I always thought Photoshop was expensive for what you get, CS5 at almost $500 is enough to drive anyone to a second look at GIMP tutorials. Now Adobe has given current CS2, CS3, and CS4 users something to stew about.

The latest comes from Adobe’s own blog:

With regards to upgrades, we are changing our policy for perpetual license customers. In order to qualify for upgrade pricing when CS6 releases, customers will need to be on the latest version of our software (either CS5 or CS5.5 editions).

So, if you don’t have the most current version of Photoshop, the best Adobe is going to give you is 20 percent off CS6 and that only through December. Take that loyal customers!

You’d think that scoring a slew of new customers for Premiere Pro CS5 from Apple’s bungled FCP update by offering aggressive discounts would have pointed to the wisdom of lowering the barrier to entry on expensive software, but somehow that lesson didn’t sink in at Adobe.

Your other option is to spend $49.99 per month, which translates to $600 a year, on the Creative Suite Master Collection. For a lot of people that’s more than they’re paying for cable and internet for access to a software package.

Some people have argued that the pricing is not excessive when compared to other enterprise level software packages, but the majority of photographers are not an enterprise. It’s one person struggling to make ends meet and Adobe just kicked those people while the economy already had them down.

A lump of coal in the stocking of millions of small business people is Adobe’s way of saying happy holidays!