Digital RAW files?

Recently went out and about testing a new camera purchased by one of my more regular employers.After shooting away frantically, and enjoying the whole process, I got home and much to my surprise, the raw files I had shot could not be opened by my copy of Adobe Photoshop CS™.
"What the hell" I said
Is this another upgrade scam from software giant Adobe™? A dig around the Adode™ site seemed to indicate the only way to open these files was to use the latest version of their RAW of converter. Not to worry I knew of a demo piece of software, made by Phase One that opens many files and does a much better job than Adobe Photoshop CS™ anyway. As it was a 30 day demo version, I thought I'll include this in the next years computer budget, (assuming I'm still working there). A bit more digging around on the web and I discover that low and behold, Adobe™ has released a FREE tool that is designed to open any and all RAW format presented to it. Indeed it works and works more than adequately for most people's needs. So if you can not afford to purchase the Phase one Software or justify it's price then you can use the new DNG software made by Adobe™

Here's an image made with the Canon 350d and opened using the DNG RAW file converter, then tweaked slightly in Photoshop to enhance sharpness and contrast

Here's some more info on RAW files, as part my regular research for my Part time photography teaching work at PIC photographic imaging college.