CS4 Suite...

[jim kitchen]

Adobe says September 23, 2008...

I have not cracked the wrapper on CS3...

jim k

[Bill_1856]

I have PS7 on the Mac, but mainly use Elements 2 on the PC. The price to upgrade (both in money and time) is too much for most of my needs.

[Brian_A]

I have PS7 on the Mac, but mainly use Elements 2 on the PC. The price to upgrade (both in money and time) is too much for most of my needs.

I don't even think you can use PS7 or Elements 2 to get a discount upgrade to CS4. I think you have to buy a new license as it is anyway.

I have the CS3 Design Suite, so I don't think it'll be until the next version that I upgrade unless there's something really nice in CS4 I can't live without.

-Brian

[Walter Calahan]

Well Jim, without learning CS3, you'll now have a larger learning curve with CS4.

[eric black]

Jeez- Im still using CS! Im not too concerned about the upgrade because Im ultimately thinking of switching over to a Mac when my PC depreciates enough and gets off my business records. At that point, I guess it will be time for a new version of PS and a steep learning curve as well- how frightening!

[Marko]

Hi Jim,

If I were you, I'd start using CS3 and not even think about CS4 for at least six months after the actual release. There are several reasons, the obvious is to start learning - and using! - what you have, so you can meaningfully compare it with the new one and decide if you really need the upgrade or not. The other reason is to wait until they find and squash all the bugs, which usually happens during the first few months of the release.

Adobe has always had the best QC out there and the most stable products, but it is still software and there's always a handful of bugs and other little critters they can't find before they release it to the wild... err... to the general public.

And finally, to get a feel of how good of a match is your computer and whether you'll need upgrades there too...

Best,

Marko

[Scott Knowles]

Has it ever dawned on people that just maybe all the computer technology available with photo editors is more than enough, even over the top, and CS4 is only keeping the tech-heads alive to develop new packages and the tech-head photographers drolling with the ever present need for better stuff thinking it makes them better? Do we really need 64-bit technology? After all how many people really use all the features and capabilities of Photoshop CS3 with the whole range of colors? And in the end it's still human judgement that decides, not technology.

But then I'm slightly color-blind, typical male blue-green issues. And I'll keep CS3 with updates on my Mac for a few more years.

[cjbroadbent]

What should Gimp do better to make you switch?

[BarryS]

It's an essential part of Adobe's (any every other software company's) business plan to continually develop and sell upgrades. With a mature product like Photoshop, the upgrades seem trivial and for most people--there's very little point in keeping up with every new version. From what I've read about CS4, I'm underwhelmed by the new features. Maybe I'm just frustrated by the times I've upgraded and wasted time troubleshooting problems that weren't there in the previous version.

[jim kitchen]

By the time I open CS3, or my current Mac chews its last byte, CS16 will be out...

jim k