Honestly, the Photographer's bundle really is a pretty good deal for what you get. Buy Adobe Photoshop CS5 Software for Mac (Upgrade from CS2/CS3/CS4 CS3/CS4 Extended) featuring Robust Photo Editing, RAW & DNG Support, HDR Creation. It's not all for nothing either there ARE quite a lot of valuable new features that have been added in the (what, 12?) major versions released since CS2. But they do release new versions that ARE compatible, and expect you to pay for that development.
No one can or will promise that their current version of software will remain compatible with every new computer and OS forever. You chose to pay to get a new Mac and macOS version, right? Why is it a stretch to think about paying to keep your Adobe software current? It's really a case of you have to keep paying if you want to keep playing. macOS, because support for older software is maintained longer - but Adobe doesn't control the choices your operating system vendor makes w/regard to what they're going to continue to support and what they're not. I'm no fan of operating system authors making older software obsolete - it's one of the reasons I choose to run Windows vs. There are some reasonable solutions proposed in the thread above, including running a virtual Windows system, which IS still able to run old Adobe CS2 software, inside a virtualization package such as Parallels or Fusion on a new Mac.
That means their developers are free to concentrate more of their effort on new 64 bit development without being burdened by supporting outdated technology. Presumably you felt that the new hardware/OS brought advantages that made it worthwhile to do so, and there certainly ARE good reasons to get a new computer.ĭid you not realize that there would also be incompatibilities introduced? Apple no longer supports 32 bit software of any sort on macOS.
However, you chose to get new hardware and/or advance your operating system to a version that no longer supports the ancient CS2 application(s). Adobe even saw to it that when they retired their online activation servers they didn't leave current customers out in the cold. If you were still running the computer and operating system you had when you bought your old Adobe software CS2 version, it would still be working. I certainly understand your point, but computer technology does advance, and old software becomes incompatible with new operating systems.