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Posts with tag adobe-reader

PDFMeNot Offers Flash-based Online Viewing


When people think about the most irritating apps on their computer, Adobe Reader usually shows up on the list. Our readers tend to think the alternatives (like Foxit) are the way to go, and I couldn't agree more.

That's why I decided to give PDFMeNot's web app a try. I'm a Foxit user, but I really don't use PDF files that often. If PDFMeNot works well, that's one more app I can leave off my flash drive. Also, I enjoy the irony of thinking that I'm getting away from Adobe, when really I'm just choosing Flash over Reader.

Damn it. You win again, Adobe.

I did a quick Google search and located an unclassified Air Force finance report, and dropped in the URL. It took a little bit (about three minutes or so, but it was a 728-page report) for the document to be displayed, but once it was up it worked nicely.

The developers are nice enough to offer a tools page, where you'll find a bookmarklet, Firefox extension, and even code to embed the viewer on your own page.

Since it only functions as a viewer and I can't print from it, I'll be sticking with Foxit portable. I will, however, keep PDFMeNot filed away for days when I forget my flash drive somewhere.

Adobe Reader 9 released, Adobe Reader Lite 9 unofficially released

Adobe Reader Lite 9
Adobe Reader 9 is out, and while the latest version of Adobe's popular PDF reader offers faster launch speeds and native support for Flash content, it still takes forever to run Adobe Reader on some computer systems. If you've ever come across an unexpected PDF link on the web, you know what we mean.

While there are plenty of alternative PDF readers (some of our favorites include Foxit and Sumatra), if you want an application that can handle pretty much any PDF file in existence, you're still best off running Adobe Reader, even if it has a ton of features you'll never need. Fortunately, there's a stripped down version of Adobe Reader called Adobe Reader Lite.

Adobe Reader Lite is maintained by a third party developer and isn't officially supported by Adobe. But version 9 was released last week, hot on the heels of Adobe Reader 9. AR Lite contains all of the basic functions you'd need from Adobe Reader, but none of the extra junk like autorun, desktop shortcuts, or some of the less frequently used plugins.

[via gHacks]

Download Squad Week in Review

logoThe time between Christmas and New Year's is what folks in the biz typically like to call a slow news period. But in the fast-paced world of technology (cue the Quantum Leap-them song styled synth pop), the news never stops. Here are some of the stories you might have missed if you were spending too much quality time with the family this week.

Flipping the Linux Switch: The GNOME Desktop Environment
So there's this operating system called Linux. You may have heard of it. It's kind of like Windows or OS X, but it's highly customizable, stable, and runs on all kinds of machines. Linux has come a long way since the days when you had to understand and love the command line in order to use it at all. But unlike Windows or OS X, Linux presents users with a choice of graphical user interfaces. Our resident Linux guru Kristin Shoemaker will help you decide which desktop environment is right for you. In part one, she looks at GNOME. Stay tuned for part two, an in-depth look at KDE coming soon.

The world ends on January 19, 2038: Thank Unix!
Remember how the world ended in Y2K? You know, power went out around the world, airplanes fell from the sky and all the nuclear warheads stored in government bunkers just up and exploded. Oh right, yeah, that never happened. But if you're looking for another potential disaster to worry about, look no further than 2038. That's when Linux machines will start to party like it's 1901. Of course, there's about 30 years to fix this problem, so you might not need to invest in a bomb shelter just yet.

Continue reading Download Squad Week in Review

PDF-XChange: Another light weight Adobe Reader alternative

PDF-XChange
We spend a lot of time reading PDF documents here at Download Squad HQ, so we're always on the lookout for full featured PDF viewers that don't take as long to load as Adobe Reader. We've looked at Foxit and Sumatra in the past, and we've been pretty happy. The other day when we wrote about another solution, Adobe Reader Lite, which strips some unnecessary plugins from Adobe Reader to improve performance for most users, Downlaod Squad reader Anand K Gupta turned us on to yet another excellent alternative.

PDF -XChange Viewer
loads PDFs faster than Adobe Reader, which may be the only feature that matters to many users. But this free application also includes tools for editing, highlighting, or adding notes to PDF documents.

The application also has a useful snapshot tool for copying selected portions of a document to your clipboard, and a feature for attaching open documents to email messages. Considering PDF-XChange Viewer is just the free version in a set of commercial PDF creation tools from Tracker Software, it's amazing how many features this little application has. It might not be quite as fast or lightweight as Foxit or Sumatra, but comparing PDF-XChange Viewer to those applications is kind of like comparing a Swiss Army Knife to a spork.

Adobe Reader Lite: Blazing fast version of Adobe Reader 8

Adobe Reader Lite
Adobe may have pioneered the PDF format, but it's been a long time since we've recommended anyone download the free but bulky Adobe Reader for viewing PDF files. Foxit Reader can open pretty much anything Adobe Reader can, but much much faster.

A few months ago we took another look at Adobe Reader, when we found Adobe Reader Speedup, which lets you remove some of the plugins that come with Adobe Reader that make its startup time so slow. But most users aren't going to want to install software just so they can uninstall components of other applications.

That's where Adobe Reader Lite comes in. The application is based on Adobe Reader 8, but several plugins and features have been removed, including:
  • Removed license agreement popups
  • Removed autorun and desktop shortcuts
  • Removed several plugins
It's not entirely clear which plugins were removed, but since most users probably use Adobe Reader just to open and read PDF files, odds are Adobe Reader Lite will do the trick. The application loads in no time at all and takes up significantly less storage space than the full version of Adobe Reader. On the other hand, Adobe Reader light still seems to eat up about 3 times the RAM and 7 times the disk space of Foxit Reader. But it might be worth keeping around in case you find a document that doesn't load properly in Foxit.

[via gHacks]

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