RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

Costco is your friend you can purchase at reduced price in December.

lsimpkins Loc: SE Pennsylvania

Yes, this. Or download the installation file from Adobe and save on a Flash drive or burn it to a CD before using it to install the program. Problem solved.

Jeffers

You have plenty of info on the download part of your question so let's tackle the other part. The Photoshop Elements 20xx for Digital Photographers series by Scott Kelby is excellent. The 2018 edition won't be out on Amazon until March 22 but you could pre-order. Or you could save $10.00 and get the Elements 15 version. I understand there is very little difference. El 2018 has a couple of teaser tools to make life easier, but to my knowledge it offers no additional real capability. Another excellent source is Rick Peterson's Essential Guide for Photoshop Elements. This set of online tutorials is excellent and free, and he already has at least one El 2018 tutorial up. The link for his series is: http://www.essential-photoshop-elements.com/

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

Photoshop Elements is still available on disc, but I believe going into the future it will probably be the only Adobe product that will be available that way. Hopefully they will keep Elements that way instead of making it only cloud based too like Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Read your END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT and you will understand that you NEVER bought Adobe software. You only bought the media it’s recorded on, and perhaps a manual.

As users, we have a non-exclusive license to use the software, but that’s about it. It doesn’t even have to work! When you installed the application, you agreed to this contract. If you didn’t, the installation would have aborted.

This is pretty standard in the industry. Software is subject to change... and intellectual property laws.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Adobe's Photoshop Elements is available on disk as it has always been and that is probably not going to change anytime soon!

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

That is all true, but in the past we had the security of a CD which could be reused. Now the companies are going to a process which costs them less and gives them more control, and at the same time companies are becoming more openly self-oriented - and they act surprised when nobody trusts them.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Why would anyone trust anyone with anything? Some things you have to do on the "faith of the crowd."

Adobe has millions of users, world-wide, and has to abide by government laws of each country where they operate. It is highly unlikely that they will take your money and run, or prevent you from accessing your images. Neither would be in their best interest. At the end of each day, they WANT the software to work for you so you will keep paying for it. There's a symbiotic relationship there.

The whole dream of the Internet is that it will be one giant computer, with millions of nodes sharing data from anywhere to anywhere. Sun Microsystems used to say, "The Network IS the Computer." They were right. ALL distribution is moving to the cloud. It is the only way we can be sure the rights of intellectual property creators are protected.

Companies that create intellectual property (software, books, magazines, PHOTOGRAPHS, music, movies...) have a right to protect it from theft. Unauthorized installation, or use in an unauthorized context, is theft.