Simon Fraser University has signed an agreement with Adobe Corporation for the use of two of Adobe's most popular products on the university's computers.  

These are Creative Suite and Acrobat.  Acrobat is the software that allows for the viewing, creation and editing of PDF documents.  Creative Suite is a collection of Adobe tools, which includes Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop and several more.

The agreement is for a large number of licenses, and runs until SFU fiscal year end in 2017.

Eligibility

The agreement allows for the software to be installed (up to the license limit) on any university owned computer.

It must be noted that university owned in the context of this contract has a very specific meaning that may vary from what we usually think of when we read the phrase.

Clearly, machines personally purchased are not eligible, even if they're used for SFU business.  

So what is eligible?

• Computers purchased by a department or faculty with a purchase requisition.
• Computers purchased (accidentally) using a departmental PCard.
• Computers purchased with funds from a research grant.
• Computers purchased with funds from a startup grant
• Computers purchased by ASPA members with Professional Development funds (so long as the computer was purchased within three years).
• Computers purchased by Faculty members with Professional Development funds (so long as the computer was purchased within three years).

Note that no distinction is placed upon location or usage (unlike other agreements); desktops in staff or faculty offices, desktops in labs, notebooks that come and go are all eligible so long as they meet the above criteria for university owned.

Bottom line, if a machine is not acquired under one of the points above, it's not eligible, simple as that.  (If there is some other obscure acquisition mechanism not covered here that you think should be, send an email with all particulars to software@sfu.ca)

How do I get it?

For licensing reasons, distribution of the two products, Acrobat and Creative Suite, is controlled and tracked; it will not be just a simple download.

Creative Suite

Creative Suite will initially be available to Managed Macs, NexGen computers and Windows computers connected to Active Directory.  These management systems have the ability to push the software out, and keep track of where they've pushed it to.

(Adobe is working on a licensing scheme that will allow for the tracking of installs to non-managed machines.  Once available, Creative Suite may be more widely available. There is currently no time frame for this. For more information on named-user licenses for full-time continuing staff or faculty, please email software@sfu.ca )

Nexgen admins and departmental Active Directory admins can click here for the technical install procedure.

Acrobat Pro

Acrobat will be more widely available, but installs must still be carefully tracked.  Therefore, only a single senior IT support person within a faculty or department will have access to the install media.

These people are members of the SFU-ITSUPPORT maillist, and only they have the rights to obtain the install files.  They also have the responsibility to ensure that the terms of the Adobe agreement are adhered to, as the consequences to SFU should the terms not be adhered to are serious, significant and expensive to the University.

If you are the senior IT support person in your department or faculty, and are a member of the SFU-ITSUPPORT maillist, click here for more information.

What's Included

Acrobat Pro is of course just Acrobat Pro.  

Creative Suite is a collection of individual programs. Given the resources taken to administer the suite, IT Services will not be deploying combinations or permutations of the suite with managed installs. We install everything.

The best place to get info on the suite components is at Adobe's Site, but we will post a brief list here for brevity: