I just bought (that's right, I didn't pirate, I bought a legitimate copy) of Adobe CS3 Design Standard. You'd think that Adobe would... think that this is a "good" thing, and be nice to me for it. But no, they go and install their piece of shit "AdobePDFView.plugin" in my \Library\Internet Plugins. Why is this a problem? Because it doesn't work!. When I went to load a PDF, it said it wasn't able to display it. Luckily I knew exactly where to look to extract the crapware - 90% of Adobe users would probably have no idea, and would suffer with crippled PDF in Safari.

I never got asked if I wanted to have crapware installed on my mac, let alone crapware from the makers of PDF that doesn't even know how to render PDF.

It seems as though Adobe == Fail

The experience of installing CS3 and going through their Student activation thing really has me wondering whether or not I'll just pirate it next time - when a company has such disregard for it's own paying customers, it leaves a sour taste.

{edit: I really should've contained this whole post in <rant></rant> }

Point taken Forgie. You should forward this to Adobe management.

Stewie

Well that's entirely the problem - it's almost certainly management, not engineers that decide to do shit like this.

I agree, I got the student edition as well, because the full 'full' version was crazy expensive. I got exactly the same thing, but had to use a student ID in order to submit to Adobe for approval and then wait a week for them to reply with the serial before I could use it. You certainly get punished for buying legit software now. If I downloaded it I could be using it instantly. Surely there has to be a better way Adobe!

The worst thing is after you delete the pdf plugin every time you open acrobat it says something is missing do you want it fixed, with no option of saying dont ask again!!

Oh yeah, I didn't even mention that when they sent me my serial number the first time, they did a bad copy and paste, and missed a few numbers off the end.

Why the hell would one of the largest software companies in the world not have an automated system for this?

I had to reply and wait a few days for them to send me the rest of my serial number.

I too had to wait, then to discover you can actually install it and use it for 30days while you wait for the serial. No-where did it mention this...that was annoying.

I also has issues sending them the proof of purchase and student card scans...such a shit system. You would think they can do better.

you know what to do in future mate

Just one thing: Adobe shouldn't have to be grateful when someone opts not to pirate their software!

I know where you're coming from but honestly it hasn't been that hard to handle the new activation system. But I do agree that the price of the software packages although containing a lot of versatility are expensive even for professionals. Yes I understand the argument of making sure your work is covering the cost of expenses like this but even so it is a large upfront cost. My only gripe is that acrobat used to be such a simple and useful program and now it just seems to be updated all the time with extra crap that complicates the usability and stability.

Yep - fully agree w/ that! It's a bug bear alright.
I've dropped close to $10K w/ Adobe and never, ever get the feeling they think I'm worthwhile.
I have several other issues w/their software..., and many more issues with the ability to actually talk to the flipping company. It's almost impenetrable in Australia.

One thing I'll add is that if your looking for help via phone from adobe in a country outside of the States you may as well hang up. The only help I've ever got was by ringing them in the US.

Me too-in my case, I have CS2 purchased from a guy in Russia-I still can apply updates.

Oh and heaven forbid if it doesn't install correctly,
you have to trace down all the files to remove properly,
there is no un-installer.
So if you have the demo on you have to uninstall it (not just use the serial key and register the already installed program) install it again from the dvd, hope it installs correctly and then register it and do the updates.. grr.

I had to call them recently to get an override code, and then spent about 10 minutes with someone telling me to do such-and-such, which wouldn't work. I repeated back the instructions about 20 times... each time double checking I was on the correct screen and so on. Nothing worked... until eventually the person said "Oh no... that's not the right screen, click next and then do the vulcan death grip."

Bloody hell I was annoyed. I'm used to computers, so I kept asking questions and repeating stuff back to them... I must have asked if I was on the correct screen about 5-10 times, each time being told "yes, that's right". Eventually it turned out that wasn't right.

Tech support? Riiiiiight