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There are special no-activation-required versions of the entire CS2 and CS3 product line! Adobe killed the product activation servers for CS2 products in 2013,

by Lammy 6y ago

There are special no-activation-required versions of the entire CS2 and CS3 product line! Adobe killed the product activation servers for CS2 products in 2013, and for CS3 products in 2017. For CS2, they offered Activation-free replacement installers and generic serial numbers on their support page. This resulted in a bunch of press[0] about it being a /!\ omg completely free Creative Suite /!\, so for CS3's 2017 shutdown[1] they made you register your original serials to your Adobe Account in exchange for an individualized offline serial and the offline installer[2]. I don't know exactly when, but some time around the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020 they ended[3] the offline installer program for CS3, removed the ability to generate offline serials in my Adobe Account page or even re-access the offline downloads for my already-generated serials, and have seemingly scrubbed their Knowledge Base of any mention that they ever existed. I am so thankful I got them while I was able to since aside from needing to tweak the high-DPI handling[4] the CS3 apps work beautifully on my Windows 10 x64 machine. All CS3 applications are only 32-bit, but they're also the final versions with traditional UIs before they gave everything a shiny new Flash-based UI in CS4, so I'm fine with it :) [0]: https://nofilmschool.com/2013/01/adobe-releases-creative-suite-online-completely-free https://nofilmschool.com/2013/01/adobe-releases-creative-sui... [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20190401002548/https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/activation-fails-cs3-acrobat-8.html https://web.archive.org/web/20190401002548/https://helpx.ado... [2]: https://i.imgur.com/ae1SWN5.png https://i.imgur.com/ae1SWN5.png (my screenshot!) [3]: https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/locked-photoshop-cs3-activation-cs3-is-dead/m-p/10861805?page=3 https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/locked-photoshop-cs... [4]: https://i.imgur.com/OjBggBb.png https://i.imgur.com/OjBggBb.png

