Its kind of like the OpenOffice vs. MS Office argument.

Is OO a good program? Yes. Is Office incredibly expensive? Yes. But if your a professional, you absolutely have to use Office because most others use it (compatibility), and the extra features and abilities make it very important to use as a professional.

I believe that most game studios and others that use Adobe products can get licenses to purchase large quantities of PS and other products at very reasonable rates.

I know Adobe tailors they're products for companies and corporations, but I think they should make it cheaper for consumers. It's not really fair for those of us who are into editing and photo work. I mean, what consumer today can pay that much for software like that?

That's why there are cheaper versions.... as I said earlier you can get a version of PS for £60.... or go into the £1000s If you are just using it as a hobby you don't need all the extra features that are worth £100s to businesses.

After buying a few licenses of QuarkXPress, nothing that Adobe has seems expensive anymore, especially not InDesign. Last I saw, you could buy full Creative Suite for less than Quark (educational prices, mind you).

Yes Adobe is cheap compared to some other products.

Because Adobe products are actually quality, Windows is crap. Also, as others have mentioned, Adobe products will never cater to the mainstream. Illustrator is not a product you'll sell to a 18 year old.

No, application software is much easier to make. You really can't compare the effort required to make a new version of Windows with a graphics application. The price has no relation to this anyway, the price (especially true for software) is designed to maximise profits. Windows which sellls millions of copies each year wouldn't sell at £1000 a pop and probably wouldn't sell double of the numbers if ithey halved the price. A business application that has a very limited market isn't going to sell many more copies even if they reduce the price and companies can justify the high costs.

I know they have cheaper alternatives for consumers, like the "Elements" versions of the programs. But I want all the features, especially since I have an HD camcorder I could use. But it looks like I'll have to settle for the $100 elements version of preimere, instead of the $600 full package.

I have the entire Adobe Creative Suite on my computer

how it got there....

PIRATE!!!