Re: Free Adobe Reader 8

Ron Lopshire <notron@xxxxxxxx> (07-04-14 16:50:45):

Except that PDFs only print efficiently on Postscript printers. Gee,
do you think that has anything to do with both being proprietary (at
least to start) technologies of Adobe. [g]

I cannot confirm that first statement. About the second, many of the
formats we use are/were proprietary. To name just a few: JPEG, MPEG,
ZIP. Are those necessarily bad? You have to use neither Adobe
products, nor products from the Fraunhofer Institut.

Why is it that way? It's because the specifications of those formats
are open. Some are patented, but we still use them, because they fit a
particular purpose well, and there are tools freely available.

You will agree that PS/PDF documents, if created properly, have
excellent qualtity. That's why most scientific books and articles are
originally written in LaTeX and then published as PS and/or PDF.


Would someone please explain to me why the information
contained in the above PDF warrants a 1.5 MB document?

Nothing. This is like receiving pictures as Powerpoint files. PDF
is just misused for something, which it hasn't been made for.
That's not PDF's fault, it's the user's.

Of course it is. Ultimately. But whose fault is that really? It all
comes down to Adobe's BS marketing over the years.

"The easiest, fastest way to publish anything on the web."

Give me a break. Morons misuse the PDF format because that is the way
Adobe wants it.

Yes. There is nothing we could do about it. Microsoft does that (Word,
Excel, Powerpoint), Adobe does that (PDF and Flash), Sun does that
(Java), Google does that ("to google"), every major corporation does
that.


Then 95% of all computer users are idiots. Besides PostScript, PDF
is a

Of course they are. No argument here. And because of these idiots, I
am forced to used PDF. But Adobe can stick PostScript where the Sun
doesn't shine. I threw my last PostScript printer in the trash 10
years ago.

You're probably forced to use PDF, but nobody forces you to use Adobe
products. And if you really have a problem with Adobe's formats, feel
free to convert them to whatever you like. You'll lose some quality,
but who cares? Not supporting PDF is much more important! ;)


I am being somewhat tongue-in-cheek here, Ertugrul. That said, I don't
see anything wrong with pointing out the insanities of the
world. Still, nothing will change, of course, because the assholes in
marketing won't allow it. [vbg]

Sad, but true. In fact, in everyday life we even feed these insanities.
But that's okay. We're just human. ;)


Regards,
Ertugrul Söylemez.


--
From the fact that this CGI program has been written in Haskell, it
follows naturally that this CGI program is perfectly secure.
.