Adobe Installation and Licensing

Are you attending the Mac IT conference this week? You know the one, the one that is part of the iWorld event in San Francisco. What is iWorld? Remember MacWorld? Well they dropped the “Mac” bit and now it is just “i” saving tons of money in printing costs by dropping two letters. Do note the “W” is now capitalized, which it had not been in the past. The “i” is small. Got all that?

Well if you are there this week, I’ll let you in on a secret, I know where the party is. No, not some secret hip party in some cool bar with umlauts in the name. No offense to the legitimate bars and their name in proper umlaut countries; carry on as you were. No, the party is from 11:45am – 12:30pm on Thursday Jan 26 at Moscone West!

The topic: IT823: Deploying & Managing Adobe Desktop and iOS Touch Apps.

What should you wear? I am thinking casual since it is an IT conference, but looking fabulous never hurt anyone.

Who from Adobe is going to be there? Me! I’ll be the MC of our panel talk. You can call me MC J-Rodg if you want. I’m cool with that. Also, we’ve got: Eric Widle, Senior Engineering Manager for the Creative Suite along with my awesome boss (who doesn’t read this blog but should) Carol Linburn: Director Creative Suite Product Management, Creative Suite. And last but not, least, we’ll have Steve Gottwals, Group Product Manager from Acrobat there. That’s right, Acrobat at the MacIT conference! History my friends, history.

What are we going to discuss? Creative Suite deployment tools like the forthcoming AAMEE 3.0 and our new Remote Update Manager tool we are working on. Our new Creative Cloud offering and what it might mean to IT. Also, we’ll discuss the emerging world of management of iOS apps, like our new Touch Apps. You’ll want to be there for that section as we’ll be giving away a few copies of the awesome new Peachpit “iOS 5 in the Enterprise” book by John Welch. John by the way has been instrumental in us getting to participate at these MacIT events and for the record has dropped more f-bombs about Adobe then anyone else on the planet. We listen to all complaints and suggestions; sugar coated ones and ones that are more, well, let’s coin a word: Welchian.

Hope to see you there. Please stop by and introduce yourself. It is always a pleasure to meet the IT admins who work with our tools first hand!

Jody Rodgers | Senior Product Manager | Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite | Adobe Systems

I’ve wanted to do a top ten list on this blog for sometime. I am sucker for those top ten articles on the internet. You know the ones “Top Ten Best Places For Real Estate In Places You Would Never Move To,” “Top Ten Worst Places For Real Estate Including Where You Live,” or “Top Ten Best Android Apps Released Between 8-10 AM This Morning.” And then you click on them and then the site annoyingly makes you click through ten separate pages so you can see ten ads. By the time you get to the 8th one you have lost interest and feel your carpal tunnel kicking in.

This is not that type of top ten. Nope. Just a list of ten awesome things about the free IT packaging tool Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition (AAMEE) 2.1. Once you get to the 8th item on this list you’ll say “I can’t stand it, I have to have it now” and you’ll stop reading and click on the download links. But wait, how can a dot release that has TEN awesome things in it? That is a lot of stuff for a dot release. Right? Well the AAMEE team is pretty much obsessed with packing in as much goodness as they can. We’ve been focused on saving IT admins time and I think this release has a lot to offer on that front.

So without further ado I bring you…
Top Ten Awesomeness of AAMEE 2.1:

1) Existing packages can be updated!
We now have a new workflow that allows you to update packages that are created with AAMEE 2.1 so that they are always up to date. If you create a package in October, you can go back and refresh the updates in that package in December. Awesome.

2) AAMEE now supports more than just the Creative Suite!
Sweet, more suites. AAMEE 2.1 fully supports Technical Communication Suite 3.5 and has limited support for eLearning Suite 2.5 and Acrobat X Suite. Awesome.

3) No more merging of DVD images!
Some folks download the Creative Suite from the Adobe Licensing Website (LWS) as one single large image. Others get it other ways including from resellers and have to take the physical discs and then create images of them and then go through a convoluted and time consuming process of merging them. Merge no more my friends as we now support multiple disc inputs, both physical or iso/dmg. Awesome.

4) Preferences!
Those who have never used AAMEE or have created lots of packages with AAMEE may not think that preferences as a category are not worthy of my gratuitous and carefree use of exclamation marks, but trust me. Prior to 2.1 there were no saved preferences. Now AAMEE automatically remembers your preferences for things including the package name, save to location, Installer location and best yet all the options you select on the Configure Package screen are now all saved after you quit and reopen AAMEE. A big time saver if you have to create multiple packages in a row. Awesome.

