Still Using That Pesky Adobe Acrobat?

**fstrulz** · 10-24-2007, 04:49 PM

For all of you who didn't know... There's a much more lightweight, faster, and better pdf reader:

Foxit Reader

It's FREE by the way.

**Actatoi** · 10-24-2007, 05:43 PM

Thank you for the tip, gonna try it out.

**Jaggster** · 10-24-2007, 05:51 PM

Will check it out

**kirktrix** · 10-24-2007, 06:15 PM

Thanks... I will check it out...

**DooMeD68** · 10-24-2007, 08:58 PM

intersting little PDF reader - cheers i wil have a lOOk !

**Chewie** · 10-24-2007, 11:02 PM

It's surprising how many people think they need Adobe's bloated reader for PDFs. I've been recommending and installing Foxit for years.
Small & fast, it's one of the best freeware programs on the net IMO.

**Snee** · 10-25-2007, 02:38 PM

Like I've already said before, it's alright, assuming you're not too bothered with not being able to open all pdf-documents.

Ran into a document with some interactive content and whatnot foxit just couldn't handle just the other day whilst helping someone else, for instance. It wouldn't display the document at all, just went black, and then crashed. The same document even worked like a charm (barring certain forms which just didn't display) in a very old, and presumably less bloated, version of adobe reader, when we tried that (obviously the latest version managed everything).

I've since read up on Foxit, never bothered to try it since adobe reader never gave me any issues, once I'd been tinkering with it for a bit, shutting down some stuff (it's not as if an install amounting to 38MBs or something makes a noticable impact on a 400GB drive). It's not exactly unheard of, or even that uncommon, either, for foxit to not render documents entirely properly. And on some systems it's been known to use more memory than adobe reader.

Not saying that we shouldn't try other options, since Adobe reader does have a lot of flaws, but foxit is hardly the ultimate solution. You might as well use sumatra or whatever if you can make do with something basic.

It's a bit like Open Office vs. regular Office. Every now and then you'll lose the formating of a table or get the page numbering buggered if you've made something with one and are now opening it with the other.

Adobe, like MS, controls the standard, and are bound to mess around with it, possibly just to keep the alternatives down.

So yeah, at this point, unless there's something better than foxit, you do need Adobe's bloated reader if you want to be able to open any PDF.

**fstrulz** · 10-25-2007, 03:52 PM

@Snee... I've been using Foxit Reader for over 2 years now and never had any problem, even when reading big documents and eBooks...

Maybe it's hardware (i.e. RAM) related with you?