FWIW
PS Elements 8 for the Mac is available now on trial mode or purchase.
It looks like the cost is only $79 which seems quite reasonable,
I have not used PS for many yrs and am suspicious that other
components may be needed and will have a higher cost.

The download was >1 GB and took about 20 min to transfer !!!!!!!!!
How can a software program be maintained at that size ?
Remember when MS Word 5.0 (Mac) was only 100k.

In any case, I've just started the tutorials and it all seems to be slow.
Just finding the next tutorial taxes my Mac-trained memory circuits.
Why couldn't Adobe just give a NEXT button?

I suppose if you use PS professionally it's worth the effort,
but right now I'm not optimistic about getting thru all this.
It's more than a bit overwhelming.

A professional wouldn't be using Elements, they'd most likely use cs4 or cs5.

I have no idea what it is, but this download of PSE 8 includes something named Adobe Bridge CS4.

One reason for my previous post is that I'm overwhelmed by the size, complexity, and mostly the feeling of not seeing where to even start on this beast. I am used to learning curves on databases, etc. but PS doesn't immediately make sense to me (yet)... seems like too many teeny, tiny icons on the screen.

So, I'm starting thru the tutorials and we'll see where this goes.