i really want to bite the bullet and pick up PS. i'm a student so would qualify for the student discount, but when i went onto adobe's website, everything seemed to be for CS3. are you able to get discounts on CS2?
(for a mac)

Really?

i just want photoshop period. didn't really feel like spending $400 on it.

From Adobe's site:

What are the restrictions in using education versions of Adobe products?

A customer may only purchase one copy of any product. Education versions of Former Macromedia products only (Studio 8, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc.) are intended for <b>instructional and administrative purposes only</b> and may <b>not be used for any commercial purpose</b>.

I misread that. It looks like only the Macromedia products are restricted to non-commercial.

Nevermind.

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while i'd like to buy a new macbook pro next year, my ibook's doing what i need it to do just fine and have more important things to drop coin on than a new computer.

is that just a part of CS3?

it has replaced old File Manager

Gnu Image Manipulation Program

(acronym is at least close to that). It's an opensource program that I've seen get rave reviews.

sorting the contents of those folders by metadata/tags, etc.

Bridge CS3 should also have the newer ACR plug-in, which is nice, too. I do most of my work in Bridge+ACR, with the occasional file going to PS (though I don't know what I'm doing in PS).

It's a file browser that, when the ACR plugin is installed, can also be used to edit images (actually, the images are edited within ACR, from Bridge).

Bridge can also display thumbnails from other Adobe apps- for example, an Illustrator file will show with a thumbnail when browsed in Bridge, whereas it will not when just browsed through Explorer.

You can also sort by filetypes, etc..