I’d love to know what on earth got into Adobe’s head when they decided to turn their PDF reader into a stinking pile of sluggish bloatware? Who here remembers the old days when the Adobe Reader download was less than 10MB?
Take a look at the details on their current download page (which I was recently forced to visit because of a security flaw in the Reader’s functionality that has now been patched):
New Adobe Reader 8
- Work smarter - a clean new look, custom toolbars and an RSS reader
- Work faster - 2D acceleration (requires video card support, Win only)
- Work together - new online conferencing with Acrobat Connect
WTF? I want a simple, fast PDF reader…
- Do I want custom toolbars? Actually, no, I don’t. I want a single standard one with a few helpful buttons, and that’s it.
- Do I want an RSS reader? HELL NO! Give me a SMALL download. If I want a local RSS reader, I’ll go grab one. Otherwise I’ll stick to tools like Google Reader.
- Do I want online conferencing from a bloody PDF viewer? No, I most certainly do not.
I don’t see the reasoning behind all this crap. It’s another example of software going off the rails. The authors are just trying to squeeze in too many features. A PDF reader is not a platform for collaboration or communication. It should render a document for me to read. That’s about it. What makes it worse is that they claim it to be fast, but it’s not!
On top of this, you have to have some shitty little Adobe Agent running all the time, which undoubtedly gives this application the “amazing speed” they seem to be talking about.
For another kick in the nuts, they require you to reboot your machine after installation! Oh. My. God. Why?!
Here’s the icing on the cake…
Adobe Reader 8.1.1 - 22.3MB
Holy crap. 22.3MB!! What a joke. That’s an obscenely large download for a document viewer. People wonder why I stick to Foxit Reader?! It’s fast, it has all the functionality I need, and it’s only 2.1MB. That’s what we need more of. Software that’s small, functional and hits a point of pain, nothing more.
So, other than the obvious candidates (Windows, Norton Product Suite, etc) what bloatware have you suffered lately?
November 1, 2007
bloatware… and not windows??? Damn, i’m at a lost…. wait, i think i got one… damn, lost it….maybe if i used windows this would come to me.
Openoffice(but its getting better).
November 1, 2007
Now now, come on
There are bloated apps on Linux too! Let’s not sound like Fanboys!
OpenOffice is a bit of bloat for what you get. What else is there… how about Apache?
November 2, 2007
Speaking of bloatware - try keeping itunes updated. It seems every week (at least) there is a new update, and each update is an awesome 55mb+ and then you also get to download quicktime as well….
November 2, 2007
That’s just NUTS. Thankfully I’m not an iTunes user. In fact, a large part of the reason I’d never consider any iPod/iPhone/iSuck from Apple is because you’re stuck using iTunes.
November 16, 2007
FoxIt reader rules! I’ve not found a single PDF it chokes on and as far as I’m concerned I’m never going back to Adobe Reader.
I have trouble with iTunes/Quicktime when it updates, because it usually fails, making the auto updater fairly useless. Know a good Quicktime replacement (I don’t give a monkeys about iTunes, but you can’t get one without the other these days).
November 26, 2007
Couldn’t agree with you more, dumped Adobe back in the day when it started getting out of control and have been on foxit since, it is hands down the best PDF reader, small, light and fast as lightening!
November 26, 2007
Hi Trucker
Thanks for the comment mate. I love Foxit. I’ve ditched the Acrobat 8.0 install that came with my OS image, and am back to the fruity goodness of Foxit at work.. ah! It’s a joy