[Update] Adobe Acrobat Reader v7.0

[Rod]

Why not?

This discussion was bound to start.
It places an ad for a payware program by the same company in the topcorner,
which can be toggled off, but like mentioned before: the program ' forgets'
this setting.
You might call it nagware. You might call it freeware. You might call it
adware, it all depends on your personal definition of those terms.
My personal view ?
Nice program, but I really hate that stupid ad. I can't stand it.
And it doesn't integrate in my browser, which is the main reason I don't
use it.
Ware-status ? In my opinion: ad-ware. Would I understand if other people
considered it freeware ? Yes. Like I said before, it all depends on your
personal opinion about the different ware-types, and the interpretation of
the gray area's in between.
Happy PDF-ing everyone.

 

[jo]

My personal view ?
Nice program, but I really hate that stupid ad. I can't stand it.

I think the ad is a mild irritant but is a small price to pay for a
1MB standalone app compared to the bloated excess of Acrobat Reader.
AR, of course, is crippleware

 

[seabat]

Mine: C:\Program Files\Adobe = 5.75mb (Version 4.0)
For down and dirty reading of PDF's, still can't be beat!!
For some reason I can't access the Foxit site to try the contender!

 

[Rod]

I think the ad is a mild irritant but is a small price to pay for a
1MB standalone app compared to the bloated excess of Acrobat Reader.
AR, of course, is crippleware

I'll take the browser integration and the size (4.6 Mb) of AR 4, I wouldn't
touch later versions if my life depended on it though.
But you got me confused/curious here: crippleware ?

 

[jo]

But you got me confused/curious here: crippleware ?

AR reads and will not create. It is a feature reduced version of a
buyware app. Crippleware, no?

 

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 22 Dec 2004, seabat wrote

Mine: C:\Program Files\Adobe = 5.75mb (Version 4.0)
For down and dirty reading of PDF's, still can't be beat!!
For some reason I can't access the Foxit site to try the
contender!

That'd be nice! My "Progams>Acrobat" folder (where I installed version
6.0 of the reader) is 44.2mb. (I have a "Programs>Adobe" folder which
is 4.8 MB, but that just contains an update for Version 6.0.)

I'd like to be able to use an earlier version of Acrobat, but the last
pdf that was sent to me wouldn't even open with 5.0 -- I *had* to
upgrade to 6.0 to open it.

What I need to do, of course, is to get my act together and explore
alternative readers. Maybe an "over Christmas" exercise....

 

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 22 Dec 2004, Rod wrote

I'll take the browser integration and the size (4.6 Mb) of AR 4, I
wouldn't touch later versions if my life depended on it though.

Unfortunately, although my life didn't depend on it, part of my
livelihood did... (I received a pdf which I needed to open that even AR
5 couldn't handle, and was thus forced to install AR 6, which takes up
44.2mb; I gotta find an alternative.)

 

[Rod]

AR reads and will not create. It is a feature reduced version of a
buyware app. Crippleware, no?

Disagree, it's called 'Reader', does what it claims.

 

[Rod]

Unfortunately, although my life didn't depend on it, part of my
livelihood did... (I received a pdf which I needed to open that even AR
5 couldn't handle, and was thus forced to install AR 6, which takes up
44.2mb; I gotta find an alternative.)

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

 

[Harvey Van Sickle]

But you got me confused/curious here: crippleware ?

AR reads and will not create. It is a feature reduced version of a
buyware app. Crippleware, no?[/QUOTE]

That seems unfair: the program is named "Acrobat READER", and it does
exactly what it says on the box.

That's rather like saying that FireFox is a "crippleware browser"
because -- unlike some other browsers -- it doesn't use ActiveX.

 

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 22 Dec 2004, Rod wrote

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

Thanks; I'll give that a try. I had GS 8.0 on the machine a while back
-- it was to use one of the freeware pdf writers, but I found I wasn't
using it enough, so I uninstalled it.

I'll give it another go.

