It seems like the more expensive software is, the more challenging it is to install. Big software suites like Adobe Creative Suite, Macromedia (Adobe) Studio, and Microsoft Office now all require activation to run.
Activation has made installing software a gigantic pain in the you know where. I’ve been dreading installing the Macromedia Studio upgrade for a couple weeks now. With good reason, as it turns out. You’d think that with a gazillion programmers on the job, one of them could have taken the time to include a little message to explain WHY the product won’t activate, but they didn’t. The serial number for the new version worked fine, but it didn’t like the old version. Instead of giving me some clue what might be wrong, the wizard just sat there with a grayed out “continue” button. Clearly I wasn’t continuing anywhere. So a few hours and two phone calls later, finally I can access my $400 upgrade. Oh happy day.
Now, I understand that software piracy is a problem, but the last few updates of my ultra expensive software have gone just about as well as this time. I have probably “joined” the Adobe site 12 times now because, to register the software, I always have to become a “member.” It’s probably so they can sell my email address and send me a bunch of junk I don’t want. Now I have dozens of user names and passwords to a bunch of sites I’ll never visit. It’s annoying.
On the other hand, I finally did get today’s software installation problem handled, the rain stopped, and the sun is trying to peek out. Maybe it’s a sign that version 8 of Macromedia Studio will really have been worth all the aggravation I went through to get it on my computer. We shall see.