Too many "Library/Application Support" folders ?

be gentle - i'm an absolute MAC newbie ...
my daughter has been happily using photoshop (Adobe Creative Suite 2) on a PowerBook G4 for nearly a year (OS X 10.4.8).
recently photoshop has stopped working. when it launches, it comes up with two error messages:
"One or more files in the Adobe Application Support folder, necessary for running Photoshop, are missing. Please run the Photoshop installer and re-install Photoshop."
"An error has been detected with a required application library and the product cannot continue. Please reinstall the application."
also GarageBand complains that "... the Instrument Library is invalid. GarageBand expects a valid Instrument Library folder in /Library/Application Support/Garageband. Please choose a valid instrument Library folder or quit and re-install GarageBand."
so it seems there's some confusion on this system about the "Application Support" folder(s)
after a bit of googling i tried some uninstalls and reinstalls of CS2, but got the same result.
as i was doing some backing up of user data before launching in to the Disk Utility (to do some stuff advised by Apple support), i found three "Library" folders which have an "Application Support" subfolder:
1. /Library (which seems to be where shared/common bits of apps install)
2. /Users/<user>/Library (which seems to be where user specific bits of apps install)
3. /Kate/Library (i can't imagine why this is there!)
this last one intrigues me. the contents of /Kate is exclusively user data files except a subfolder named "Library". i wonder if it's been accidently dragged/copied there - and if it was, what damage that might do ?
how many "Application Support" folders would normally be on a system where everything (I think) has been installed with default settings ?
TIA
Paul
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

The first line of defense when a system has a problem is to VERIFY the boot drive, then repair it from single user mode or your emergency boot drive (not an older DVD).
When I am working on a project, I do a smart update of my backup sets every AM first thing. Two or three sets should work, a rotating set of two for daily, one for weekly, and even a monthly backup. And always a working backup of the system, plus one that is never touched that is used only for emergencies AND one that has the prior OS version (such as 10.4.7 in case I run across something that doesn't seem to work I can test it on a clean system clone, or the older version).
Doing backups just gets into your blood after being around computers for decades and doing some beta testing or just running into the normal gottcha and glitches that come to visit.
There are tutorials, ebooks (MacFixit posted one to subscribers yesterday that covers the basics of troubleshooting), "Missing Manual" series... Apple's MacHelp 101 and of course, Google.
Because there are multiple errors it would seem that a folder or more is missing, moved, or the directory (index) for the drive is at fault. Even if Disk Utility doesn't find a problem, Disk Warrior might. The backup + erase + clean install and restore is the surest way (and shortest often times). Even after "fixing" a problem, I don't fully trust that there aren't corrupt files or something so I like to restore from a clean backup, and lacking that, clean install.
Which is why when you do have the system reinstalled and working, backup (a disk image is fine and can be small system only or as large as needed) to another disk drive so you can restore and have backup and emergency when needed.
Before updating your system, make sure to backup the system, that it works, and use it to repair your normal boot drive before applying an update or installing software. The combined updaters are large but excellent mini-OS reinstall and good to have on hand. Sometimes those small software updates don't go well for some reason but rerunning the combined update does - IF there aren't any pre-existing problems!
If you or your daughter wants easy access to a folder or file, just create an alias and put it where it will be handy, that is the normal supported method. Leave folders where they are.
Instead of creating a new account, you could also rename the home "Preferences" folder, reboot and let the system create a new folder.

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