5) Never quit AAMEE again!
Another time saver for sure. Now after you are finished building a package you will see a New Package button that takes you back to the start of the workflow process. It is kind of an infinitive loop. Why would you need this? Well let’s say you had to break down the Master Collection into 14 separate application packages. Before, you would have to open AAMEE 14 times. Combined with the fact that we now have preferences this dreadfully laborious task would be, well, still dreadfully laborious. But overall, quicker. Awesome.

6) Support for Apple Mac OS 10.7 Lion!
You can now happily use AAMEE 2.1 to create packages on your 10.7 system knowing it has been tested and vetted by the AAMEE crew. Awesome.*
*See the Known Issues with Adobe products on Mac OS 10.7 Lion doc for the latest on compatibly with the products and 10.7.

7) Support for Apple Remote Desktop 3.5!
Want to create packages with AAMEE 2.1 and then push them out to systems using ARD 3.5? Of course you do. And you can sleep well at night knowing it is supported. Awesome.

8 ) Filter updates by name!
We’ve added a Search by Product option in the Updates section of AAMEE 2.1. There are a ton of updates and sifting through them can be a little daunting. Now in the Updates screen simply type in the Product name and get instant results of what updates are available for that product. Awesome.

9) AAMEE 2.1 is thinking about its demise!
“Ever since the XP-38 came out, they just aren’t in demand.” Wether its landspeeders or packaging tools eventually things become obsolete. As exciting and shiny as AAMEE 2.1 is today, we have to come to grips that one day there will be an AAMEE 2.2 or an AAMEE 3.0. And AAMEE 2.1 has come to terms with this and starting with this version it will do a search at launch to see if a new version is available and announce its own redundancy. Awesome.

10) ExceptionInfo.txt file now includes commands!
Okay, so maybe I front loaded this list a bit and now the end of the list is looking rather thin. There maybe there is some truth to that. But if you are a Mac admin and having to deploy items from the Exceptions folder you probably don’t want to have to go to a website just to get the command line text for deployment, right? Why not put it in the doc that is in the Exceptions folder? We did. See? Even this last one falls under the category of: Awesome.

So there you go, ten solid reasons to click on the links below and start using AAMEE 2.1. We also have a new Read Me that includes more on these new features and a list of known issues. And we are continually updating and revising the CS5/CS5.5 Enterprise Deployment Guide that explains how to use AAMEE, APTEE, AUSST and more.

Adobe Application Manager, Enterprise Edition 2.1 (Windows)
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/developer/creativesuite/AAMEE/win/ApplicationManagerEnterprise_2_1_all.exe

Adobe Application Manager, Enterprise Edition 2.1 (Mac)
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/developer/creativesuite/AAMEE/mac/ApplicationManagerEnterprise_2_1_all.dmg

Jody Rodgers | Senior Product Manager | Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite | Adobe Systems

Not sure how, but I failed to announce the recent release of JAMF’s newly updated tech paper “Simplifying Adobe CS5 and CS5.5 Administration with the Casper Suite” document. This has been updated for CS 5.5 and AAMEE 2.x.:

http://jamfsoftware.com/solutions/adobe-creative-suite/

Speaking of JAMF, they are holding their National User Conference this November in Minneapolis. Spoiler Alert: I’m totally going to be there. I’ll be the one with the AAMEE shirt on. And if you see me the next day, I’ll be the one with a slightly less clean AAMEE shirt on. (I’m packing light.)

I’ve never been to Minneapolis and I am excited. Home to some cool tech places, like my friends at Code 42 and (of course) JAMF. But also home to some of my all time musical faves: The Replacements, Hüsker Dü and Prince. One of my favorite design shops, Aesthetic Apparatus, is there. Plus Minneapolis has a neighborhood called Dinkytown. How awesome is that? Hope to see some of you there!

http://www.jamfsoftware.com/events/user-conferences/national-user-conference-2011/

Jody Rodgers | Senior Product Manager | Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite | Adobe Systems

The cat is out of the bag! Mac OS X 10.7 aka Lion is roaming the streets and you brave Mac IT admins have been deemed Lion Tamers by the public at large. Or at least by me. I’ve managed a few OS compatibility assessments in my past and it is no easy task to gather up all the necessary info from the software publishers that are used in your environment, run/coordinate testing, etc. You are seeking the cold hard facts while a percentage of your users are barging down the door to upgrade due to justifiable work reasoning such as “shininess” and “Ars said I should.” Actually they said “Don’t just run out and upgrade your system as soon as you finish this review.” But who reads the second paragraph of the Recommendations section anyway?

