[azdood]

Hello -

Is there a good alternative for Adobe Reader? Something that will let me open all pdf documents? Thanks.

[WhitPhil]

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/download.htm

[azdood]

Thank you. Would you suggest the PDF Reader or the Foxit PDF Reader?

[azdood]

Nevermind. I just noticed that the Foxit version wasn't free. Thanks for your help.

[Triple6]

Just curious, whats wrong with Adobe Reader?

[azdood]

It's large and bulky and I really don't use anything but the reader. I also don't like the way they do updates. At one time, in order to get one of the updates you have to install the Yahoo toolbar.

[TOGG]

The version of Foxit reader that I use was free and the website suggests that it still is;http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

[azdood]

Thanks Togg -

I guess it's free (?). Here's their legal eagle spiel:

Grant of License: Foxit Software company hereby grants to Evaluator, within the 30-day Evaluation Period, following the execution of this Agreement, a limited, nontransferable, nonexclusive, nonsublicensable, revocable, worldwide license to use one (1) copy of the Software on one (1) computer for the sole purpose of internal evaluation and testing for suitability for commercial licensing by Evaluator only. Title to the Software shall remain with Foxit Software company at all times.

If not, I'll find out in 30 days. Thanks for the link.

[TOGG]

I got my version (1.3.0.909) last November and haven't been bothered since (and I think I had 1.2 before then). At this stage I can't remember being asked for an email address when I did the download and, if they didn't, I don't know how they will find me!

I did notice that the d/l was 1.08 MB, slightly more than the figure given in the blurb, but I expect that's just a failure to update the wording.

I don't use a lot of pdf documents but, for those I do, Foxit has worked as well for me as Adobe did.

[azdood]

Hey, come to think of it, they didn't ask for my email address either. Go figure.

I'm glad to hear you like the program. I really didn't like Adobe Reader. It was just too big and bulky. Perhaps if I did more with it that just read documents I'd like it better, but for my needs it was like asking a Nobel Prize Winning Genius to read a children's book for me. And the way it opened was annoying. All those patent numbers going by so fast a fly couldn't read them (if flies could read). I wasn't trying to get into Fort Knox, I was just trying to read a little document.

I look forward to using Foxit. Thank you again for the great link.

David

[Michel Merlin]

For a week now, my PC (Uniwill 223ei0 12.1 inch Laptop, Pentium M760 2.0GHz, 2GB, Win XP Pro) has been sometimes extremely slow, so that I couldn't any more do anything on it. I suspected NYT and Google News (for their unsollicited periodic refreshes), MS (Windows updates, IE, OE, etc), closed dozens IE windows, tried everything... no avail. I restarted Windows a dozen times in a week; each time it worked again... and slowed again down to death after a while.

Today I discover a tiny white icon in my Systray, saying nothing but "1%". Clicking it brings a window proposing to stop "it". Stop what? I don't know. I stop it... and discover it is an update to Adobe Reader 8.1.2, that probably has awkwardly tried for a week to find a moment when my Internet Connection was idle. In addition that update is 32MB. Yes, I am not kidding, thirty-two megaBytes of aggravating for the Painful Document Format reader!!! launched without my authorization, and even without notifying me!!! in 2008!! Did ever Adobe think where would be Microsoft if acting this dumb and violating users' property this bad?

Since this is not the 1st time it happens to me, I uninstalled Adobe reader 8.1.1 at once: sure I can NOT do without a PC that works, but I can do without PDF documents - and in case I need, I probably can find good alternative programs to just read painful documents; so I googled for "Alternative Adobe Reader", hence my return here - and my thanks for the useful info above, as well as my account in return. I will probably install Foxit Reader next time I need to read a PDF document.

Versailles, Wed 6 Feb 2008 19:55:40 +0100

[Elvandil]

PDF Xchange Viewer
Foxit PDF Reader

[Michel Merlin]

Thx. Yes I had also seen the DLsquad page for PDF-XChange.

What do you think about these two - and eventual other ones?

Versailles, Wed 6 Feb 2008 20:35:45 +0100

[walters4]

Also sumatra pdf reader is amazing and really fast..
a few days back came across adoba acrobat reader "lite" version..
you might wanna give these two a shot ?

[Michel Merlin]

The main alternatives seem to be, sorted from the most powerful to the fastest:

1. Adobe Reader
2. Adobe Reader 8.1.1 Lite
3. PDF-XChange Viewer
4. Foxit Reader
5. Sumatra PDF

More about them with Google "Sumatra, PDF-XChange, Foxit, Adobe Reader Lite".

An user who tried the 3 last ones (3 Free Fast Alternative PDF Viewers) concludes:

I have all of them installed on my pc (except for Sumatra as it doesn’t need installing), to be honest I prefer PDF XChange viewer. It depends on your needs but as they are such small applications why not try each one and then decide.

Apparently a couple users tend to find Adobe Reader too heavy, Sumatra too limited, Adobe Reader Lite too borderline on the legal side (and still rather heavy), hence most often use PDF-XChange Viewer, or Foxit with keeping a shortcut to the heavier PDF-XChange Viewer for the few cases when Foxit isn't enough.

Versailles, Thu 7 Feb 2008 19:14:10 +0100