Miscreants hijacking machines via (freshly patched) Adobe flaw

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.

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

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.

@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 ?

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.