And for that matter, who reads the second paragraph of my blog entries? We have two relevant pages for you and we will be keeping them up to date if new things are discovered, fixed, etc.

Creative Suite FAQ: Mac OS X Lion (v10.7) Compatibility
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/faq.html#lion-os

Known Issues with Adobe products on Mac OS 10.7 Lion
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/905/cpsid_90508.html

Also worth noting that if you are creating an image for Lion that the Flash Player plug-in is not installed for Safari.

And last but not least, what about your own Mac? I know what you are asking: 1) Does Spotify work on Lion? and 2) Can I create packages using Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition 2.0 (also known “on the streets” as AAMEE) using Lion? I don’t have the answer for the first one and seems rather off-topic but I can report that we have done testing both of the AAMEE application and of AAMEE-produced packages on Lion and everything has checked out fine. If you experience something different please feel to use the comments to let us know. So feel free to let AAMEE hang out in the blurred space scene of Launchpad and click on it at will.

Stay cool. Literally.

Jody Rodgers | Senior Product Manager | Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite | Adobe Systems

I’ve been trying to arrange some interviews with some folks both internally and externally for this blog, just trying to mix things up, keep things fresh. I thought with the announcement early last week of Adobe Creative Suite CS 5.5 this would be a great time to do a little Q&A with someone from Adobe to talk about what’s new with the CS 5.5 release. But I failed to get anything setup so I have nobody, not even Eric Wilde. Eric would of been good. I know what you are thinking, maybe you should give up the idea of doing an interview. Nope. The show must go on! I am going to interview… myself. This way I can GUARANTEE the next Q&A we have here will be better.

Jody: How’s it going?
Jody: Great. Except for the part of having to interview myself.
Jody: Which Adobe office are you based out of?
Jody: I work out of the Seattle office. It is in the Fremont neighborhood right along the canal.
Jody: Which product teams are in Seattle?
Jody: These days most teams have people working collaboratively in different offices across the globe so there isn’t many full teams in one location. Having said that Seattle’s biggest groups though are InDesign, After Effects, Audition and the new Digital Publishing group. There are folks from the Creative Suite group, some members of the XD (Experience Design) team, and there are a few Acrobat guys down the hall from me too.
Jody: How many years have you been at Adobe?
Jody: It will be 9 years this summer.
Jody: So enough about you. Tell us about the Creative Suite 5.5 release!
Jody: Well I am not in Marketing so I think I’d mess that up.
Jody: Okay, well do you have anything to announce because I am starting to lose interest?
Jody: I do! In conjunction with the 5.5 launch, we will be releasing the next version of the Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition (AAMEE.) AAMEE 2.0 should be available for download the second week of May 2011.
Jody: And will it only work with CS 5.5?
Jody: No, AAMEE 2.0 will work with CS 5.0 and CS 5.5 media. And it will work with 5.0 and 5.5 related updates.
Jody: Is it still free?
Jody: Ha. Yes.
Jody: Can you give us a sneak peek into the new features?
Jody: I was going to wait until the release announcement in May to talk about the new features.
Jody: That would be lame. Tell us now! At least tell us something.
Jody: Okay I will tell you about one. This is big actually. No, I should wait.
Jody: What? Tell us.
Jody: In-app updates!
Jody: I want to be excited, but explain.
Jody: So you know how with the current version of AAMEE you have to download updates form the CS Updates Blog and you have to manually add them when you are creating your initial application package or you are making an update package for deployment?
Jody: Yep, and it is a bit of a pain.
Jody: I know. Wouldn’t it be great if from within AAMEE it showed the latest updates and you could select which ones to download all from within the app?
Jody: Yes. That would save a lot of time.
Jody: Well that is what we’ve introduced in AAMEE 2.0.
Jody: What if I have to create a bunch of packages, do I have to download the updates over and over?
Jody: Nope. AAMEE caches them and shows you a visual indicator designating that the download is already cached.
Jody: That’s cool. But what if I already have the updates downloaded in a folder or I am using the Adobe Update Server?
Jody: You’ll still be able to manually add them. We didn’t remove that functionality.
Jody: Great. What else is in AAMEE 2.0?
Jody: You’ll have to wait until May’s announcement.
Jody: Sigh. So speaking of updates are you guys ever going to put your Windows updates into the Microsoft SCUP catalog like Acrobat and Flash Player?
Jody: Good question.
Jody: Thanks.
Jody: I attended the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2011 last month with some colleagues from Acrobat and heard firsthand how much people appreciated Acrobat and Flash for doing this. We are looking into the feasibility of doing this with the Creative Suite updates. Possibly doing quarterly SCUP releases except when CS updates have security patches, those would have to come straight away.
Jody: Similar to Acrobat and Flash Player?
Jody: Yep.
Jody: So when can we expect to see the CS Updates in SCUP format?
Jody: I was afraid you were going to ask that.
Jody: People will want to know.
Jody: I can’t commit to a date yet but will let folks know on this blog as soon as possible. And we’ll probably make a public call for testers to help out.
Jody: Okay, one last question. What are you most looking forward to with the 5.5 release?
Jody: You mean besides AAMEE 2.0?
Jody: Right.
Jody: Audition 5.5! I am a long time Mac user and I like to dabble with audio and multimedia projects and I have been wanting a Mac version of Audition since it was Cool Edit Pro. And now we have a Mac version of Audition. Good things come to those who wait. I actually used it in the Audition studio to record the last AAAMEE Adobe TV segment.
Jody: You have at audio studio in your office?
Jody: Well it is really more like a mixing room section of a recording studio.
Jody: Cool. Well thanks for your time today. This wasn’t actually as awkward as I thought it was going to be.
Jody: Really? You didn’t think so?
Jody: I’m just telling you that so you don’t feel bad.
_____
Jody Rodgers | Senior Product Manager | Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite

