I'm considering getting the Rosetta Stone software, to improve my knowledge of French. Is anyone familiar with it? Any opinions?

http://www.rosettastone.de/

http://www.rosettastone.com/

It's gotten generally good reviews in the press and online. But it's not cheap and I want to make sure it's worth the price.

Based on the demo, the technique teaches words and phrases using pictures, and avoids translations. (So it will show a picture of a dog, and label it as a "chien", but it will never tell you that it's a "dog".) I'm particularly interested to know how well this approach covers abstract vocabulary. It's easy to teach woman, dog, drink, I'd like to order soup. But does it cover words like chemistry, affair, arrange, happiness, insult, lawsuit, Romania

And what about grammar? Does it teach gramm Will I understand passé composé, conditionell, subjonctif, etc?

Thanks.