Roll back Adobe Reader (and keep it from installing new versions)?

[Tharthan]

I mean, I always thought that the late 2010s colour change in the Adobe logo from scarlet to dark crimson was lame-looking (it reminded me of the "Great Hue Shift" c. 2006 that we saw everywhere [Coca-Cola seemed to get the ball rolling there]), but the new Adobe Reader is perhaps the ugliest version of Adobe Reader that I have ever seen. I'm going to reinstall the last version of Adobe Reader from before the underhaul.

Is there any way to prevent Adobe from nagging me about "updating" to versions that I don't want going forward?

EDIT: I can't seem to find the last version of Adobe Reader from before its *beuglying after a ten minute search, and I've already uninstalled it. Does anyone know where I can find an installer for such a version?

Or, alternatively, does anyone have a replacement for Adobe Reader? Is there a "LibreOffice" kind of counterpart for Adobe Reader (I don't use LibreOffice, as I have Microsoft Office Word & PowerPoint [and Excel too, probably. I don't remember because I can't recall a time when I have had to use it in the past half decade], but it is a great program suite)?

[loxodont]

Or, alternatively, does anyone have a replacement for Adobe Reader?...

When Adobe Reader became a performance monster, I first switched to PDF XChange Viewer, then PDF XChange Editor (free) by Tracker Software. Can't make a feature comparison now - and I don't know about your needs. It's just a fast reader with limited, but sufficient editing functions. GUI is a bit overloaded but OK for me. In recent versions they changed it to Win 10 style. Never missed Adobe Reader.
Oh, and it also installs as a plugin for Pale Moon, Basilisk,etc. which can be (de-)activated.

[josephd]

EDIT: I can't seem to find the last version of Adobe Reader ........ Does anyone know where I can find an installer for such a version?

You could always try one of the following versions of Adobe reader.

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/acrobat-reader/

[therube]

What version do you have?
What version do you want?
What OS?
External only, or do you want one that includes a browser plugin?

[Tharthan]

What version do you have?
What version do you want?
What OS?
External only, or do you want one that includes a browser plugin?

I think that the version that I uninstalled earlier was Acrobat Reader DC Version 2019.012.20034.

I want the most recent version that still has the traditional Adobe Reader look.

I use Windows 7.

I already have a PDF-reading browser add-on for Pale Moon.

[vannilla]

Do programs like Evince work on Windows?
Linux is full of full-featured PDF readers (there is at least one per desktop environment), so you could look for them and see if they are available for other OSs too.
If you are concerned about security, a good number of them (mostly those still being maintained) certainly focus on that more than Adobe does.
Some of them have nice-looking UI too.

Or, alternatively, does anyone have a replacement for Adobe Reader? Is there a "LibreOffice" kind of counterpart for Adobe Reader

What's a LibreOffice-like PDF reader supposed to be like? I can't really imagine it to be honest.

[therube]

Security reasons aside (as what I'm posting is no longer updated) ...

Adobe Reader 11.

You'll want:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/11.x/11.0.10
that is the (most recent) "base" program version, .exe

Then you'll want the most recent (last, as it is) update (patch, .msp) to that:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/11.x/11.0.23

Install 11.0.10 & after that completes, install the 11.0.23 patch.


Again, no updates, so you've got to assume that it is insecure.
(That's what I use .)
If that insecurity doesn't work for you, then you'll need to find something else.

Edit: See Sartorix's response below. It's better.


---


Adobe Reader -> Preferences ---> Updater, simply "Disable" (not that anything would ever come through again anyhow).

And I think Adobe does set up an "autoruns" for "Adobe Air" (or something like that, whatever that may be) & you can zap that with Autoruns. (Hmm. Or was it Adobe Flash that does that? Don't recall offhand.)

[Utnapishtim]

Adobe Reader XI is not supported anymore tho you can install it. I agree that Reader DC is uglier than sin. It reminds me of Windows 3.11

I use SumatraPDF instead, much faster, reads ebooks too and remembers where I was when I close the document

[Tohuwabohuix]

I think that the version that I uninstalled earlier was Acrobat Reader DC Version 2019.012.20034.

I want the most recent version that still has the traditional Adobe Reader look.

I use Windows 7.

