Verity Stob on Acrobat Reader

It pleases me to see I am not the only person that thinks that Adobe have lost the thread with recent versions of their PDF reader:

Recent versions of Adobe Reader (as it has now called) have shown distinct signs of megalomania, and I claim - rather boldly - that it has now put on its wetsuit and is paddling in Great White waters.

Here’s some circumstantial evidence:

• A splash screen lingers for so long that you get a chance to memorise that huge list of patents that Adobe claims to itself, and even perform some basic arithmetic on the first few numbers, by way of passing the time.  Have you spotted that sequence of primes yet?
• There is that groan of realisation that can be regularly heard everywhere on the internet, when an accidental click on a PDF in a search results page means that the user is now confined at Adobe’s pleasure for the next minute or so, until Acrobat chooses to give back control of the web browser.
• Have you ever made the mistake of letting the thing upgrade itself via Internet downloads?  I let version 7 have its way, and it rebooted the machine three or four times on the trot.  Honestly, one of the more gullible heuristic algorithms in the virus checker thought I had got an infection.

Enough. There is an alternative is called Foxit; it is time to remind Adobe that it is mortal too.

Wonderful stuff!  From here.  I must look up some more of Ms Stob's work.