Our deployment partners and friends at Absolute who make the cross-platform and now multi-device management solution Manage (formerly LANRev) will be co-hosting a webinar next week with us called “Simplify Adobe Creative Suite 5 Deployment using the Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition and Absolute Manage” or SACS5DUTAAMEEAAM for short. If you have Googled SACS5DUTAAMEEAAM and have accidentally found your way to this blog post, please take off your mittens while you type or if you are my cat and are walking across my laptop keyboard again please stop it and get off the table.

Please join us on Tuesday!

Simplify Adobe Creative Suite 5 Deployment using the Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition and Absolute Manage
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. PT
http://www.adobevents.com/eSeminars/Absolute/invite.html

There are also interesting webinars coming up of interest to the IT community including “Adobe Acrobat X Deployment” on March 15. You can see all the upcoming webinars and sign up at:

http://www.adobevents.com/eSeminars/2011/invite.html

Jody Rodgers | Senior Product Manager | Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite

In our continuing effort to improve IT admins’ lives (cue inspiring dramatic music) we are pleased to announce another partnership with a deployment vendor, Symantec. Symantec acquired Altiris is 2007 and through that now has a powerful set of client and server management tools know as the Symantec Management Platform. Working with Symantec has been great and the first fruits of our labor is the online documentation “Using Client Management Suite to Deploy Adobe CS5” and shows a walkthrough starting out with creating a package with Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition (aka AAMEE.) We are also working with them on making it easier to identify and manage our software through the use of ISO 19770-2 software tagging, but that is probably the subject for another blog post about what we are doing on that front. In fact, that is probably enough on that subject for a whole series of blog posts in regards to software tagging.

Thanks again to Kyle Champlin and all the folks at Symantec who are helping make life for our combined customers easier!

I recently came home with a new food product from my local grocery store. It was some sort of vegetarian fake-chicken kiev frozen food. I wasn’t exactly sure why I had decided to try it out but I noticed when I was at home that it had a large shiny sticker on the front of the packaging that read: As Seen On TV. This seems like such a vague way to market your product these days. I mean, just because it was on TV doesn’t imply that it is good, right? And in this day and age where there are a million cable channels how hard is it to be on TV? There is probably a frozen food cooking channel these days. Actually there probably isn’t but that would be a good idea. A whole channel dedicated to those too busy or lazy to cook. Sadly, I am in the middle of that Venn diagram.

