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Adobe’s giving us all a late Christmas present. You can grab yourself a free, legitimate copy of Photoshop and the rest of the Creative Suite 2, right now, direct from Adobe. No catch.
Well, unless you think having an Adobe account is a catch. Anyway, apparently Adobe’s tired of keeping the activation servers running to support legitimate installs of the 10-year-old CS2, so it’s decided to just give it away. Sounds great to me.
Handy if all you need is a quick image editor, Photoshop CS2 will still do all the basic things, just not the new fancy smart ‘content aware‘ stuff. Free’s free, so get over to Adobe.com and get downloading. [Adobe via Twitter]
Update: Adobe’s suffering server issues with the sheer number of people trying to download CS2 — it’s effectively being DDoS — so give it a while.
Update 2: Looks like Adobe didn’t actually mean to release CS2 for free to the entire world, even though it didn’t say anything, and still doesn’t, on the download site about it. And there we thought Adobe’s fail was a late Christmas present and all.
Update 3: Considering Adobe doesn’t really love you it seems, here are our top 10 free Photoshop alternatives.
This is really cool, it’ll definitely be better than editing images in paint!
When you sign in to your Adobe account you get a list of serial numbers. Are these unique to each account or are they generic numbers that are the same for everyone? I’m just wondering to see if it’s worth saving the download link in case I have to download it in the future.
Have you never heard of Paint.net ?
I have now.
..in case you don’t speak French:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?loc=en&e=cs2_downloads
Mercié
Feeling French Sam?
Here’s the English Link: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=cs2_downloads&loc=en
This is pretty cool thing for them to do, sometimes I just want to do a few adjustments on an image or cut some images up, move them round, whatever, but something I can’t do in paint or even in paint .net. Cheers Adobe, you’ve just gone up in my books.
Oui, mon amie
For those that don’t speak French, I have changed the source link
I forget that not everyone uses Chrome with its auto translation powers.
The source link is in French.
Anyone else get directed to France? When i try to find the UK page i get lost.. think ill just get it in French..
ignore this.. just seen above.. comments were blank when i entered the page..
Think we can get the cheaper upgrade price off this copy?? now that would be a win..
They do qualifying, but hell, it’s worth a try.
Holy crap, someone’s still selling the thing for £460!
http://www.zoom4u.co.uk/adobe-photoshop-cs2—pc—2563-p.asp
oh dear!
…but it comes with free delivery!
Sam! La page est en Anglais, je ne peux pas télécharger!!
Awesome! Although a little old, will sit nicely on my work pc without IT getting an arse with me!
Cheers Giz!
You’re welcome
Thank you very much Adobe; although I might still stick with Gimp 2.8 as shouting “Bring out the CS2!” isn’t as much fun when clicking on the icon.
so you really need to add the sound bite from Pulp Fiction so that it runs when you open Gimp.. “Get the Gimp” .. that would be cool!
Hehe that would be pretty sweet. Know what I’m doing tonight
I just tr4ied, but it seems that page has been pulled at the moment:
“We’re sorry, the site area you’ve requested is unavailable. Please try again later.”
anyone else get the same?
I take that back – it’s now working for me.
Cheers
I think it’s sheer number of people. Adobe’s being DDoSed. Ha.
I was immediately reminded of the old days over at the US sites – small websites being Gizmodoed or Lifehackered.
Thanks Sam.
CS2 was my fave because of the easy way to make .gifs, never been able to work out how to do it in newer versions.
Point to note: when you do the install, make sure you include name, organization and serial number, or it’ll throw a hissy fit and you’ll have to re-install. I just learned this the hard way…
What do we put for organization? and where do I find my serial number?
Well, after the re-install I was feeling annoyed so I put “Screw you Adobe”. Anything will work. Serial number is on the download page, in the box next to the files.
Ah, cheers. I just glanced at those and saw numbers and assumed it was an MD5 lol
Hiya. I made that mistake, now trying to rectify it, going back to install and have put in organization name but now it won’t accept serial number (says it’s invalid). Any suggestions? Many thanks!
I was at the site about to download this, the site was slow but that gave me time to think – if I want CS2 without support then I can get it any day of the week – I can get CS6 without support any day also. My computer doesn’t need any more shite on it till I need it.
