Phtoshop CS and Canon CR2 (400D)

Question

I have CS on Windows.
I have read this in the FAQ:
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Q: I have Photoshop 7, with Adobe Camera Raw 1; will there be an update to support the new cameras? What about Photoshop CS and Camera Raw 2.4?
A: Only the current version of Photoshop will receive ACR updates. However, when a new DNG converter is released, Camera Raw 2.4 in Photoshop CS and all versions of Camera Raw 3 in Photoshop CS2 will be able to open files supported by the new version of DNG converter. Photoshop 7 and ACR 1.0 do not support DNG, therefore you will need to upgrade to the latest version of Photoshop.
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And I don't understand it - though I suspect it may offer me a (partial?) answer to my problem. Adobe's efforts at explaining are useless.
Go to Camera Raw latest plug-in and it says it is not compatible with CS.
Go to Camera Raw 2.x which is compatible with CS but it does not support Canon 400D CR2.
Go to Camera Raw 3.x which DOES support 400D CR2 but is not compatible with CS.
Nowhere (that I can find - and I've spent hours looking and half that time getting "this page not available for scheduled mantenance") does Adobe deign to explain what to do other than tell me I need to upgrade to CS3 (as do customer services).
The answer above seems to imply that some technical combination of Camera Raw 2.4 and a "new" DNG Converter will somehow allow a back level version of Camera Raw (2.4 - which will work with CS I gather) open new/later camera raw files (e.g. 400D CR2).
Can someone confirm that this is the case and provide idiot-proof advice on which "new" DNG converter I need to perform this simple magic? Thanks so much.
(Gee - it's not like CS, CS2, CS3 are all THAT different, are they? Why can't they just make Camera Raw back-compatible? Seems to me like a deliberate blackmail strategy to "encourage" expensive upgrades. But I'm just a p'd off cynic.)
Hey-ho
Thanks,
George

Answer 1

G Sch - thanks for your further clarification - very helpful.
Jim - thank you, indeed, for your patience. Though it is perhaps not quite as saintly as some of your friends imply given the obvious validity of John Joslin's comments that "there are plenty of examples outside the rarefied air of the Adobe world where such backward and forward compatibility is achieved." Shame on me for not being sufficiently au fait with this rarified world that your friends thought I was testing your patience unreasonably, and thanks again.
Thank you, John J, for recognising there is a real world out here beyond the dubious business ethics of Canon and Adobe, where such compatibility is not just expected but taken for granted and EASILY achieved. (As I implied - I want to be a customer, not a well to be dipped into at every turn until I'm dry.)
As for Ramon - well I don't normally respond to such sneers but - well, how does it feel to be on that hook Ramon? They've certainly got you, haven't they! So every time you buy a new camera, you fully expect a) to be moved for no reason whatsoever, other than they can do it to you, to a new and different and incompatible raw file format, and b) have to allow for the expense of being forced to upgrade your PS software or else stop using it and throw away your investment in it. Hope it feels good. Me? I don't see anything unreasonable in my expectation - but then I haven't fallen for an apparent Adobe (and Canon) con trick - until now ;-) - and I won't again (unlike some, it seems).
Funnily enough I (and probably you too, Ramon) have bought many new bits of hardware (called PCs) over the years and have run many different operating systems and all of them, even my Win 3.1 and Win98 ones (and I can still run Win98 on my latest PC, by the way) still run apps that can open and generate files (e.g. .doc) that I can use on all of these PCs. That may not be the best analogy - but yes I did acquire a camera that was not available when CS was - but who'd have expected Canon to have different raw formats for 300D, 350D and 400D? Shame on me for not doing my research. And seeing as CS, CS2 and CS3 are not completely DIFFERENT applications but evolutionary, who'd have thought they'd make an ARC for CS3 that was deliberately not compatible with CS, just to extort an upgrade fee from me. Oh - sorry - you'd have thought it, Ramon, that's who.
One does wonder how it is that buying a new camera effectively has an "Adobe tax" tied to it, and who benefits from the tax. (If Canon had any sense they'd stop their end of this so there was no opportunity for Adobe to levy the tax - but where is the 'tax revenue' spent, I wonder?)
Perhaps my expectations are unjustified, and someone can/will produce excellent and justified technical reasons why the Canon raw formats changed and why CS3 is so utterly different from primitive old CS that there are good reasons why backward compatibility would ruin the company (after all I said I'd pay a few bucks for it when I needed an ARC update). But Adobe aren't showing any signs of explaining this, and nor is anyone else - so until then I'll continue to treat them with the contempt they appear to treat their "customers" with. I made an investment in CS and they have not just utterly failed to respect that and seek to protect my investment, they have gone out of their way to render that investment worth less. I'll be using the native Canon tools and other photo apps from now on, rather more than PS, even given the DNG route.
Well that's 5 minutes more of getting it off my chest. :-)
I have the information I sought - thanks, Jim and others - so if I don't come back I'm sure you'll forgive me if I leave you all to it.
(Probably best to just let it all lie, now, eh?)