Speaking of TV, did you know Adobe has a channel? Before you grab your remote I should clarify it is on the internet. The inertnet! You know, where cats who play piano can truly shine. Adobe TV is actually a great resource for our products and we now have our own Creative Suite in the Enterprise show! Our first episode is something near and dear to my heart: Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition, aka AAMEE! Check out the “Deploying CS5 with AAMEE” episode here, complete with a commercial(!?!) at the start:
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/creative-suite-in-the-enterprise/deploying-cs5-with-aamee/

We’re working on additional training content, but we’d love to hear what you’d like to see or general feedback about our venture into the online video training world.

And now you have no excuse but to download and try out AAMEE today, because it has been seen on TV!

Jody Rodgers | Senior Product Manager| Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite

One of the things the Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition is missing is well, let’s admit it: marketing. It wouldn’t be five names long now would it if someone in Adobe’s marketing were involved? It would be something spiffy like Adobe Spiffy. We don’t have a cool icon or logo. Not likely to see an AAMEE banner ad anytime soon. We don’t even have t-shirts to promote ourselves. If we did, I guess it would have to be XL to fit the words Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition on it. That is why I have taken it upon myself to start marketing AAMEE and I am starting with this blog title. AAMEE 1.2: Best Release Ever! Clearly hyperbole is what we’ve been missing! Before you know it people will be using AAMEE like a verb like they do Photoshop. “I AAMEE’d that package in like 6 minutes.” Okay, probably not.

Jokes aside the AAMEE crew has been hard at work on this release. And it really is the best release. You know why? 100% of the features came from you. Every new feature with the 1.2 release was based on your feedback. Here’s what you get in 1.2:

• Packages can be deployed from mounted DMGs!
This has been requested since Day 1. Or maybe even sooner, like Hour 1. This is a nice time saver that I am glad we finally got to include.

• AIR components can now be excluded on the Mac.
Certain workflows as well as proxy servers that require manual authentication are just a couple of reasons why an IT admin might need to exclude the AIR components during the CS installation process. We have provided instructions in the new Deployment Guide on how the AIR components can be installed via command line. The biggie being the Community Help application aka CHC. I hope to do a whole blog post on this topic in the new year. There’s something to look forward to. 2011 is looking up already.

• Updates are installed directly from ZIP and DMG files.
This is a pretty great new feature. You no longer have to mount your update files. You just select the ZIP (Windows) or DMG (Mac) files directly. You can even open up a folder of downloaded updates, select all via your keyboard and important them all into AAMEE at once. Nice!

But wait, there’s more. If you download AAMEE today we’ll also throw in two other five word name IT tools for free. Yep, the companion tools to AAMEE, Adobe Provisioning Toolkit Enterprise Edition (APTEE) and Adobe Update Server Setup Tool (AUSST) are now included in the install of AAMEE 1.2. Their locations of the installed apps are listed in the Read Me.

So don’t walk, run to the Creative Suite Enterprise Deployment site where you can get AAMEE 1.2, new Read Me and a brand new updated Deployment Guide all for the low, low cost of… free:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/creativesuite/enterprisedeployment.html

One last marketing ploy: Wouldn’t AAMEE 1.2 make a great holiday gift?

Jody Rodgers | Product Manager| Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite

We don’t have a breaking news section of the blog. We should because we have some news hot off the press. (Is Adobe allowed to use a hot metal printing process method metaphor?) Okay, drum roll: We are pleased to announce that AAMEE 1.2 will be previewed at the upcoming MacTech Conference in an IT Track session!

And wait, there’s more! If you have been waiting to the last minute to decide if you are going to the conference then file this next bit of news under “good things happen to those who procrastinate until the last week before the conference and then get rewarded with a special offer.” Readers of this blog (or if you got here from a retweet) get a special discount for the MacTech Conference through this Friday 10/29/10. You can save up to $200 with an option of a bundled Apple Certification Exam, or a $100 cash discount off the $899 registration price. Space is limited, so this is first come, first served. You must use this URL for the special pricing and extended offer period:

http://macte.ch/conf_adobe

The conference is being held in Los Angeles November 3-5. If you haven’t looked at the updated MacTech Conference lineup it has gone from awesome to awesomer, which isn’t a word. “Awesomer” should be, so I would have the proper adjective at my disposal. There’s over 40 sessions, check them out:

http://www.mactech.com/conference/sessions

There is also lots of other cool events going on during the conference. I am a space geek so the evening trip to the Griffith Observatory should be cool and I am definitely checking out the iPod Touch controlled Planetary Exploration Rovers.

Hope to see you there!

Jody Rodgers | Product Manager| Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite