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Adobe Acrobat Toolbar Worse than Malware?
Phr3n3tik writes "Adobe Acrobat has long included a toolbar plugin to automate PDF Making from Office Products. Those who found the toolbar an eyesore, or just used it infrequently could always hide it from view. Not so in their new versions, (6, and 7 apparently.) Their new take on the PDFMaker toolbar is getting some users riled up, since it is harder to Move/Hide/Delete/Uninstall this new toolbar than many forms of malware!"
Adobe toolbar, what's that? I just hit "Save to PDF" on any print dialogs...
... Adobe has taken the Real approach to software.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
If it weighs as much as a duck, and made of wood, it's a witch.
But people use XXX Teen Search Buddy whereas they don't use the Acrobat toolbar.
Adobe is clearly filling a market need with their product. As pioneers they can, of course, charge premium rates for their commercial-grade Malware. They have to recoup the costs of conducting psychological studies on the most brain-corroding toolbar scheme imaginable. These things cost money, you know. It is wholly unreasonable to ask Adobe to develop such brain-mangling software and shoulder the research costs involved.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
;)
:-D
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
OT i know, and not to nitpick, but that was actually Yoda.
Now the real question is, do you ALSO get more responses related to your sig than your comments (like me?)
do() || do_not();
This article is ridiculous. I've been a user of (BUY ADOBE ACROBAT!!!!) Adobe's toolbar and I have never seen any (BUY ADOBE ACROBAT!!!!) evidence of being infected with any sort of adware (BUY ADOBE ACROBAT!!!!) or malware.
I'm a big tall mofo.
You need to select print to save? That's intuitive... err, I think.
MS should really step in here and mandate a total-removal tool. Something that wipes ALL THE BLOODY FILES and icons from the HDD.
You mean, like "format c:"?
Next on Slashdot, how to remove the MSNMessenger icon from your system tray!
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
Good point, while we're at it, I demand that Microsoft remove all file systems from Windows.
I am sick of them keeping the third party file system market down with their evil, evil, evil horrible mean monopoly.
And damn them for including a web browser!
Also, while we're at it, I demand they stop forcing you to buy the OS with every computer they sell. I want to buy my OS and hardware separately. Oh, wait, that's Apple, sorry, my bad, I forgot, it's not a monopoly unless you are Microsoft.
Admittedly, that's not a fortune but it's a bigger bottom-line benefit than I've ever gotten from a "Bill Gates Says Lunix Isn't As Good As Windows" or "Open Letter From Darl McBride Responding To Open Letter From Groklaw To Darl McBride" story.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
It does harm to my eyeballs. Also, PDF killed my father.
Game... blouses.
"By Grapthar's Hammer, avenged you shall be!"
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
I think it's funny that everybody picks on him for saying it's supposed to be Yoda, while nobody points out that Spock is not a "Dr." :)
:)
Unless he's talking about a different Dr. Spock, for whom "Do or do not, there is no try" might be referring to raising children.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Obi Wan lied to you. PDF IS your father.
Not so much a sig as a lack of one.
Adobe toolbar, what's that? I just hit "Save to PDF" on any print dialogs...
Would that be with the right or left mouse button?
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Old & busted: programs that had Windows systray icons you couldn't turn off, nor did you need
New hotness: programs that have a web browser toolbar you can't uninstall.
I've always wondered what a pointy-eared alien who has sex once every 7 years knows about raising children, and now you tell me he isn't even a "Dr."?!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
What's a mouse?
So what does that make me? PostScript Kenobi? Adobe eBook Skywalker? Darth Preview.app?
Sex once every seven years eh? Maybe that is why so many geeks want to play Spock at Sci Fi conventions.
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
Oh no no no... it does plenty of things.
Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work! I was never kinder to the registry during the whole week before I killed it. And every night about midnight I turned on the back door and opened it oh, so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my edits, I put in a dark comment, commented so that no bits came out, and then I thrust in my command. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly, very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the backups. It took me an hour to place my whole script within the opening so far that I could see the library as it lay within its folder. Ha! Would a madman have been so wise as this? And then when my script was well in the folder I executed it cautiously -- oh, so cautiously -- cautiously (for the hard drive creaked), I launched it just so much that a single thin electron fell upon the vulture toolbar. And this I did for seven long nights, every night just at midnight, but I found the toolbar always closed, and so it was impossible to do the work, for it was not the toolbar that vexed me but this Evil Icon. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into my applications and spoke courageously to them, calling them by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how they had passed the night. So you see it would have been a very profound program, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon the toolbar while it slept.
I had my head in, and was about to open the folder, when my pinky slipped upon the enter key, and the program sprang up in the toolbar, crying out, "MAKE PDF?" And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses? With a loud yell, I threw open the script and leaped into the registry. It err'd once -- once only. In an instant I dragged it to the trash, and emptied it quickly. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done.
Yet, upon the next reopening, first and formost it mocks me. It was open, wide, wide open, and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness -- all a dull grey with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones, but I could see nothing else of document's font or margin, for I had directed my sight as if by instinct precisely upon the damned spot.
I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury, but the toolbar remained. O God! what COULD I do? I foamed -- I raved -- I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and bounced upon my cube, but the toolbar arose over all applications and continually increased. It spawned over -- over -- over! And still the office chatted pleasantly , and smiled. Was it possible they saw not? Almighty God! -- no, no? Adobe saw! -- Adobe suspected! -- Adobe KNEW! -- they were making a mockery of my horror! -- this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical responses no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! -- and now -- again -- hark! louder! louder! louder! LOUDER! --
"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the registry! -- here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous icon!"
With profound apolgies to Poe, this is the truth of that toolbar.