r/sysadmin • u/TheJesusGuy Blast the server with hot air • Sep 14 '24

My business shares a single physical desktop with RDP open between 50 staff to use Adobe Acrobat Pro 2008. Question

I have now put a stop to this, but my boss "IT Director" tells me how great it was and what a shame it is that its gone. I am now trying to find another solution, for free or very cheap, as I'm getting complaints about PDF Gear not handling editing their massive PDF files. They simply wont buy real licenses for everyone.

What's the solution here, and can someone put into words just how stupid the previous one was?

Edit - I forgot to say the machine was running Windows 8! The machine also ran all our network licenses and a heap of other unmaintained software, which I have slowly transferred to a Windows 10, soon 11 VM.

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u/cgimusic DevOps Sep 14 '24

I never understand why people so blatantly break the terms of the license. You'd be better off just pirating it at that point, it's cheaper, it's equally illegal, and you're less likely to get caught.

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u/vrtigo1 Sysadmin Sep 14 '24

I perfectly understand why they do it. Because they're lazy and they don't want to take the time to write up a request and business justification and go through the approval process. Unfortunately, when you're hired as a manager/director, that's part of what the company pays you to do.

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u/Twuggy Sep 15 '24

There is also an element of 'I'm paying for it, therefore it's legal' to it.

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u/vrtigo1 Sysadmin Sep 15 '24

Or, "I paid for one a decade ago, so surely it's valid for the whole team". Point taken, though.

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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins Sep 15 '24

Its less effort and provides some level of deniability.

"What we have a license?!" sounds better than "yeah I got it from a torrent".

Not defending it but that's why people do it.