Next in my reverse switch software search was a replacement for Photoshop. I had not investigated Adobe’s policies fully, and simply thought that no matter what, I would have to pay full price for a Windows version or, at the very least, an upgrade fee, neither of which were in the budget.

I knew about The GIMP, which many users tout as a Photoshop replacement. One of the blogs I keep up with, Smashing Magazine, had a post back in April on how to tweak GIMP to replace Photoshop. In the process of going through all of that, I discovered that someone had released a version of GIMP that had all this and more already built into it named, somewhat appropriately, GIMPShop. Downloaded it, installed it, booted it up — and it crashed.

Went back to a regular install of The GIMP, and after a few moments of using it decided that it wasn’t for me. The interface was too dissimilar, and I really didn’t feel like having to learn a whole new app. Which really was the impetus for trying to get GIMPShop running, but alas, it was not to be.

I did some Googling to find out how difficult it would be to swap out my Mac version of Photoshop for a Windows version, and the information I found wasn’t very encouraging. After asking the question several different ways, I finally discovered that Adobe will allow you to swap, provided that:

  • You destroy your old version (not really necessary as they disable it on their end)
  • You sign a document stating that you understand that you can no longer use the old version

There was no word on pricing, though. So I called Adobe and spoke with one of their support ops, who very kindly explained that it was no problem to switch, and since I had recently upgraded to CS4 (less than 3 months prior), all I had to pay was shipping for the software DVD, which came to something like $6.00.

Once again I felt a pang of guilt — following through with this would revoke my Mac version’s license, making it unusable (presumably — I haven’t tried it) and there was no going back. If I ever needed a Mac version again, I would have to buy it outright.

I made up my mind then and there that there was probably no going back anyway, and agreed to the license transfer. I gave the operator my credit card information to pay for shipping, and that was that.

Next: I begin noticing little irritations in my day-to-day usage, and also find ways in which the Mac falls short…

Basecamp