aquiring mac software

[estidog]

I'm a student who uses a PC. i'm am thinking about buying a powerbook. but one thing that his olding me back is the software.

im sure the software is great, but like most 18 year old students, they don't buy their software. I can barely scrape £1500 to buy a laptop let alone spend £3000 on software for it.

If i buy a pc laptop, i already have the software
if i buy a mac, i'll need to 'aquire' it from somewhere.

i'm not asking anyone to show me where to get it.
i'm just curious as mac users arer only 3% of the market it would be harder for me to find people who have graphics software.

is this a problem that other people have had.

i know this isnt going to be a popular post as im talking about not buying my own software, but i doubt any student buys £3000 of software. i cant afford to buy software so dont have a go at me. at least i'll learn on cracked software and then get enough money when im older and making money to replace it all.

but back to my question , does anyone find it hard to find other people to get copies from?

steve

 

[synthetickittie]

I could care less if I get flamed for this because I completely hear you. Im in college and its hard enough passing classes and working just to have enough to pay for school, living on campus, and eating. No way in the world do I have enough to pay for programs but dont get me wrong I would like to give back money to the programs who make the programs I love so much but I cant right now while in college, but Im already starting to save up a few dollars here and there for panther.

As for your question its easy to find places to download the programs you need, but as for finding people who have the programs you need around campus almost never happens well because ever does what I do. Get poised and limewire, my two favorite p2p programs for that.

 

[Moxiemike]

Boy you kids are sure whiny these days!

You don't need to spend $3000 on design software. And if you can't afford the software... well, too bad.

I hope you both get busted for being shortsighted. You can go here:

http://www.academicsuperstore.com/?sourcecode=lcg&promocode=0D1X00XX

and buy educational versions of the adobe design collection for $369.95 including AI10, PS7 and ID2, as well as Acrobat 6 and GoLive 6.

Macromedia's deal is even sweeter: Studio MX 2004 for $189.95

If you can afford a Mac you can SURELY afford the $600 it takes to be legal.

If not, i hope you get nailed and fined for pirating. You deserve it for posting it on this forum.

 

[Moxiemike]

Oh. And by the way, when I was in art school, i managed to have a car payment on a new jetta, an apartment, loan payments for my previous school, which went into effect when i transferred and I managed to get a g3 laptop and all of my software on educational discounts.

if you can't step up to the plate and play fair, oh well.... maybe a few less nights out at the bar would do ya.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

great thing about mac is they come out of the box with everything, you can allways get more but get a subscription to MacAdict mag and get the cd every month. you will be taken care of and wont spend nothing. except subscription.

 

[Doctor Q]

I don't think you can justify stealing software because you can't afford it. I can't afford the new car I'd like either, so I'm doing without, not taking one without paying.

Students get great breaks on both big and small commercial software packages. In other words, the vendors are meeting you halfway. If you still can't afford their products, use freeware and shareware alternatives. MacRumors is a great place to ask about the best of these alternatives.

 

[shecky]

part of the cost of tuition is the cost of your compter hardware and software. Academic pricing is insanely cheap these days, and larger universites sometimes have exceptional licencing deals to offer a mass license on software to student at an unheard of price. my school does this, and i get bulk licenses on:

Adobe Design Collection + 24 months of updates
Flash MX + 24 months of updates
Office X
Norton a/v
Font folio
Font Agent pro
Toast

i get an installation license ( i do not get to keep the install CD's) for this software for about $677.

My school requires, not requests, REQUIRES purchase of a top of the line TiBook and a bunch of design software, for a package price of about US$3500. If i was not able to afford that, then i would not have chosen to attend school there. Stealing software is quite simply NOT an answer. If you want to buy a mac for school and you want to steal the software to be able to do so, then i say dont buy a mac, stick the the PC you already have.

i want a lot of things, but i don't steal them just because i can't afford it. As far as paying for software, anyone can get a loan. stealing it is not th right way to go, and thinking its "ok" is very typical of the maturity level of someone who would do so.

 

[jxyama]

tell me how you can't afford these:
(Univ. of Michigan example)

Office X (no manual): $45
Macromedia Studio MX: $190
Adobe Photoshop Elements: $45

those are three I've bought. many other programs can be had at a very steep discount. it was actually a shock to find out the retail prices for these, esp. studio MX. i think dreamweaver alone is around $200 retail!

coupled with iApps, i've got just about everything i need. i know your needs are different, but if you can't afford your software, i suggest lowering your laptop budget and saving some for the software. at such discounts, i don't think there's any excuse for pirating, if there ever was any. (which is harder to do on macs anyway.)

edit: i'm gonna ask a mod to close this thread before someone actually posts a pirate site.