In my work, I have to read PDF files on an almost daily basis. From invoices, to manuals, eBooks and everything in between. Which is why I curse the day Adobe released Adobe Reader 8 to the public. This product, although free, is a classic example of software with a severe case of featuritis. For God’s sake, it’s supposed to be a PDF reader, not some programming IDE!
Everything about Adobe Reader reeks of bloatware stench:
- The massive 30MB+ download size
- The bundling of unrelated software
- The strenuously long loading time to open the simplest of PDF files
After a few days of using Adobe Reader 8, I decided enough was enough. Viewing PDFs (or rather, the stupid Adobe Reader splashscreen) shouldn’t take so much of my time. If Linux has a few dozen PDF readers, surely there are some lightweight free ones for Windows.
One of the first Google search result for free pdf reader was Foxit Reader. Read through the web site and noted that it is in fact free of charge and not bundled with spyware.
There is a paid version which has more goodies such as built in editor and other cool PDF manipulation functions, but I passed because I’m only interested in having a lightweight PDF reader to replace Adobe Reader.
After installing Foxit Reader, I immediately opened one of the bigger PDF files I had on my desktop; an 8.2MB user’s guide for a popular software. To my delight, the document opened almost immediately! I’m sold! Foxit Reader is now officially the PDF Reader of choice for me on Windows.
If you are a Windows user who happen to read lots of PDF files, whether for business or leisure, you just got to use Foxit Reader for all your PDF-reading needs.
Believe me, just by using Foxit Reader you’d be able to free up more time for more productive activities.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
You are suppose to uncheck the bundles software come with Acrobat 8. here is a quick and dirty link for you
http://ardownload.adobe.com/…/WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe
22MB.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Cool, that saved 8MB of the download size.
Not that I’ll ever go back to Adobe Reader.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Cool, I’ll only open pdf files if its really necessary because it’s slow. I’ll give foxit a try too – since it’s free. You sure there is no spyware or whatever ware that will harm/slow down my PC ya?
September 11th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Yes, Jewelle; I’m very sure.
I wouldn’t use spyware myself
January 29th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
[...] The huge majority of ebooks are in PDF format; therefore regardless of computing platform, there will definitely be an application on it that can read this format. For those on Windows, I highly recommend Foxit Reader. [...]
January 30th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Thanks. Now I have a new favorite PDF Reader!