The Prediger has given me a wedding anniversary gift: the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium Student Edition.  (If you have a student ID and presently are enrolled at a college that grants degrees, you can get a 80% discount off the price of CS4.  Add the 15% off coupon code I’ve found at Retail-Me-Not and I got free shipping!)  The problem was that it came in DVD form and I cannot download the CS4 from Adobe.  Plus, Adobe does not have a Linux format.

There was a solution that came at a fortunate time:  Microsoft has made Windows 7 Release Candidate available for free, with a option to buy after a year.  So I’ve downloaded the ISO while booting from Ubuntu, burned it and installed the RC.  Since installing erases the Master Boot Record so I cannot choose to boot up Ubuntu, I have to reinstall GRUB from a live Ubuntu CD.

The DVD drive is now working under Windows and I’m happy with that. I’m using the Basic theme instead of the Aero interface so the lappy won’t get overworked with the graphics. It’s smoother than Vista, that’s for sure. The only drawback is that I will have to purchase Windows 7 when the RC cripples use in March 2010.