The CS6 Master Collection suite, which contains virtually all of its content creation software, runs about $2,600 on Adobe's site (see the difficult-to-find purchase page at the More Coverage link). Photoshop's been around since 1990 when version 1.0 came out exclusively on Mac, and Adobe's Creative Suite launched 10 years ago, bundling apps like Premiere, After Effects and Acrobat together for an attractive sum. Luckily, we've been using the Creative Cloud since it came out and Creative Suite before that, so our rundown after the break should help you make up your mind. You may not be sure whether to get angry and look for an alternative (good luck with that), or to just go with the flow and regard the whole thing as inevitable. Now, many of Adobe's customers for those apps (at least those who actually pony up for it) are pros who use it for paying gigs, and as Apple discovered with Final Cut Pro X, they're a vocal bunch when they see any threat to their livelihoods. That's because all future versions have been moved to the Creative Cloud and renamed 'CC,' meaning that the only way to grab anything after CS6 will be to sign up for an internet-only subscription. In case you haven't heard, a chapter in the history of Adobe's venerated Photoshop (and other Creative Suite applications) has just snapped shut.
