Introduction

Over the last couple months, many a good folk have had epic trouble activating and using an illegal copy of Adobe CS4 master collection, or any other CS4 application for that matter. While Adobe's protection system is nothing short of awe inspiring, it is my opinion, as is the opinion of many others, that the software is simply to expensive to represent a fair balance of effort invested into its development vs. actual value. Considering the amount of software sold, and the sheer number of licenses needed for, in example, only one firm to use the software, the money earned by far outweighs the usefulness of the apps, as epic as it may be.

 

All the programs included in the CS4 master collection are beyond useful, of course. Dreamweaver has become a sort of standard in simplified web development (even my own university uses 20-30 illegal versions of the good old ancient Macromedia Studio MX), Photoshop is one of the most powerful graphic editing apps on the planet, and Illustrator keeps pushing the standards of vector based graphics to new levels version after version. Flash is among the most powerful animation and interactivity apps in the field with improved coding features that came with Actionscript 3.0, and Adobe Premiere and After Effects make up an invincible team of video editing apps. Combine them with Flash, and you have the most fancy apps and web sites one can imagine. As if the story ends there.  InDesign, LiveCycle and Soundbooth are only some of the apps I haven't mentioned, and yet well worth one's time. From print layouts and designs to interactive forms compatible with almost.. well.. everything.. to the extreme extents of sound editing, Adobe has bought and covered every field in the computed industry, and has done it well.

 

While it has always been my opinion software developers are underrated and their work should be supported both financially and otherwise, I find myself living in a country where one could only afford CS4 master collection if one worked for 12 months straight (provided one has a normal job and is not a parent-leech) without spending a dime on anything else but a saving fund for CS4. What's worse, by the time one could afford CS4, CS7 would be out. Never think I blame Adobe for my country's lowly management and disorganization, or for my own poverty, or that of others around me - it is solely my country's fault. But the fact remains that certain things are inaccessible to certain parts of the world regardless of how much effort they put into it.

 

Hence this blog. Since the internet (torrent sites in particular) is flooded with CS4 in one way or another, it's time to help people use it. The world is packed with morons these days, morons who somehow get their hands on the best software and yet are unable to mount a simple image file or extract *.7z files, and those cannot count on my aid. But the average man, the folk who have children to support, rents to pay, and colleges to go to, those are not to blame for their situation wherever they are, and if they wish to further their creative development, I feel they deserve it. In the end, I am 100% certain that if one should succeed (financially and otherwise) in crafting a decent paycheck with the help of the CS4 master collection, that person will also spend the next $2500 he/she has on an original and legit version to show his/her appreciation, dedication and honesty. I know I would.

 

Stay tuned for detailed posts on how to make your CS4 software work.*

 

*bear in mind that I will not crack or otherwise perform any illegal modifications on the software myself. I merely intend to make a compilation of the most helpful and useful hints I've found throughout the web regarding the issue mentioned above, ultimately resulting in a full guide to all CS4 troubles.