 

[/3iff //ullins]

<snip!>

What a wretched piece of bloatware!
seconded.

What a rude guest on my computer! Taking over search pages, installing
Yahoo web browser toolbar, sticking bits and pieces of crap all around
my computer.
absolutely.

Like a pig in the parlor, Adobe keeps getting sloppier and more
recklessly rude!
affirmative.

-Grumpy

please run for president in '08 so i can vote for you.

 

[J. Yazel]

Foxit is nice

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

======================

I can't find any way to do a text search. I do a lot of that.

Also there doesn't appear to be any help. The "Foxit software home page"
selection doesn't work on my system.

Jack

 

[Jock Strap]

I believe IE is using some add-on.

So you're NOT "just using IE" to view PDFs then.

 

[William F. Adams]

jo kisei said:

AR reads and will not create. It is a feature reduced version of a
buyware app. Crippleware, no?

No, because Adobe Acrobat Reader itself was originally a commercial program in
and of itself which only allowed one to view a document and fill in forms, just
as Adobe Reader does now. It was made freely distributable at v2. You could
argue for its being adware, but it is feature compleat (and does a lot more
than v1 did, e.g., viewing Photoshop albums).

William

 

[William F. Adams]

Harvey said:

That's my point, though: given that it's meant to present static
documents, it seems like wild overkill to have a 44MB program (the size
of my Acrobat folder) just to view the thing -- not to change it, mind,
just to look at it.

Yes, but you can look at documents which:

- include fonts not installed on your system
- written in scripts which are not supported by your system
- include graphics w/ colour correction / calibration according to profiles on
your system or embedded in the document

&c.

I don't see why anyone would complain so much of a free program --- if you
don't want to deal w/ Adobe Acrobat, don't download .pdfs.

William

 

[Ray.Milne]

You mean you didn't take the tick out of the box that asked to install Yahoo
web browser toolbar, and the additional photo software.

I just d/loaded the basic 19.5 mb file. Works OK for me.

Ray.

 

[Tim Weaver]

You mean you didn't take the tick out of the box that asked to install
Yahoo web browser toolbar, and the additional photo software.

I just d/loaded the basic 19.5 mb file. Works OK for me.

The basic reader download is 12.5MB.

 

[Harvey Van Sickle]

That's my point, though: given that it's meant to present static
documents, it seems like wild overkill to have a 44MB program
(the size of my Acrobat folder) just to view the thing -- not to
change it, mind, just to look at it.

Yes, but you can look at documents which:

- include fonts not installed on your system
- written in scripts which are not supported by your system
- include graphics w/ colour correction / calibration according
to profiles on
your system or embedded in the document

&c.

I don't see why anyone would complain so much of a free program
--- if you don't want to deal w/ Adobe Acrobat, don't download
.pdfs.[/QUOTE]

Yabbut...."don't download pdfs" isn't an option when they're sent to
you by third parties, and for various reasons you *need* to open them.

The main complaint relates to what seems to be unnecessary program
bloat: I find it hard to believe that there isn't a cleaner, more
concise -- more "elegant" -- way of programming a pdf reader than
throwing everything into it and making it 40+mb.

Your mileage clearly varies, but to me very large programme sizes
usually indicate either sloppy programming or the compulsory piling-in
of features that will never be used by 90%+ of users.

It comes down to a view that they could do tighter programming if they
tried, and the fact that they don't makes me less than enamoured with
the programme.

 

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 22 Dec 2004, Tim Weaver wrote

Ray.Milne wrote:
-snip-



The basic reader download is 12.5MB.

Yabbut, that's just the .exe installer -- what's the folder size when
you've installed it?

Checking my stored installers, the .exe file for 5.05 was 8.56mb, and
that for 6.01 came in at 15.9mb.

The resulting *folder* size for 6.01 -- what winds up sitting in
C:\Programs\Acrobat -- is 44.2mb.

The download size isn't the issue: it's the installed size that
matters.