Foxit Reader 5.4.2.0901

jhansman

Platinum Member
Feb 5, 2004
2,768
29
91
Foxit used to be a great lean and mean alternative to Adobe's reader, but it has become bloated and slow over the years. I like that it's tabbed, but otherwise it suffers from the "featureitis" so many utils have these days.
 

Magic Carpet

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2011
3,477
233
106
I use a vanilla (minus the services) Adobe 10 reader. Because it works and doesn't stress my Conroe too much.
 
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mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
1
0
I use a vanilla (minus the services) Adobe 10 reader. Because it works and doesn't stress my Conroe too much.

I use Adobe 10 because it has a security sandbox, and from what I've read, it's actually pretty effective. It seems plenty fast even on my slowest system (a Sempron), no complaints there. On a Pentium II, maybe it would be a performance problem :sneaky:

However, if/when I switch to Win8, I'll almost certainly go with the built-in Windows Reader. One less thing to update, and if I had to bet on whose PDF reader was going to be most secure, I'd guess Microsoft's over Adobe's, particularly since it's a Win8 Metro-type app by design.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
59,981
10,462
126
I like Evince. I'm always hesitant to recommend it cause the binary's huge(39MB), but it works well, and is libre software. For a tiny reader, I like Sumatra, but it doesn't always have the best rendering ime. I use that for my portable apps drive.
 

Magic Carpet

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2011
3,477
233
106
However, if/when I switch to Win8, I'll almost certainly go with the built-in Windows Reader. One less thing to update, and if I had to bet on whose PDF reader was going to be most secure, I'd guess Microsoft's over Adobe's, particularly since it's a Win8 Metro-type app by design.
Oh, they are going to have a built-in PDF reader too? Along with the AV and what not. Would useful to deploy everything out of the box, in fact.
 

evti

Member
Aug 7, 2012
39
0
0
I use Adobe 10 because it has a security sandbox, and from what I've read, it's actually pretty effective.

How important is that? I know PDFs have the potential to harm your computer, but I am not sure how much of a threat it is.
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
1
0
How important is that? I know PDFs have the potential to harm your computer, but I am not sure how much of a threat it is.

It's a serious threat. Before Adobe Reader 10 came out, Adobe was making (in)security headlines on a regular basis (example: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/28/adobe_reader_critical_vuln/ ). Some attacks used Adobe Reader content in third-party ad banners to launch an Adobe Flash exploit... talk about adding insult to injury :D PDF exploits are still a mainstay of exploit packs, along with Java.

blackhole_snippet.png

(from http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/archive-122011.html, in which they suggest ditching Java if possible)

So this is a case where stale information can steer people away from a product whose current version is actually really good. I know another program that suffers that problem.

Oh, they are going to have a built-in PDF reader too? Along with the AV and what not. Would useful to deploy everything out of the box, in fact.

Yeah, between the PDF reader and the antivirus (MSE, rebadged as Windows Defender), plus TWO versions of IE bundled into it, I can only speculate who'll sue them first :sneaky:
 
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