But getting CS6 without support doesn’t give you the fuzzy feeling inside that downloading it legitimately does.
True, but any doctor will give you citalopram at the drop of a hat if fuzzy feelings is what you crave.
Looks like those on a Mac might be out of luck — PowerPC needed, apparently.
but there is a mac specific download? Why would it need powerPC confused..
PowerPC over Intel Macs, two different processor architectures. All modern Macs are now Intel based, but that wasn’t the case 10 years ago.
OIC, i thought it was some installer or ISO reader.. i stand informed.. yer that never even crossed my mind, i guess thats what G4/G5 backwards? you would think there might be a patch for it?
Ah, this may be why I’m getting issues. Says it’s installed successfully, but nothing. :-/
might be worth nothing that CS2 is a WINE appdb gold rated app, never tried darwine on OSX though but could help intel mac owners to run the windows version
When it asks for the serial number I paste the one from the site and it says it’s not valid. Am I doing it right?
Never mind, sorted!
I keep getting the error: ‘We’re sorry, we encountered an error processing your request.’.
Anyone else?
I think the server’s getting spanked (DDoS’ed effectively) from people downloading at the moment – naturally.
It comes and goes – just be persistent.
Hmmm, old Photoshop or stick with new Gimp. Guys?
Some bits of GIMP I find an absolute PITA having grown up with Photoshop, but as both are free, why not? Some of the standard PS plugins are probably worth having at least!
i always wondered if there was a legitimate copy of photoshop out in the wild
Being a Mac newbie, I’ve registered, DL’d, installed, been told that the install was successful, but nothing. Nothing in Applications & no sign of anything ‘Photoshop’ related from a Spotlight search. Have also done the usual – restart, re-install etc. Any ideas?
Is anyone else getting the message ‘site area unavailable’?
errr am I being silly but keep having an install problem! Keeps saying insert disc 2?
Copy the Version Cue and InDesign folder into the Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 folder. Should carry on from there. I’m having Name,Organisation and Serial issues though!
Ah Cheers!
Just put your name in name and anything in organisation, as long as there is an entry in both!
anyone else not get any serial number?
The serial numbers were displayed next to the download links once you registered.
in my haste, i missed them
and now theres nothing under the tab on the “my adobe” section
Once the site is up & running again, go back in through the download page link again, & I assume they’ll be displayed on there again. Need it again myself.
cheers stephen
Working links for direct download of the whole of CS2 at http://www.hotukdeals.com/freebies/adobe-cs2-creative-suite-free-1437132#_=_
Hope this helps
Cheers!
Great, now where do I get a power pc based mac these days so i can install it
mmm…i think we broke the web site.
Hey folks here is an alternate download location for both Windows and Mac versions with Licence Keys.
Don’t bother if you just have an Intel Mac.
http://www.free-stuff.co.uk/Free_Adobe_CS2_Creative_Suite_Download_Links.php
You’re a gent and a scholar
You should note that this software WILL NOT RUN on OS X Lion or Mountain Lion. The Mac version is PowerPC-only, which means it requires Tiger, Leopard, or Snow Leopard (with Rosetta).
Woe is me!
Thumbs for being one of the very few Mac owners who actually understands Rosetta and PowerPC backwards compatibility.
I am getting mixed feelings here. I was able to download the software but before I could read anything more about licensing the part of their site went unavailable again.
According to Adobe, they are not giving away CS2 for free. These download are for pre-existing customers that can no longer activate CS2 because adobe nuked the old activation servers.
Feel free to check this:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/4974662#4974662
Yet I see some people here claiming that they did get serial numbers from the download page. Strange.
Serial numbers for each product were along-side each & every download when the page was working.
Serial numbers are also present on all the other weblinks (at least two posted in the thread above) for these downloads. Just a shame I can’t run it any way.
I’ve been trying this since 8:00 am and haven’t been able to get on. Frustrating. I hope I can get on soon and get it downloaded.
Check the comments above, there are some alternates that seem to have been working
2. Dov Isaacs, Jan 7, 2013 1:49 PM in reply to smittywriter412 Report
On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated …
You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!
What is true is that Adobe is terminating the activation servers for CS2 and that for existing licensed users of CS2 who need to reinstall their software, copies of CS2 that don’t require activation but do require valid serial numbers are available. (Special serial numbers are provided on the page for each product download.) See .
