We are happy to announce that it is possible for users of concurrent Adobe CS4 products to launch their applications while completely disconnected from the Internet. Therefore, mobile users NO LONGER NEED to check out a license with KeyServer to use these programs without a network connection.
With the release of Adobe CS4 versioned products, the College has changed from individual licensing to concurrent licensing.
Concurrent Licensing is a licensing structure that is based on how many copies of an application are in use at a given time. For example, if Carleton owns 10 concurrent copies of program x, that program can be installed on more than 10 computers. A license server limits usage so no more than 10 copies are in use at a time. In the case of Adobe products, this limit is a “soft” limit. That is, the license server does not prohibit the launch of Adobe products when the limit is reached. Instead, it records that an overage occurred. In the event of an overage, additional licenses are ordered to maintain license compliance.
We have also stopped purchasing “Creative Suite” per se, and instead are purchasing the individual Adobe applications that the Suite contains. This change has allowed the College to save money on Adobe products while increasing the availability of these products.
The following Adobe products are only available with the concurrent license:
• Dreamweaver CS4 for Windows and Mac
• Fireworks CS4 for Windows and Mac
• Flash CS4 for Windows and Mac
• Illustrator CS4 for Windows and Mac
• InDesign CS4 for Windows and Mac
• Photoshop Elements 7 for Windows
• Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac
• Photoshop Extended CS4 for Windows and Mac
Adobe Acrobat 9 exists on campus in both concurrent and individual licenses. Because of this, some technical changes will need to be made in order to offer this same functionality. If you are a mobile user of Acrobat 9 and are accustomed to checking out a license with KeyCheckout before disconnecting from the network, you will need to continue to do so.
Related notes about this licensing:
• For all concurrent products except Acrobat, and for all individual products, Adobe updates should work as expected.
• Because these are concurrent licenses, we are NOT entitled to install them on our personally-owned home computers. (The “Adobe Work At Home” program allowed users to install the same version of most Adobe products on their home computers that they had in their offices.)
• If you had taken advantage of this in the past, and now your Carleton-owned office computer has migrated to concurrent versions of CS4 products, you must remove the Adobe products from your home computers.
• Likewise, if you have concurrent versions of CS4 products on your Carleton-owned computer, you are NOT entitled to install older versions of the programs on your home computer.