I was extremely displeased to discover that even though I own a copy of Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004, I was unable to install it on my new PowerBook. It turns out that you can only have two copies activated at once, and I already had it on my home and work machines. Well, no big deal, right? I can just deactivate one of those and put it on my PowerBook. Oops, no wait, you can't. You can have two active copies, but they have to be of the same platform, so even though the CD ships with both the Mac and Windows versions of the app, you can only have two active copies of the same platform.

Well, as long as I have my laptop, I don't really need it anywhere else, so I can just deactivate both of my Windows boxes, and put it on my Mac, right? Wrong. Buried in the EULA it tells you that whatever platform you first activate the software on is now your platform for life. So, even if you deactivate those Windows boxes, you still can't install it on your Mac.

Needless to say, this is decidedly user-unfriendly, and not at all the way a company should treat their paying customers. What does Macromedia care what platforms I use, or if I'm switching between them? Apple would be well-served to pressure Macromedia on this, as it's a barrier to people switching platforms if they have to rebuy software they already own, even though the box clearly says that the OS X and Windows versions are included.

Also, needless to say, I won't be giving Macromedia any more money in the future, I'll use something else. And, in the words of our President: "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."