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I Had To Do It. Really

One of my supervisors is a big champion of the free and open source. To you, I offer my apologies. I tried. I really did. I got to know GIMP well enough to actually use it. I found a great free wiki builder that I still think will be a great base for the community of my digital fiction site. I use Open Office, and even attempted to use their presentation software to build my prototype story.

I still won't use PowerPoint. Never fear on that score.

But.

I.

Had.

To.

Get.

Adobe Creative Suite 4.

Software companies are like dope dealers. They give out that free taste, knowing they'll hook you for life, and that after 30 days you'll be jonesing for that registration key bad enough to jack your mama's stereo. It's how Scrivener got me. It's how Circus Ponies' awesometastic Notebook got me. And now, it's how Adobe's gotten me.

I'm presenting a prototype of my PhD work in just under two weeks. After weeks of working on the story with free/share/open source and "bundled with my Mac" -ware, I was maybe a fifth through with the digital draft - and yes, I do mean draft.

After two days of Adobe Flash, I'm a third in...and that includes time running through tutorials to familiarize myself with the program. Love.

It's expensive, I know, but that student ID card gets me more than just a quid off movie tickets. And with it, I can actually solidly visualize how to get the massive PhD project into the world.

So when the trial ends, so does my savings account. Gimme my crack, Adobe.

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