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Adobe Reader 7.0 Coming to Linux

Posted by Hemos on from the get-er-done dept.

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?"

3 of 454 comments (clear)

  1. Reader Extensions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One really cool thing about the 7.0 version of Adobe Readers is that they can be extended with Adobe LiveCycle Reader Extensions to add features that are normally only available when you buy Adobe Acrobat. Of course, Reader Extensions costs something. But what's great is that given the right "pixie dust", Linux is no longer a platform for just viewing PDFs, but it can do PDF Collaboration and forms routing just like its Windows and Macintosh counterparts.

  2. Bloat would be okay if... by tomRakewell · · 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).

  3. After reading a few comments here. . . by episodic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've decided that linux users are in large a hard to please bunch :) . . .

    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.