Mass Network Rollout ADE 2.0?

[Tuskawilla]

Is there any way to install ADE2.0 via GPO's on a network?  I have a school in need of using it and there is no way i'm touching 500 computers for this one program.  All mention of this I saw in the forums said No, but they were also from the year 2008.  I hope for a better answer today.

thanks!

[sjpt]

Does it have to be ADE2.0.  I found with ADE1.7.2 that merely having the executable around was enough for it to work.

Do you need ADE because you want to read DRM books?

If not, it will probably be easier to roll out a simpler bit of code (Calibre, for example).

If you do want to use DRM books the difficult part will probably not be the installation, but the registration with an AdobeID.

Typically, only up to 6 devices can share an AdobeID.

Schools may well have special status.

I doubt you will find out from normal adobe service (such as Live Chat http://www.adobe.com/support/chat/ivrchat.html )

though with luck they could point you in the right direction for who you should contact.

[Tuskawilla]

Right now I have teachers telling me they need it to read books from public libraries and from our own library system.  I really don't know why they need it.  They also asked for something called Over Drive, http://omc.overdrive.com/ which seems to be for the same purpose.  Luckily it Does have an MSI file and installs silently via normal msi commands.  I just hope they don't need both and I can go with Overdrive if they need it at all.  As for the teachers/students running out of shares for the books, I don't care, they can figure out their usage issue, i'm just in charge of the how to make it work part.  It just seems with how integrated Adobe tries to make itself, it never makes it easy to Deploy in a typical Work/network environment.  So many hoops to jump through for Free downloads.  Same issues with java, but that is another story.

[sjpt]

As for the teachers/students running out of shares for the books, I don't care, they can figure out their usage issue, i'm just in charge of the how to make it work part.

Good luck with that -- the problem is that you will find with ADE (Adobe Dreadful Editions) 'working' has a very flexible boundary, and if you are part of a serious IT support setup you need to support your users with their idea of 'working', not just 'ah, the executable ran, there you go'.

Unfortunately, from what you said earlier, Adobe seems to make the easy part (getting the program installed) difficult for your environment.

They also make the second part (actually using the installed program) pretty hostile too, espeically for relatively non-tech savvy users.