July18

Adobe CS-Screwy

Getting new (or updates to) software is one of the silliest, yet coolest, feelings a tech nerd can have. There’s nothing quite like unwrapping the box, plopping that cd (or dvd) into your computer’s drive and installing whatever new program. Then there’s the first time you run the program. You get to search through the preferences, customize it to your likeness and then, more times than not, close it without doing anything.

After all that, it’s pretty much run of the mill. You may encounter some new quirks or old shortcuts that are missing, but for the most part, the excitement is gone.

Recently, the agency I work at finally made the upgrade to Adobe Creative Suite 2. For designers and illustrators alike, getting the newest Adobe stuff is near euphoric. The crummy thing about my computer in this situation is that I work on a PC, while the rest of the agency is on Mac. So when everyone else was getting their new version of CS2, I was sitting there, waiting a few extra days because my copy wasn’t ordered.

Last Friday, I finally got my PC version of the software and I decided to make time to install it.

I’ve never been more frustrated installing software in my life...

First, Adobe recommends that you un-install CS1, if it’s already on your computer. I’m not sure why it needs to do that, maybe to free up space on your computer, but couldn’t that just be a part of the installing process? Okay, whatever, done.

Next begins the 4-disc installation. Wait, did I just say 4-disc? Yes. That means if you have a meeting that you need to attend and you’d like to install the software during, you can’t just leave your computer. You have to be there to make sure the next disc is ready to go when it prompts you.

I sat for 1.5 hours while the software installed on my computer. That time period gave me Adobe Photoshop^® CS2, Adobe Illustrator^® CS2, Adobe InDesign^® CS2, Adobe Acrobat^® 7.0 Professional, Version Cue CS2, Adobe Bridge and Adobe Stock Photos. I didn’t include Adobe GoLive^® CS2 in the installation since I don’t use it, but I could easily see another 15 minutes being tacked on for that.

Then came the updates. As if it wasn’t enough for me to sit nearly two hours for the initial install, I had to wait another hour for all of the new software to download updates (some critical, some not) and install those.

That entire process took nearly 3 hours of my work day. It’s not like you can do other work while that’s going on, either. You don’t want to tie up system resources while your computer is churning and trying to get things going for you. Plus, let’s not forget about the restarting of your system once certain things are in place. One question for Adobe, why does nearly every installer look different?

But it wasn’t over yet.

Adobe Acrobat is the worlds most annoying software. Acrobat is by far one of the most under-utilized, yet over-robust pieces of software I’ve ever seen. I’d venture to say that 97% of the world uses Acrobat for one thing, viewing PDFs, the rest aren’t sure what it can do. But that’s not the issue here. The issue is that once I installed Acrobat, there were eight (8) updates for it. Not only that, but you can’t install update two without installing update one. And after each successful installation of an update, you have to restart your computer.

What? Acrobat requires that I restart my machine. THEN once it’s back up and running, it tells me that there is another update to install. So you install it, and then... yup, restart again.

Then you realize that some of the newer updates contain the previous updates (but it’s really small type, so you don’t notice it too easily). But if you install update #8, updates 6, 7 and 8 still show up in your list of available updates. Huh?

Please, someone, anyone, shed some light on this for me:

1. Why isn’t CS2 offered up on DVD?
2. If CS2 came out several months ago, why not create new installer discs with all of the updated versions?
3. Why does Acrobat require so many damn restarts?
4. And while we’re talking about Acrobat, instead of listing 8 updates, why can’t we put them all into one?

At least I’ve got CS2 now, right?

+ original post date: July 18, 2006 10:19 AM
+ categories: Computers, WTF, Web Stuff, Work