I already have a PDF-reading browser add-on for Pale Moon.

Look at:
https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrob ... index.html for differences between "Continuous Track" and "Classic Track".

I guess you look for "Classic Track" versions. You can use "2015 Classic Track" or "2017 Classic Track" - both receives current security updates.

ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/wi ... 500630033/

ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/wi ... 700830051/

[Tharthan]

Look at:
https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrob ... index.html for differences between "Continuous Track" and "Classic Track".

I guess you look for "Classic Track" versions. You can use "2015 Classic Track" or "2017 Classic Track" - both receives current security updates.

Thanks. I'll check those out.

What's a LibreOffice-like PDF reader supposed to be like? I can't really imagine it to be honest.

Well, what I mean by that is this:

A free (in both the sense of freedom, as well as in regards to the cost) software alternative to Microsoft Office that is quite good and very well-made (although considering LibreOffice's origins, this is not too surprising) exists in LibreOffice.

Is there a program that has a similar relationship (a good, well-made, respectable free software alternative) to Adobe Reader as LibreOffice has to Microsoft Office?

[vannilla]

Is there a program that has a similar relationship (a good, well-made, respectable free software alternative) to Adobe Reader as LibreOffice has to Microsoft Office?

That's quite a roundabout way to say "is there a PDF reader licensed under a free license?"

I believe the readers that come with GNOME or KDE are good alternatives, but in thruth I have no idea if the are available for Windows.

[yami_]

Okular (the KDE document viewer) does support Windows, but AFAIK only trunk builds are provided. Evince (the GNOME document viewer) did support NT some time ago, it seems that that is no longer the case. Probably because it was very slow and resource intensive. The only not Acrobat-based Windows PDF viewer that I can recommend is the very minimalistic MuPDF viewer. It looks like this:

mupdf.png

Yes, it has no UI (if you ignore an about window and a help window).

[Utnapishtim]

FWIW SumatraPDF is based on the MuPDF engine

[Tharthan]

I believe the readers that come with GNOME or KDE are good alternatives, but in thruth I have no idea if the are available for Windows.

KDE is very interesting, because (from what I remember of my own GNU/Linux use a few years ago) it has some applications that are somewhat Windows-like (the applications themselves, I mean). I seem to remember an MS-Paint-like application that I used with Lubuntu that was of KDE origin.

I also remember, though, that there was a lot of junkware that was made to come with it (or, to be more charitable, a lot of additional KDE-related stuff that was required) that my Lubuntu didn't need at all.

I think that I will always prefer the Windows approach that was taken from about Windows 95 or so all of the way up until just a few years ago. It's more suitable to me.

Let me explain:

Japan took the idea of video game RPGs from the Western world through games like Wizardry, and from non-video-game RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, and created the lovely JRPG from it: a kind of RPG that (generally-speaking) has heart and soul to it, and that didn't feel cold and calculated in nature.

I mean, compare Dragon Quest VII to, say, Diablo 2. I for one can certainly play the former (although I don't play video games as much as I used to these days), but the latter is quite off-putting to me. I don't know if there is a better example that would assist in making my case, because I don't play Western RPGs at all really. I know that for a time Western RPGs were perhaps getting a slightly more pleasant feeling from my perspective, but I've seen mixed signs in regard to the approach that is being taken at the moment for Western RPGs.

...In any case, something similar can be said about Windows and GNU/Linux.

Richard Stallman, for as much as I admire his passion and some of the basic parts of his philosophy on software (only some), does not seem to be most pleasant of individuals where general interaction is concerned. He has done a ton (to say the least) for the free software movement and the like, and of course for GNU/Linux also (obviously). But he is first and foremost very much the classic programmer sort of person.

Windows has (up until relatively recently) taken care to have a friendly-looking (and feeling) operating system that doesn't make one get into the nuts and bolts of the operating system, whilst at the same time providing someone the ability to do go deeper in if they really wanted to (or needed to).

GNU/Linux, at least from my experience with Lubuntu, does not strike this balance very well. It is far too easy to break the whole thing if one is not careful, yet one needs superuser privileges to do what are (in my opinion) some relatively common things. At least, that was my experience. It was as if the hood of the automobile was always open; 24/7 (if you get my drift).

