vey nice this is, CS2, photoshop etc all free, LEGIT!

older versions, current is #5, this is #2, but can't argue with free and legit ;)

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

I have Photoshop CS2 already.  But is there a catch?  Is it the same installer that comes with the bought product?

According to Adobe, they are decommissioning the activation servers for CS2 products. The serials provided will activate the app in question, but is also in their 'no upgrade path available' database. There is some indication that Adobe's initial intention was -only- to provide the download links to CS2 owners, so they could continue to use thier products. But the page went hot over a weekend, and was so widely known and tapped that the horse was well and truly out of the barn. Since it is decade old tech, they seem to have decided to just leave it up. A lot of folks asked about gotcha's and no answer was forthcoming from Adobe, so.....

For giggles, I thought I'd uninstall my license and give the free CS2 a try.  But the server to de-activate my license is no more.  So it's good to know I can install CS2 again if I have to without activating through an Adobe server.  Reminds me of the old Poser 5 days of server activation eventually switching over to non-server activation.

Sadly, my beloved DreamweaverMX 2004 is also no longer supported by Adobe.  I found this out when I wanted to reinstall it to my new Windows 8 computer.  Instead, Adobe offered me GoLive from the free CS2 site.

Thanks for the Heads Up Steven. Much appreciated.

My Acrobat Pro 8 took me to the same page when I thought I'd try an update for it.

hm, more news, seems very hazy

adobe claimed that they had only meant this for CS2 owners as they are turning off the servers that are for CS2 registering

but then that post was removed from the Adobe site

so it all seems total screw up/odd

well, they released it open to the world, with serials....lol, so either the jokes on them by their own screw up (and BOY would the deserve it for being so greedy)

or they've finally grown some sense and treating people like potential customers/beneficial, not thieves or victims.

mari-Anne

I'm sitll using Dreamweaver4 I bought in college, no damn way I'll pay thier sick prices for a freakin' app like that :/
Begrudged EVERY damn penny I've paid for Photoshop, grrr. awesome app, but sick sick prices when it's damn near a monopoly/industry standard.
Stuck with PaintShopPro until PS finally got a decent interface and PSP had become total crap thanks to Corel, sigh

way too much "elitism so keep price up" and greed with these companies (see Autodesk especially)

Vege-Mite

my pleasure bud :) just hope Adobe aren't going ot be dicks about this, they could garner a TON of potential new customers/good will, this way
but corporations/leaders are often complete bloody arseholes, from personal experience, and psychology (you're x4 more likely to meet a psychopath in a leadership position in Big Business, than you are anywhere else in normal life, except prisons or asylums,no kidding!)

Quote - ..... mari-Anne

I'm sitll using Dreamweaver4 I bought in college, no damn way I'll pay thier sick prices for a freakin' app like that :/
Begrudged EVERY damn penny I've paid for Photoshop, grrr. awesome app, but sick sick prices when it's damn near a monopoly/industry standard.
Stuck with PaintShopPro until PS finally got a decent interface and PSP had become total crap thanks to Corel, sigh

way too much "elitism so keep price up" and greed with these companies (see Autodesk especially)

......

Yes - I agree.  The prices are daunting, to say the least.

I ended up reinstalling DreamweaverMX 2004 on a trial basis which supposedly is up after 30 days.  I'll just wait and see what happens after the 30 days are up.  If the ap just quits working then, I'll be very sad but don't know what else to do.

If they were worried they would have taken that down immediately. This could be a marketing ploy. CS2 is to old for them to care about I'd think.

Since I use some Adobe products in earning a living, I think their Pro-Level products are priced just fine. It's not their fault that others cannot provide as good of products at their prices and survive. Others have tried and failed. In my work, I can't use the hobbiest stuff because they don't include all the time saving features. Adobe products pay for themselves in time savings the first few days I use them, so no complaints. I gladly pull out my plastic to upgrade every other version, which seems to be about right. CS6 Extended is GREAT!

Lot's of free stuff for hobbies and tinkering available all over the place.