You are only legally entitled to download and install with that serial number if you have a valid license to the product!
– Dov
Sorry, but this story is _false_. Disappointing. From the forums…
http://forums.adobe.com/message/4974662
———————————–
2. Dov Isaacs, Jan 7, 2013 1:49 PM in reply to smittywriter412 Report
On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated …
You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!
What is true is that Adobe is terminating the activation servers for CS2 and that for existing licensed users of CS2 who need to reinstall their software, copies of CS2 that don’t require activation but do require valid serial numbers are available. (Special serial numbers are provided on the page for each product download.) See .
You are only legally entitled to download and install with that serial number if you have a valid license to the product!
Now that quite a few tech blogs have reported it as being free and loads of people will have downloaded it believing the tech blogs, adobe might as well just give it away free.
I’m confused… It’s only available for “free” if you’ve got a valid license already. Ie you PAID for it in the past. This article is very misleading… All they’ve done is changed the activation mechanism. New users cannot download this for free according to Adobe.
Well, yes you can download it for free – you just aren’t allowed to. It seems there has been a misunderstanding as it never said on the download pages you had to already own it.
Keep track of this thread – http://forums.adobe.com/message/4974662#4974662.
The adobe Staff are going to post Adobe’s official statement in there when they have it.
New users “shouldn’t” download it. They still can. I installed the whole thing before I read about the licence thing, and it’s working perfectly.
If they were hoping I’ll uninstall it now because they made a mistake, well…
That’s called theft.
It’s called beating the system
You are not beating the system. Legally, you are entitled to download the files from Adobe providing you own an existing licence for the software or plan to use this version as a trial.
If you don’t hold a valid licence, you can buy one from Adobe.
You are hardly beating the system by downloading and installing software that is more than 4 versions behind for antique computers (in the case of PowerPC Macs).
Well if you read through that thread, someone has had a proper look at what it said on the download pages and what it says in the license agreement and no where did/does it say that you had to have bought it. All you needed to download it was an Adobe ID.
“When you install the products the licence says that the product can be used by anyone who has “obtained” it from Adobe (they deliberately don’t use the words bought or purchased).”
Here’s the link to their full reply – http://forums.adobe.com/message/4975443#4975443
I hope that Adobe are going to give it away free after this anyway. They would be stupid not to. It is an old product, it’ll reduce the number of people pirating their current versions and it’ll be used by people who previously would use other free alternatives (like Gimp), who may then decide to buy future versions due to their benefits over the free alternatives. As someone else in the thread says, they have already given it away free (although unintentionally) and might as well take credit for it. It’ll certainly raise my opinion of them as a company.
Given the price of photo shop, I don’t think too many people will be taking the leap from free to £600+
True, it will certainly be a very small minority but there would be some people who would treat this like a trial or non-pro version to test out the main features before upgrading to get all the up to date features.
The other points still stand though. It would make them look a better company and would reduce piracy of newer versions.
Their official statement though:
“Effective December 13, Adobe disabled the activation server for CS2 products and Acrobat 7 because of a technical glitch. These products were released over 7 years ago and do not run on many modern operating systems. But to ensure that any customers activating those old versions can continue to use their software, we issued a serial number directly to those customers. While this might be interpreted as Adobe giving away software for free, we did it to help our customers.”
I would interpret that as: whilst they didn’t intend to give it away free, they aren’t going to do anything about it. I expect the only thing they will change is to put clearly on the download page that you are supposed to already own it.
hilarious
seriously, Adobe knows full well there is nothing they can do now after this…. “misunderstanding”… (sigh)
besides, I bet they had at least a million downloads
hahaha too late
and yes, it will reduce pirated copies (one should hope so)
I looked at the page, it doesn’t say anything other than the download links and serial numbers. couldn’t believe it…LOL
anyway, we thank Adobe for their generosity/misunderstanding
this will make history
I have Windows Vista, will that work?
I have Mac OS Lion. This sucks Wozniak’s hairy balls.
“………When you sign in to your Adobe account you get a list of serial numbers. ”
Really… do I sign in before downloading?
I am at the serial number stage but can’t see zip.
Help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Joe.
Sorry…. Just read what everyone has been saying..
Never mind!
What does this mean?
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 provided as a part of the download may only be used by customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products.