imposterr 6y ago
Thank you for this timeline. I was trying to figure out what had happened to the CS2/CS3 pages and downloads a bit ago and there was no info!
alister 6y ago
That was an excellent summary of Adobe's software giveaway. Are you sure that the replacement serial numbers are individualized? When I tried googling, some of my replacement serial numbers are found on the web, some aren't. This seems to suggest that they are not individualized -- at least for some product & platform combinations. My own theory about the motivation of the original giveaway is that they lost the ability to generate new licenses for those old versions, so they made it free. A comment[1] from 3 years ago: How could they lose the ability to create licenses? I can think of many scenarios: The one server that ran the legacy license code crashed, and they had no backups. Or they lost the database of who had which product and serial number, so there was no way to verify anything when someone needed to reactivite an old product or move their license to a different system. Or there was a new bug or incompatibility in their license generator, perhaps due to a server upgrade, but the source code for the licensing software was lost so there was no way to rebuild it.[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15732354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15732354
- Lammy 6y ago
  > But are you sure that the replacement serial numbers are individualized? Just an assumption because I have two legit OS X CS3 Master Collection serials, got two different replacement offline serials for them, and those serials don't work for the Windows version just like the originals didn't v(._. )v
  - laverya 6y ago
    Well, that could easily still be the case if there was one code for Windows and one for OS X.
    - OJFord 6y ago
      At least two for OS X, since GP had two.
  - asddubs 6y ago
    I believe for the CS2 versions they released the mac serials were also different from the windows versions, and each product had its own serial.
Cullinet 6y ago
Oh dear, thank you so very much genuinely for your excellent history. Unfortunately I think this is going to leave me with the loss, since I last backed up my design workstation to tape conveniently the just far enough distant past and (dealing with long-term injury that I am only recently overcome sufficiently for picking up my WACOM pen again) only the last month or so have been planning on restoring. Completely seriously, isn't Adobe missing out on a significant community of graying designers who would be entirely contented to pay Adobe quintennially for a long term support version with standard menus and hardened fuzzed etc security wash before rtm? Priced at say 60 percent of the current subscription, and given the opportunity for satisfying this constituency of customers who I am not sure at all would be Adobe customers in the future otherwise, isn't even such a radical branch viable?
- tomduncalf 6y ago
  I’ve noticed a few companies seemingly pricing things higher than you’d think was sensible (the one that struck me recently is Contentful, who’s pricing tiers quickly jump up to “far too expensive for a small company”)... my assumption is they’ve made a decision that they are better served going after the customers who can pay more and leaving the rest to the competitors. I guess maybe this is based on projections about whether (in Adobe’s case) those customers unwilling to pay a subscription are likely to ever buy upgrades, maybe also it’s easier to focus on pleasing a smaller number of more “committed” customers? Not sure really, I’d be interested to read more. But it’s probably a conscious decision on their part, unfortunately, so I doubt we’ll ever see “one off” purchase software from Adobe again. I do pay for their Photography package (Lightroom, Photoshop and cloud storage) and actually the cloud storage and iOS versions of Lightroom make it worthwhile for me. I occasionally need a vector editor and would probably pay another £5-10/month for Illustrator, but instead I’d have to jump to paying for full CC, so I use Affinity Designer instead!
  - f311a 6y ago
    Affinity Designer is my best purchase this year. I don't need to use my graphics editor every single week or month, and it does not make any sense to pay Adobe on a subscription basis.
Jasper_ 6y ago
I believe part of this is because Dolby is suing Adobe, saying they mandate certain pricing requirements in the license agreements, and so Adobe has responded by pulling old versions of their software with support for Dolby file formats. [0] https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6002319/Dolbyvsadobecomplaint.pdf https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6002319/Dolbyvsad...
- interestica 6y ago
  I think in the latest iteration of Media Encoder it can no longer accept MKV containers.... I'm wondering if it was also tied to some license issue.
  - netsharc 6y ago
    Huh, but MKV is Matroska, and it's a free-to-use open standard...
    - SSLy 6y ago
      Don't expect a non-free software company to understand the difference between a media container and bitstream codec.
3np 6y ago
Do you still have those installers, and if so, would you be able to post checksums of them?
- Lammy 6y ago
  https://pastebin.pl/view/aaa0ecc7 https://pastebin.pl/view/aaa0ecc7
  - 3np 6y ago
    Thank you!
qwerty456127 6y ago
> For CS2, they offered Activation-free replacement installers and generic serial numbers on their support page. This is the only reasonable way it should be done with old software. > This resulted in a bunch of press about it being a omg completely free Creative Suite Just write it in bold - something like "it's not free, you are only eligible if you have purchased a license". Whoever wants to pirate will pirate anyway > they gave everything a shiny new Flash-based UI in CS Flash?? Seriously?
- benjojo12 6y ago
  Flash is still used in animation and other bits, despite its web presence disappearing
  - qwerty456127 6y ago
    Is there a reliable way to view flash files without a browser then? I'm concerned about loosing the ability to occasionally view some flash (games etc) after Chrome removes Flash support this december. And people (I have quite a number of friends who do) already have to use old Windows systems with Internet Explorer to use the Flash app to apply to the US DV lottery (Chrome just offers to save it instead of running it).
    - pidg 6y ago
      Flash Player works as a standalone app iirc. https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
      - jtvjan 6y ago
        Specifically, you need to get the "projector" from this page: https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.ht...
- perardi 6y ago
  Flash?? Seriously? I'll be damned if I can find a reference, but it's definitely a “non-native” UI, probably using Adobe AIR. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_AIR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_AIR

by Lammy 6y ago

imposterr 6y ago

Thank you for this timeline. I was trying to figure out what had happened to the CS2/CS3 pages and downloads a bit ago and there was no info!

alister 6y ago

That was an excellent summary of Adobe's software giveaway. Are you sure that the replacement serial numbers are individualized? When I tried googling, some of my replacement serial numbers are found on the web, some aren't. This seems to suggest that they are not individualized -- at least for some product & platform combinations. My own theory about the motivation of the original giveaway is that they lost the ability to generate new licenses for those old versions, so they made it free. A comment[1] from 3 years ago: How could they lose the ability to create licenses? I can think of many scenarios: The one server that ran the legacy license code crashed, and they had no backups. Or they lost the database of who had which product and serial number, so there was no way to verify anything when someone needed to reactivite an old product or move their license to a different system. Or there was a new bug or incompatibility in their license generator, perhaps due to a server upgrade, but the source code for the licensing software was lost so there was no way to rebuild it.[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15732354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15732354

Lammy 6y ago
> But are you sure that the replacement serial numbers are individualized? Just an assumption because I have two legit OS X CS3 Master Collection serials, got two different replacement offline serials for them, and those serials don't work for the Windows version just like the originals didn't v(._. )v
- laverya 6y ago
  Well, that could easily still be the case if there was one code for Windows and one for OS X.
  - OJFord 6y ago
    At least two for OS X, since GP had two.
- asddubs 6y ago
  I believe for the CS2 versions they released the mac serials were also different from the windows versions, and each product had its own serial.

