<human>: So they're releasing CS6 which is awesome, and I'm really excited about it. I went to purchase it, but I could only find an upgrade price of $525 (compared to $2599 new purchase, about 20% of the price) for standard users. The education new purchase price is $799, which is about what I paid for CS5.5 when I graduated from high school last year. For an initial hit, my family and I were willing to take that much and eternally grateful that they had an education price point to begin with.

However, if you're a university student and want to upgrade, that's where they nail you. There is NO university upgrade pricing, you have to buy the normal upgrade. That's only $200 less, and I can't justify spending $525 on top of living costs, tuition and otherwise. In reality, Adobe is losing a lot of sales to people who would otherwise GLADLY give them money. I'd pay $200 (25%) for a CS6 upgrade in a heartbeat and not make any other spending for that month, but to cut all costs for 3 months straight there's going to be an upgrade again in another 9 months and I've just gone and blown a lot more money. It's worth it to even buy the whole new version on education pricing about every 4 editions and skip upgrades entirely at that point. And, there's always other ways to obtain the software. It's probably the most pirated software in the world.

[This is a conversation I had with an Adobe rep when I was trying to figure out where the upgrade option was for Uni students.] As you can see, the big ups don't really have any remorse. The guy I talked to was really nice and understood my point, but I want to make sure people know that this is total crap.

I'm going to chase them up on the phone later today after classes (since their waiting queue is about an hour) and get more information as well as potentially escalate a concern and a market for Uni pricing on upgrades, but as it stands this is just crappy business, especially for young people trying to break into the field or just practice a hobby.

Condense the text into a few key points
<bot>: Adobe is punching Uni kids in the wallet on upgrades with no reason whatsoever. Don't buy upgrades, wait for major versions.