Adobe CS 2 to require activation on OS X

In their efforts to combat piracy, Adobe has announced that the next upgrade to their Creative Suite will finally bring product activation to OS X -- a feature Mac users missed out on while Windows users once again got all the good stuff. Well the good news is that Mac users will no longer be out in the cold -- for both platforms will see a simultaneous release of the same product! How about that!

I'm like most people who purchase software -- I can dance along with the software activation stuff as long as it doesn't take too long or get in my way when I need to use a product I legally paid for. But if Adobe bungles the Mac version by not taking into account the special needs of the operating system and their users, they'll undoubtedly receive an earful of complaints. And I'll be first in line.

For a little perspective, remember the release of Macromedia Flash MX 2004 on OS X? In case you don't, it ushered in a whole new activation scheme that was -- at the time -- the only piece of software on my system that required such a walkthrough. Installation went okay -- I entered my serial, it 'activated' my build, and I was up and running. But soon thereafter I updated OS X, and used the "Archive and Install" option which backed up all my user data, then applied my preferences to the new upgrade. It was fast, easy, and every other application on my machine worked perfectly thereafter -- except for Flash, which was now totally hosed.

So I had to call Macromedia (or, some tech support person far, far away) and explain what I had done to my machine. They weren't aware of "Archive and Install," and kept asking if I was trying to install Flash on another machine. After a few minutes of push and pull, I received a link to a deactivator application, which reset my authentication and I was finally able to get back to work.

My point in all this is that Macromedia was obviously unaware of a very popular feature that Mac users used when updating their operating system -- a mistake that Adobe should and could avoid repeating with CS2. And considering the next version of OS X is about to hit stores, there will be plenty of people performing this same task as well. Wait and see.