A recent post in the newsgroup reminded me that we should all be more diligent in obtaining permission to use and distribute third party software. Case in point is with Adobe’s PDF Reader. Do you download the installation .exe file, store it on your server, and then copy and install it on every new workstation? Or do you create CD’s for sales/demos, and include a copy of Adobe Reader on it?
Yes, Adobe’s Reader is free. And for personal / individual use, no request is necessary. But for business purposes, you should ask and obtain permission from Adobe to distribute the program. And it’s easy to do. Here’s the link:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/distribute.html
In addition, Adobe provides tools to customize the installation process (such as ‘silent install’) as well as the ability to distribute and install Adobe Reader via Group Policy. Read more here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/solutions/it/deployment.html
-kw