Is it better to upgrade to CS6 or just buy DW6

Question

There is little difference in price between the CS6 suite and a stand alone DW6, both costing just under £400 in the UK (that would be about $700). The suite comes with a big overhead of additional programs that to me (other than Fireworks) are quite honestly not worth the learning curve.  The cost of creative cloud is quite frankly out of reach to the independent webmaster who only writes not for profit sites, and has to pay for his own software. If Adobe were to supply a creative cloud at say £60 a year and only give access to DW and Fireworks, I would probably take up the offer. That's the background.
What do other independent web writers think is the most economic solution, and which way have they chosen to go?
Message was edited by: whatalotofrubbish -  typo corrected

Answer 1

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. Broadband down again!
Quote John Waller
Perpetual license = £358 x 3 (assuming CS6,7,8) = £1,074 (all payments in full, upfront).
Cloud = £328 + £562 + £562 = £1,452 (all monthly payments)
>>>>>>>>>>
I make that three years, not 5.
5 years would be 328 + 562 +562 + 562 + 526 = £2540 - which is a lot different to £1452.
If I upgrade to CS6 before January 1st  and the to CS7 and CS8, based on current prices, that would amount to £328 * 3 or £984, which is lots cheaper than what you are stating John. 
Of course the price will probably rise, which would  affect your maths as well as mine and as you state, they probably will not provide upgrades in DVD format after 2012.
Currently it is not possible to buy an upgrade direct from the UK Adobe website unless you buy the cloud edition.
The discounted price seems to have been withdrawn, so that adds another £234 to the costs, making the cloud price for 5 years a magnificent £2774!
The cloud thing has everyone looking at regular upgrades and not at the cost. Cloud space costs not a lot but has one or two major problems. If you have an unreliable web service like I have, it can be out of action for days on end, -  a whole month once. It would cost me another £70 a year to obtain an unlimited download allowance which in my area is also not worth the money.
In addition, while its probably a safe storage system, its not the same as having it on your computer at your house. Similarly, if your subscription via PayPal has a technical hiccup, like one of mine did last month, your whole web production can go down the drain.
If you are on the cloud do you have to download Dreamweaver each time that you want to use it? Can you use it if you are not on line?
Most of my work takes place in the absence of a good broadband signal.
I will hedge my bets and buy an upgrade disk version of the suite and see what happens when 7 comes out.
Horses for courses - If I was charging £50 an hour for programming like I used to do when I was in the business, there would not be a problem. I just write for charity, and this change is going to stop me doing so - as it will lots of other people.
Microsoft has a charitable arm that supplies software at a great discount - why not Adobe?