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Google Makes Latest Chrome Build Open PDFs By Default

Posted by timothy on from the open-it-use-dynamite-if-necessary dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Google is changing the way its browser handles PDF files, starting with the Chrome Canary channel. Citing security concerns, the company wants Chrome to open PDF files by default, bypassing any third-party programs such as Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader."

9 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Great by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Great. Another configuration change to manage on all our workstations.
    The Chrome PDF viewer is shit. So is the Firefox one. They're fine for viewing most basic PDFs, but anything more involved (forms, interactive PDFs, portfolios, etc.) and they both just shit the bed.

    1. Re:Great by LunaticTippy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I understand hating the built in viewers, but to me they are a blessing. There are so many things that are PDFs for no reason. I really appreciate a quick and dirty way to see PDFs, and with my usage it is good enough 90% of the time. For the interactive ones etc. I tend to recognize which ones aren't going to work so I just download the file. On unfamiliar systems I always grit my teeth when clicking a link causes a 20 second delay while Adobe Viewer lurches from the shadows and demands to be updated.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    2. Re:Great by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 5, Informative

      Why are we even holding onto PDFs, anyways?

      I myself tend to like PDFs for print materials because it's pretty much the only format that is guaranteed to scale exactly as shown. When I scan documents, or create documents that are primarily going to be used in print form, it's pretty much a given that they'll always be PDF's.

      For anything else though they're annoying.

      --
      Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
    3. Re:Great by mbkennel · · Score: 5, Interesting

      | Because we love formats which are impossible to convert into any other format; which require complicated, ugly tools to perform even basic formatting,

      This is a feature, not a bug. It's not just a feature, it is THE feature.

      I'm very serious. Plenty of times an 'editable' PowerPoint is substantially garbled when it's opened up on a different version, or some Office configuration changed, or it's on somebody else's installation or it's 3 years old, or it needed an equation plugin, or the fonts are whatever...

      If I have an important presentation---"save as PDF" is essential. I want to be able to give away (and use) poorly-editable copies which Microsoft programs will NOT do anything to.

      That is an essential feature.

      | and because we desperately need a format which essentially displays graphics and text to require weekly updates to remove the latest batch of exploits.

      PDF isn't the problem. Adobe is that problem. MacOS and other software display PDF fine.

    4. Re:Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If a new feature is added by way of an update, it should prompt for its settings the first time it becomes relevant. So on the first click on a PDF the browser should prompt: "you can now view PDFs within the browser, enable / disbale this feature / let me try once and prompt me again." It shouldn't silently enable the feature and let the hapless user hunt in the settings for a way to disable it, that's just rude.

    5. Re:Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      | Because we love formats which are impossible to convert into any other format; which require complicated, ugly tools to perform even basic formatting,

      This is a feature, not a bug. It's not just a feature, it is THE feature

      This. I was doing literal rocket science (a project for the ISS) and Solidworks document printing was incessantly moving things around (typically on top of something else, making both notations illegible). I printed always to PDF, fixed the errors in PDF, and then submitted *that* paper to the controlling authority (JAXA, in this case). I couldn't trust Solidworks to print what it said it would. I could trust PDF.

      AC

  2. Sunnary unclear by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 5, Informative
    1. It will NOT change the way the system handles PDF files.
    2. It has NOTHING to do with how the browser views PDF files on the web (the Chrome PDF viewer is already the default).
    3. It only affects how Chrome handles when you choose to open a downloaded PDF file.

    Likely this was done to be consistent. Any security the Chrome PDF viewer could offer could be easily bypassed by an attacker forcing the file to download. If the user clicks it, it opens in the system PDF viewer.

    I believe Adobe Reader has its own sandbox so this might seem a bit weird... but at least one thing Chrome has going for it that Reader has not is that Chrome is more likely to be up-to-date (I forget how Reader updates itself, if it does at all) AND it pulls the latest Chrome PDF plugin with it.

  3. party in your pants by themushroom · · Score: 5, Funny

    And you're the only one who came.

    --
    Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
  4. Simple as that by lesincompetent · · Score: 5, Informative

    chrome://plugins/
    Chrome PDF Viewer --> Disable.