Adobe PDF Reader - BE GONE! Hello SumatraPDF.

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I've finally got rid of that bloated pile of security vulnerabilities called Adobe Reader with its endless updates and garbage spewed all over the system (and system startup) and replaced it with SumatraPDF. It was only 4 MB to download! It is absolutely fantastic. Does exactly what I need - it allows me to read PDF files. No bells, whistles or bloat. What a refreshing change to see a simple clean bit of software that does exactly what's needed.

Good for you, TallyMan. I use Foxit Reader m'self. Windows 8 had a lite version of Adobe Reader built in but it didn't allow people to print their PDF documents. Total waste.

Gah yes - another once-useful utility, now acting like a bloated parasite OS.
My sister got hit by one of these updates - Adobe thought it more important to get the shiny bells-n-whistles version installed than have any consideration of what the user wanted, or other software on the machine might require. As a result, her company accounts software failed because it expected to find specific versions of the reader's files installed to provide aspects of its help and documentation.
And a non-technical user is expected to understand these potential pitfalls? - especially when automatic update is selected by default and if deselected, dire warnings are given about how important it is to keep software up to date...

@redrobin62 - Didn't allow the printing of PDFs?! Sheesh, what a waste of space.

I always used to keep Adobe Reader up to date due to the endless reports of security vulnerabilities with it. However, every time I allowed it to update it would mess with my system configuration and add some of its bloatware components to the system startup procedures which I'd then remove, along with the unwanted desktop icon and unwanted start menu icon. Parasite operating system sounds about right. When I think it took over 100 MB with all its bits and pieces and the Sumatra PDF reader was a 4 MB download it puts things into perspective.

I've not used this one, I use either Evince or Okular, of which, Okular on a gtk system is almost as bloated as Acrobat Reader, due to the fact it depends on the KDE runtime environment.--The only real saving grace is that is supports more file formats than Evince.

Over 100MB for all that Adobe guff?
Wow, that's completely out of control.

Just downloaded it to try - looks very good, and runs lightning fast.

I just uninstalled the latest version - 127MB. For a PDF reader.

I just use Foxit Reader or whatever is bundled with the particular distro I am running. I hate Adobe with a passion, Adobe Reader and Flash are nothing but bloated, insecure junkware.

Evince, which comes with Linux Mint by default, works perfectly for my needs.

I despise Flash.

? to anyone~~What, if any, alternatives exist to using Flash??~~with Windoze 7 or a linux distro(i use both)

I use Sumatra on my Win7 install; it does exactly what I expect it to and not a trifle more. It's great.

I also like evince and xpdf on Linux; evince is what comes with Lubuntu, and xpdf is generally what I use for Linux From Scratch builds.

slave: You might try GNASH, though when I tried compiling it on a previous LFS build I couldn't get it to work, and I have no idea as to how functional it is. It even has a Firefox plugin, IIRC.

I haven't used Adobe Reader in over 10 years. I just use OS X Preview, or Safari. Almost anything works better then Adobe Reader. PDF files are nice though.

I tried many alternative pdf readers. But i was forced to stay with Adobe's. I frequently find a new pdf which cannot be open because is a new version.

Latest versions of Firefox can open and read a document, but is common that the pdf file takes for ever to load, and sometimes it never ends. So I use GetRight to download it fast, and then I just use the bloated Adobe reader.

What I most hate from Adobe, is not the reader, but flash technology. It only takes some web pages to hear the fans run like an airplane turbine and cpu utilization go to the sky. I kill flash processes, but they start again and again. Even with flash block add ons for Firefox.

great tip .. the sumatra worked perfectly for me .. thanks!!

After reading this, it occurred to me:

One would be using Sumatra and Java at the same time.