I stand corrected, it is not free at all. That link is only for owners of CS2 and an error was made. They made that very clear all over the forums two days ago. This is a false rumor and those downloading and installing are technically stealing it seems.

Since I own more recent versions it does not matter to me, but thought I'd correct the misunderstanding so people don't accidentally do something dishonest, not realizing they were pirating software.

The link is open to the world if you do a search on their site for "can't activate blah blah".  They should have linked the page to the user's registered account.  But it is 32-bit software that no one really cares about.  And Adobe hasn't supported for years.

It's realy weird. I've been looking through their forums and their "staff" say it was an error, but that was days ago.

I use CS6 so it matters not to me, but I'd think that those who want it have not much to worry about. I just asked someone from Adobe, but have not gotten an answer yet. It could be that they are wrong.

Pain Shop Pro 5 through 10 minus v.6 -  just cause it's literally the poor bodys image creation software.

POSER 6, 7, Poser Pro 7.0.4 and P9.   Cause it's great, it's FUN, it's intuitive enough to get nice results in for a beginner and has a wealth of advanced features too.

Vue 6 Infinite - cause there isn't anything I've found for creating vistas and atmospheres as scene 'stages' like VUE can do it!   Plus, the Vue materials are wonderfully easy to work with.   AND I got my full retail copy for a great low 'coupon' price. 

Modo 401 - cause after buying 301 at release time, I truly believed I'd be an expert modeler by now!!!!!   That has NOT happened, but I still marvel at and am excited by all the cool stuff you can do with it.

ZBrush 4R5 - I bought ZBrush 2.5, and thought I'd be modeling like an expert with it by now also.   Like Modo, I marvel at and am excited by all the great stuff I see done with it.

Modeling 3D in general;  I WILL 'get it' eventually!!!!!

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Extended - I am a photographer.   An "Amateur In LONG Standing" as it were.   I just love taking pretty pictures, be it clouds, bugs, cars, birds, sqwerls, rocks, my kids, their kids etc.   You get the picture.  I TOOK IT!   LOL!  I got going with Minolta 'M' 35mm cameras in the mid 80's.   Still have several bodies and couple dozen lenses.  Most of that from pawn shops.   Then I found DIGITAL imaging.  First digital camera was a Kodak DC-10.   I've used Olympus gear now for about 11 years.   Currently I still have an E-510 and E-3, with almost 30 pounds of lenses.   3 Sigmas and a couple Oly Zuikos.   I began shooting RAW only in 2006, when I discovered that 12 bits give me greater dynamic range than 8 bits.  DOH!   Ah, but Adobe bought out Pixmantic, the authors of RAW Shooter Premium, my image development software of choice.   Adobe gave me Lightroom1 free!  I PROFANE on that because of the nasty filthy separation of User (me!) from my File System with its "organizer" thingie.   I started computering when I could.   The machines I built were called by the processor used.   Mine were, in the late 70's, Zilog Z80 based.   I spoke Assembler fluently!   I adored file systems when it became possible to USE them!  I still adore them!    At the suggestion of Mr. Ron Lacey I tried the trial version of CS3 Standard.   What I got with that and Camera RAW 4 was outstanding for my photography.   So, I coughed up the $600.00 for it.   Thought I was gonna croak wih all that coughing, BUT I survived and my photography flourished.   And I STILL used PSP X!!!   Mostly cause I didn't know HOW to do stuff in PS.   Well, years later I bought the E-3 and ACR4 didn't support it.   I upgraded to CS4 Extended to get the additional RAW support AND 3D support.   And I learned quite a bit about using PS, the brushes, actions and LAYERS.   HOWEVER; PS layer editing is so archaic compared to PSP X I STILL use PSP X for lots of stuff.   And Copy/Paste from PSP to PS all the time.   The upgrade to CS4Extended was $400.00   ALL THAT STUFF!   That was all bought when I was working and the kids were all grown and had families of their own and I suddenly had nearly a grand a month extra I hadn't had in 25 years.  It was like getting a nice fat raise!   Yeah that was fun.   So I still have all that software, and I still use it and I still love having ALL that capability even if I don't know enough to maximize on it.   And I finally came to see, that MY real enjoyment didn't come from the money at all.   My joy comes from what I DO with the stuff I buy.  The machinery and software have to work together with ME.    So, as I see it, in my own personal opinion - IF you are doing what you want with what you got and you're happy;  hang the rest!   You've made it!   And what I love doing is using all my computering resources and coming up with pretty pictures.   This has been my dream since I was a kid back in the McCarthy Administration Daze.   And we have so MUCH now that I have actually surpassed my own DREAMS folks. 

