Updates are no problem
It's very easy to avoid problems updating Acrobat Reader. Just switch to Foxit instead, and open PDF files in a fraction of the time.
Miscreants hijacking machines via (freshly patched) Adobe flaw
If you haven't updated your Adobe Reader program lately, now would be a good time. Three days after the company rushed out a critical update, miscreants are actively exploiting a security flaw to execute malicious code on vulnerable machines. The SANS Internet Storm Center says here that researchers have spotted laced PDF files …
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Acrobat Reader?
Why does anyone use Acrobat Reader when Foxit Reader is out there for free?
Gee
Adobe Acrobat Reader has always been free so what's your point?
-- Mines the one with the Apple in the pocket.
Upgrade scripts
Hmm. Helpful, lads.
This is a quickie script I'm using to update client pcs:
Download the standard version of Reader 9 (without Adobe Air) from:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/9.0/enu/ AdbeRdr90_en_US_Std.exe
then you can script this silent install overnight or something:
AdbeRdr90_en_US_Std.exe /sAll /rs /l /msi /qb- /norestart
I use psexec to kick it off on each PC.
For more thorough scripts, check out http://www.appdeploy.com/packages/detail.asp?id=1328
How?
In a corporate environment where users are not administrators of their workstations, Acrobat is a ubggre to keep updated. Anyone care to share ideas for updating 1000+ workstations?
Multiple updates
# sysupdate="'eix sync; emerge -g world'"
sysupdate='pacman -Syu'
while read host; do ssh root@${host} ${sysupdate}; done < hosts
load up hosts and choose your poison for package management.
Is Acrobat 5 vulnerable?
Acrobat 5 being the one before they introduced all the bloat (which of course is also where all the vulnerabilities came in). It's a PDF reader ffs - wtf is it doing opening anything except PDF files?
@Annonymous Coward How?
Just make an OU in active directory and install the new version, you can do it department by department or whatever to save on b/w!
But I'm sure you knew all that anyway!
@Gee - free
Maybe the foxit posts should read: , and it's also free. But that's not the point.
Foxit is much smaller and much faster than the free adobe pdf reader, and (so far) less exploited.
For myself, I got tired of the constant holes in the Adobe pdf reader (now I sound like some linux zealot) and decided to try the foxit reader. I was suprised at how much smaller and faster it was (there I go again). I haven't had any problems with it so far, so now I install it on all of my machines (and again).
Good luck out there.
Foxit
I switched to foxit a year ago, some time after I started trying to strip the crap out of Acrobat Reader (Acrobat Reader Lite or something modifies the Reader), then came across Foxit. Funnily enough, Foxit is Acrobat Reader's FireFox. Cunning foxes, eh?
Foxit
Acrobat Reader - 33.5Mb download
Foxit - 2.57Mb Download
I've been using Foxit for over twelve months found it to be much, much quicker that Acrobat. I can't see why anybody uses Adobe's bloated (and now it seems bug-ridden) software.
Adobe ?
Who still uses free stuff from Adobe ?
It's invariably bloated, full of holes, and much worse than the independent free version that does the same thing.
If you're not a publisher of PDF files, you have no use for Adobe products. Foxit is the only thing you need - and it is a lot faster and a lot more secure than Adobe products will ever be.
And it's free as well ! What more could you ask for ?
Foxit
The problem with Foxit is that it doesn't support all of the PDF format. Any file that makes use of the interactivity features of PDF will fail on Foxit - it renders the PDFs as a flat file (just as GView does).
In other words, the reason that Foxit is smaller and faster than Adobe Reader is that it does a lot less. So, use Foxit if you like for simple PDF rendering, but you'll need Adobe Reader for advanced PDF files.
Why..?
Why people still use Adobe Reader I don't know. The download is 34MB which should set alarm bells ringing before you even install it. 34MB for a friggin' PDF viewer?
In comparison Foxit is only 3MB, and they also provide an .msi file so you can easily roll it out to your windows domain. Consequently updating it is also easy, new .msi and away you go.
This is why
I use KPDF - it's safe and light enough to let it open in a browser without worrying it'll freeze your computer.
@Daily
So which bit of "Whether your machine runs Windows, OS X, or Linux" (emphasis on the OS X) didn't you understand?
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