh.
I can't even figure out how to post on the 'help' forum to complain. That is how completely useless Adobe is being.
ETA: Still miserable. Got told on the live help chat how to do what I'd already done, before being referred to a number to call that says it'll be over two hours of hold music before I can reach someone to help (who -- let's be real -- is going to tell me more things that I already know, and won't be able to help me with my installation.) ETA 1.b: Hahahaha after 3 hours on hold, nothing. Nothing but 3 hours of bad hold music. FML.
ETA 2: In Mysteries Of Tech -- this entry kept showing up as saying "That is ho completely useless Adobe is being". Adding a 'w' had no affect. Adding a trail of 'w's did. Went back and changed it to one, and it went back to having none. *Weird*. Finally, typing out 'howw' made the entry show up as 'how'. Technology, why do you do this to me?