So, in the US, QuarkXPress 7 is $899.95 (plus local sales tax I presume) which works out at around £490 give or take a few £s.

In the UK, QuarkXPress 7 is £749 (plus VAT).

In the US, Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium is $1,199 (plus local tax) which works out at around £650 give or take a few £s.

In the UK, Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium is £895 (plus VAT).

It's a no brainer for me, Adobe CS2 is £146 more than just QuarkXPress on its own, but I would get Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro, and GoLive for just £895.

Or, I could just stump up £749 for just QuarkXPress 7 and be frustrated as hell using another flaky upgrade. I stopped using QuarkXPress years ago in favour of InDesign, and I have no regrets.

If Quark do not want people to migrate to Adobe InDesign, they have to do something about the pricing of their product, as well as improving the functionality of the software.

Also, I need to get this off my chest. When will we see comparable hardware and software prices this side of the pond? £749 in the UK but £490 in the US. that's £259 of a difference. Why? Why? Why?

End of rant