Look, Adobe may have 'accidentally on purpose' let this "slip".   Well I don't think a ton of titles like has been 'slipped' is a slip up!  Ha!   Nope, I think they have simply quietly let the old cows out to pasture and tore down the barn.   I hope that's what happens with these old titles.   The one thing it may do FOR Adobe is to tick off the old pirates.  :) 

Yeah all that software cost me a pretty penny.   And I bought more than that;  this stuff is just what I use NOW and keep trying to learn to use.   It cost, and it's also been well supported.  Smith-Micro, Adobe, PixoLogic, Luxology, DAZ and even e-on have helped me with any technical issue I've had.    Yet I wouldn't have even thought about buying PS if I hadn't had a NEED that it met in a way that suited me fine.   For me, it's ALL worth it!

McGrandpa,

I think there are lots of us out there. I also came to this via photography and an impulse buy of Bryce, one of the earliest versions, which then made me want to learn to model.

My arsenal has also gotten very large and pricey over the years. I look at it as cheap though compared to other things I could be doing as a hobby and I actually have made Adobe CS products pay for themselves by no longer having to go to my printer for desktop publishing projects.

On the topic-

Page is still up, downloads active and serials are still there. This is no accident, or if it was they no longer care in my opinion. I've gotten zero response to my querry of Adobe's staff.

Being in marketing myself, I'd not be surprised if this was a viral marketing ploy all along. If it is, it was a great idea.

Oops, Forbes got a response and no you can't download and use unless you have a CS2 license. I'm now wondering if it is a trap for the pirate crowd.

Quote - Oops, Forbes got a response and no you can't download and use unless you have a CS2 license. I'm now wondering if it is a trap for the pirate crowd.

I am wondering how strict Adobe will adher to the license requirements - as I indicated above, I was specifically given the GoLive CS2 download link by Adobe as a replacement when I wanted to install DreamweaverMX 2004 on my new Windows 8 computer.  I only have a license for Photoshop CS2 - not GoLive CS2.

Quote - Oops, Forbes got a response and no you can't download and use unless you have a CS2 license. I'm now wondering if it is a trap for the pirate crowd.

I downloaded it last weekend when this thread first appeared. There was nothing said about having to have a prior CS2 license (which I don't) and a universal serial number was provided. Normally for an update you have to provide a serial number for the previous version before you can download; that was not required.  I am a longtime PSP user, but decided to try CS2 since it was free and that are so many brushes available. Have not had a chance to use it yet.

"Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products, including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago, do not run on many modern operating systems, and are no longer supported.

Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. The serial numbers below should only be used by customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products."

The above is at the top of the page now. Looks like they are just relying on the honesty of the person who finds the page, so I'm sure many will use it dishonestly.

To me honesty is a window into who a person really is and whether they are trustworthy or not.

I've been the victim of having images stolen and used for profit twice. I have a very low opinion of those who cannot be trusted. In fact that is the reason I don't post on galleries. People who will steal software, will steal images IMO. Stealing peoples work or intellectual property is the same as stealing anything else.

Now that's new, that notice wasn't there before.

Quote - These products were released more than seven years ago, do not run on many modern operating systems

Runs fine on XP, Vista, Windows7, and I've seen people saying that they run it with Windows 8 fine too, can't confirm since I don't want Windows 8.

Adobe posted a "mild disclaimer" in that public space.   Adobe used a judgement word suggestively.   Adobe did not state a requirement for use.   I don't need any of those apps, having bought CS4 Extended.   I do not see dishonesty in the general public downloading and using any of those apps with the wording of that disclaimer.