Adobe Reader 7.0 Coming to Linux 454
Sometimes_Rational writes "There is now one less thing for Windows and Mac users to point to when claiming desktop usability superiority. While not officially listed in Adobe's download page, you can get Adobe Reader 7.0 for Linux from the company's FTP server
according to this
article at The Inquirer ,
which also has a review. The upshot is that Reader 7.0 for Linux
is as bloated as its Windows and Mac siblings, but it loads much
faster and is more useable than version 5. I imagine that this will get loads of comments about how Reader for Linux headed downhill after version 4. Or was it 3?"
Useful combination = Acrobat + OO (Score:5, Insightful)
PDF is also useful for sending read-only stuff like contracts or proposals - if you're the consultant types.
Now that Adobe updated Acrobat, maybe some of the more recent PDFs will be more renderable in Linux.
It's time (Score:3, Insightful)
Reader Extensions (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:xpdf (Score:5, Insightful)
You still can't read each and every PDF document with xpdf, especially DRM protected files are impossible to view...
You also can't fill out fillable PDFs with anything except acroread
Re:Acrobat 4! (Score:3, Insightful)
Bloat would be okay if... (Score:5, Insightful)
I could deal with the bloat if the damn thing is more stable than Acrobat 5. It is one of the only closed-source desktop apps I use regularly in running my business. (The only reason I use it over xpdf or gpdf is because Acrobat allows me to print multiple copies of documents, where gpdf/xpdf do not! Does nobody print multiple copies of PDFs but me?)
It also happens to be the one app that routinely destroys the desktop. I often have to ssh into the desktop boxes because Acrobat has seized all input and won't let go. My employees frequently abandon virtual desktops because the Acrobat splash screen won't go away and they don't know how to kill it. (Have to show them how to use xkill I guess).
Acrobat 5 doesn't integrate well with the Linux desktop. It has a rude habit of grabbing keyboard input at unexpected times -- I have trouble switching virtual desktops using certain window managers because Acrobat always receives the F1 key, not the window manager.
The Acrobat 5 Firefox plugin is nasty -- if you drag your mouse pointer into the main window while the Acrobat plugin is running, it seizes all keyboard input; you can't even type anything into the location bar until you drag the mouse pointer back up to the Firefox menu bar.
While writing this message I launched Acrobat Reader 5 to remind myself of what the problems were, and within two minutes it locked up and I had to kill the beast by remotely logging in from another computer.
So if Acrobat 7 solves any of these problems, I'll probably use it gladly, bloat and all. Come on, Adobe! I swear that if you wrote quality Linux desktop apps, people would use them. They might even *pay for them* (ahem, Photoshop... ahem, Illustrator).
After reading a few comments here. . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously though, we should be glad that the acrobat reader has been updated. This is one area that is still fairly essential for a corporate desktop. Corporate types wanna know silly things like why do I use something called xpdf and my colleagues at xyz company have the newest adobe. As a computer person, you can smile at this behavior - however, many of you realize discussions such as this is what continues to marginalize Linux from gaining marketshare.
Corporate entities should be thanked for releasing software to Linux. They DO NOT PROFIT from it at this point by and large. I'm sure someone can pull up a random example to the contrary. However, by and large there is little profit. Those companies that choose to support linux in whatever fashion probably do so at the behest of some visionary individuals within the corporate ranks that see fit to expend corporate resources on the project - again not because of profit - but because of future potential of one.
That's right, imho companies are placing small wagers on Linux - and we, the OSS community need to make these wagers pay off eventually by concentrating on increasing our numbers. When that happens - the wagers placed by companies will be larger and larger - and eventually we will get things we've always wanted for Linux.
Don't beat up or be overly critical of corporate efforts. Please remember if you've got a favorite OSS solution to a product that a corporate entity is trying to offer a solution for, then that is the best of both worlds - not an attack on yours.
Re:Evince+Poppler - free / usable rendering. (Score:3, Insightful)
The one thing I have not seen any other reader than Acrobat do is form filling. Get that into Poppler (or would it be evince/KPDF?), and you would make a lot of people very, very happy.
Re:I'll get it now (Score:1, Insightful)
Translation for those of you on a budget: "That restaurant is only expensive if you have a problem sacrificing ~100$ of currency for a dinner. I just cashed a $160,000 payroll check the other day. Dinner expense is not a problem."
Another great addition (Score:3, Insightful)
OSS is about freedom and our right to choose what we run.
Every port to linux or BSD or one of the other alternat Operating systems is a major victory for freedom of choise. As much as i respect RMS and his iron stance on GNU everything , i have to disagree and say we also need to allow people to decide how they want there product licensed.
with Adobe finaly updating the antiquated reader , its just one more sign linux is gaining a stronger foothold in the desktop market, Now i may really dislike windows though i dont want to see it vanish , i want to see all products having an equal(or near enough) market share
Let us hope we soon see photoshop on linux , the gimp is cool but right now linux really needs a program in that class with a little more omph
Its the freedom to decide if you want to run comercial or OSS
And the freedom to decide if you want to sacrafice a bit of HDD space and RAM space for frankly better PDF rendering(right now atleast , the xpdf team are doing a great job)
Re:Useful combination = Acrobat + OO (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Evince+Poppler - free / usable rendering. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:"Coming to Linux..." (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:xpdf (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:xpdf (Score:1, Insightful)
Why!? (Score:4, Insightful)
Acrobat Reader has steadily become more and more obese to the point where xpdf is now my default PDF viewer. I'm no big fan of xpdf, but it beats waiting around for Acrobat Reader to load code I will never need.
but why!? can someone from Adobe please tell me why we need this?
Re:I'll get it now (Score:1, Insightful)
also if a simple application like Acrobat 7 takes a 100megs (not that it does, just as an example) then it shows some god aweful sloppy coding and poor design.
most people like to use hard drive space for data, not for massive programs that shouldnt be that large to begin with.
Re:xpdf (Score:2, Insightful)
Thanks for the tip, but for god's sake, if you're gonna use french words at least get them right, it's: VOILA.
viola means raped.
Bloated, yes, however... (Score:3, Insightful)
And the programs that graphic designers are using now are far more complex, giving the designers more to work with and letting them work faster. Of particular interest are layers and transparency - something even Quark has begun to see the light on. These graphic files have to work as designed when they're dropped into Acrobat Distiller, or you're going to have the same problem - customer's proof is different from the printed piece.
I would imagine that Adobe develops Acrobat Reader and Acrobat side by side, so it's not a matter of separate development teams and of not worrying about the program they don't make money on. Adobe has far too much at stake to put out poor versions of the free Reader.
Re:"Coming to Linux..." (Score:3, Insightful)