I paid for Photoshop 6, and then CS1 and CS3. I'll happily pay $29/mo (and even $49/mo) for the Creative Suite. I think that a lot of people under estimate the

I paid for Photoshop 6, and then CS1 and CS3. I'll happily pay $29/mo (and even $49/mo) for the Creative Suite. I think that a lot of people under estimate the power of Photoshop and the other applications -- there is no alternative because nothing robustly imports and exports as .psd files. Photoshop especially is an example of a Microsoft Office esque product in that every designer I know uses Photoshop in a subtly different manner, making it nearly impossible for anyone to create a "Photoshop killer." I also secretly love Fireworks, despite it not being updated for about six years. I have always thought Adobe did a pretty good job at combatting piracy, especially in the more recent CS versions: it really is a lot of work to pirate the applications now. The applications are total trash to use though if you're anyone other than someone that is not technically sophisticated save for growing up in the Adobe world. (designers, basically.)