Cullinet 6y ago

Oh dear, thank you so very much genuinely for your excellent history. Unfortunately I think this is going to leave me with the loss, since I last backed up my design workstation to tape conveniently the just far enough distant past and (dealing with long-term injury that I am only recently overcome sufficiently for picking up my WACOM pen again) only the last month or so have been planning on restoring. Completely seriously, isn't Adobe missing out on a significant community of graying designers who would be entirely contented to pay Adobe quintennially for a long term support version with standard menus and hardened fuzzed etc security wash before rtm? Priced at say 60 percent of the current subscription, and given the opportunity for satisfying this constituency of customers who I am not sure at all would be Adobe customers in the future otherwise, isn't even such a radical branch viable?

tomduncalf 6y ago
I’ve noticed a few companies seemingly pricing things higher than you’d think was sensible (the one that struck me recently is Contentful, who’s pricing tiers quickly jump up to “far too expensive for a small company”)... my assumption is they’ve made a decision that they are better served going after the customers who can pay more and leaving the rest to the competitors. I guess maybe this is based on projections about whether (in Adobe’s case) those customers unwilling to pay a subscription are likely to ever buy upgrades, maybe also it’s easier to focus on pleasing a smaller number of more “committed” customers? Not sure really, I’d be interested to read more. But it’s probably a conscious decision on their part, unfortunately, so I doubt we’ll ever see “one off” purchase software from Adobe again. I do pay for their Photography package (Lightroom, Photoshop and cloud storage) and actually the cloud storage and iOS versions of Lightroom make it worthwhile for me. I occasionally need a vector editor and would probably pay another £5-10/month for Illustrator, but instead I’d have to jump to paying for full CC, so I use Affinity Designer instead!
- f311a 6y ago
  Affinity Designer is my best purchase this year. I don't need to use my graphics editor every single week or month, and it does not make any sense to pay Adobe on a subscription basis.

Jasper_ 6y ago

I believe part of this is because Dolby is suing Adobe, saying they mandate certain pricing requirements in the license agreements, and so Adobe has responded by pulling old versions of their software with support for Dolby file formats. [0] https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6002319/Dolbyvsadobecomplaint.pdf https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6002319/Dolbyvsad...

interestica 6y ago
I think in the latest iteration of Media Encoder it can no longer accept MKV containers.... I'm wondering if it was also tied to some license issue.
- netsharc 6y ago
  Huh, but MKV is Matroska, and it's a free-to-use open standard...
  - SSLy 6y ago
    Don't expect a non-free software company to understand the difference between a media container and bitstream codec.

3np 6y ago

Do you still have those installers, and if so, would you be able to post checksums of them?

Lammy 6y ago
https://pastebin.pl/view/aaa0ecc7 https://pastebin.pl/view/aaa0ecc7
- 3np 6y ago
  Thank you!

qwerty456127 6y ago

> For CS2, they offered Activation-free replacement installers and generic serial numbers on their support page. This is the only reasonable way it should be done with old software. > This resulted in a bunch of press about it being a omg completely free Creative Suite Just write it in bold - something like "it's not free, you are only eligible if you have purchased a license". Whoever wants to pirate will pirate anyway > they gave everything a shiny new Flash-based UI in CS Flash?? Seriously?

benjojo12 6y ago
Flash is still used in animation and other bits, despite its web presence disappearing
- qwerty456127 6y ago
  Is there a reliable way to view flash files without a browser then? I'm concerned about loosing the ability to occasionally view some flash (games etc) after Chrome removes Flash support this december. And people (I have quite a number of friends who do) already have to use old Windows systems with Internet Explorer to use the Flash app to apply to the US DV lottery (Chrome just offers to save it instead of running it).
  - pidg 6y ago
    Flash Player works as a standalone app iirc. https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
    - jtvjan 6y ago
      Specifically, you need to get the "projector" from this page: https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.ht...
perardi 6y ago
Flash?? Seriously? I'll be damned if I can find a reference, but it's definitely a “non-native” UI, probably using Adobe AIR. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_AIR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_AIR