Until this weekend I had a fairly positive view of Adobe Software. Sure, I'd get pissed that they didn't implement nested folders or multi-layer selection until photoshop 9, but overall I've been very happy with their products. That is, until I setup a mirrored RAID on my G5.
Earlier this year, when Adobe CS2 was released, it had a new copyright feature. The new feature requires that the product be activated before it can run. This "feature" makes a lot of sense for Adobe because it prevents multiple installations using the same serial number. In principle, this doesn't harm a legitimate user of their software. However, it runs into a VERY important problem. One that is not too dissimilar to a problem with Apple's DRM, FairPlay.
The problem is DE-activation. To use the software on another computer, or more specifically, a hard drive, you must deactivate the previous installation. Not such a big deal, right? But wait. Say your hard drive fails. You can't deactivate anything! Backed up drives won't allow CS2 to be activated because the activation is associated with the broken drive. At a time of high vulnerability, Adobe decides to treat you like a thief. Nice.
Luckily, my hard drive hasn't failed - Yet. After hearing about David's tragedy, I decided I needed to get a real backup system in place. Hence my desire to setup a mirrored RAID and backup drive. It was during the process of backing up and erasing hard drives to set up the RAID that I found out about this activation problem. I'm glad that I recognized the need to deactive the software before I erased and reinstalled my hard drive, but their is no way to protect my activation against future disk failure. Adobe, you suck.
Hey Stephen--have you thought of sending a suggestion to Adobe about this issue? Not that they'd actually do anything about it, but I guess it couldn't hurt...
Maybe Adobe is right and you need to stop pirating the copy of CS2 you bought.
I don't know if you've heard this, but stealing is wrong. There's no difference between installing software you bought on your computer and shooting two people in an attempt to "score" some money from the local liquor store just so you can buy some more "H" for you and your family.
If you're going to act like a drug crazed killer, doesn't Adobe have the right to treat you like one?
Fudge. Does that mean that my RAID will screw-up a) my ability to use CS2? and b) my ability to rob liquor stores at gun point to help feed my wife and my healthy, albeit expensive, "H" habit?
I can use CS2 on my RAID. I'm don't know how the activation works with CS2 mirrored on 2 hard drives, but it does. I'm not sure, though, what will happen if a drive fails. Maybe I'll grab some "H" and a hammer and find out.
Am I the only one who thinks George "may" be just a tad too dramatic? I agree the Adobe activiation is crap. It's a real blast paying full pop for Adobe CS 2 and then having to deactivate and reactivate it everytime you want to switch between your laptop and desktop computer in your own home for God sakes.
George is right. Many, many, many (thousands) have complained all over the net, about problems with legitimate copies not working because of issues with the Activation method and RAID. Many professionals use workstations with dual processors and RAID for either redundency or speed (or both). The problem lies in the way some RAID devices handle the files. Adobe now has an article in their forums addressing the problem. You need to call their tech support and the MIGHT be able to help you. However, you can bank on it, if your $2,000 CS2 package can't be fixed to work on *your* RAID system, you won't get a refund. You will have to live without either the software you paid for or the RAID you paid for. Adobe products are good (generally), but the bean counters need to be fired from Adobe's management team.