Anyway... different games (and genres) for different kinds of people. Different operating systems and programs for different kinds of people.

Different strokes for different folks.

And I'm not trying to knock GNU/Linux really, I'm just saying that it is not my cup of cream soda (if you catch my drift. I don't drink coffee, y'see ). I'm not the programming, mathematically-minded type (although there is a portion of myself that is like that, it is not the majority of me), and although I am into a number of contemporary pastimes like video games and some Web-related things, I generally use personal computers to get things done. Typically, I don't use computers for the sake of using computers.

We need GNU/Linux to exist. And not only for the sake of computer users' privacy, freedom, and control over their own installed operating systems (and, of course, for all of the things that Stallman fights for), but also for the sake of competition. Apple's outlook for Mac OSX is not remarkably different (from the perspective of the things that I care about, at least) from Microsoft's outlook for Windows. As such, we need a serious alternate to the two fairly similar (in the sense that I am referring to) options.

But unless I am forced to; so long as I, as some in the South of my country might say, "have my druthers", I won't be using GNU/Linux. Unfortunately, it is looking more and more likely that I will be forced to go with Mac OSX if I cannot get my hands on a good Windows 7 computer after this one croaks. I want to avoid that for a whole litany of reasons.

[vannilla]

Uhhhh, there was no need to write that much, especially since I wasn't suggesting to change the whole OS.
All I meant to say way "look into these alternatives to this program you are using."
Also, I know it's rude, but I only skimmed through it looking for keywords, so I don't really know what you are trying to say as a whole, just that you delved into discussing operating systems.

[Tharthan]

I know it's rude, but I only skimmed through it looking for keywords, so I don't really know what you are trying to say as a whole, just that you delved into discussing operating systems.

It's tough adequately condensing what one wants to say when one wants to say so much about something. Although, to be fair, I suppose that I didn't need to go into all of that in the first place anyway.

there was no need to write that much, especially since I wasn't suggesting to change the whole OS.

I know that you weren't. In retrospect, I guess that I just felt a desire to go into something akin to a monologue about that subject when you brought up KDE.

The initial point that I was trying to get at was that I liked KDE's style in (what I saw of its) basic applications, and that they reminded me a bit of the Windows-style. But, KDE has a lot of dependencies that were very much not desired by me as a Lubuntu user at the time.

All I meant to say way "look into these alternatives to this program you are using."

Yeah, and I really appreciate that, by the way. Helping others with alternatives to common programs has always been helpful, but today it's really needed because of some of the turbulence in the digital world today.

[Goodydino]

Why not get the Foxit PDF reader? It is a lot faster than Adobe.

[Tharthan]

I first switched to PDF XChange Viewer, then PDF XChange Editor (free) by Tracker Software.

It doesn't look too shabby, I agree, but its design looks very Microsoft Word 2010-esque, and I already have Microsoft Word 2010, so I would rather not have another program that visually looks extremely similar unless I were trying to replace Microsoft Word 2010 and really liked the look.

GUI is a bit overloaded but OK for me. In recent versions they changed it to Win 10 style.

Ope! I forgot that you said this. My bad.

The only not Acrobat-based Windows PDF viewer that I can recommend is the very minimalistic MuPDF viewer.

I don't want this as my main reader, but I think that I'll install MuPDF irrespective of whatever I choose as my main reader anyway simply as an Internet-Explorer-esque backup (if you get my drift) just in case something happens with my main reader.

I use SumatraPDF instead, much faster, reads ebooks too and remembers where I was when I close the document

Why not get the Foxit PDF reader? It is a lot faster than Adobe.

Ooh, this is tough. They both look quite good.

Does anyone have any idea which might be better?

[Tharthan]

The thread about whether SumatraPDF is dead or not has led me to choose Foxit PDF Reader.

Thank you everyone for helping me out. The original post (and point of this thread) is now solved.

[Utnapishtim]

The thread about whether SumatraPDF is dead or not has led me to choose Foxit PDF Reader.

Thank you everyone for helping me out. The original post (and point of this thread) is now solved.

Sorry for the late post - if you need forms and Javascript and a bunch of other advanced features in PDF documents I think Foxit is the best choice. If you don't, best choose something that doesn't support them, like Sumatra or Mu, because they're a security nightmare.