Adobe Systems developed the PDF file format which is now widely used as a standard for business files. But which reader should you use for reading PDF files ? Adobe Reader may be the original PDF reader but it doesn’t have to be the best..
Here are a few reasons why Adobe Reader Sucks….
1. Huge Download Size
Here is the screenshot of the Adobe Reader Download Page….
The download size of Adobe Reader is 45.11 MB which is quite a big download. It may seems as a small download to you, but downloading a reader which is 45MB ? It can’t even edit files ! I’m sure many people will forget to uncheck the free Mc-Afee download which can create one more headache.
2. Size on Disk
Here is the sreenshot of the application after installing on a PC….
This installation is of version 9.2 which took 208 MB on my hard disk. This is ridiculous ! More than 200 MB for a PDF reader ? It can’t even edit my PDF files. The newer versions eat up even more space.
3. Installer
Here is the new Adobe Reader installer…
Is this installer really good ? It downloads from the net as well as the downloaded package. This combination is not very pleasing if you ask me.
4. Installing and Uninstalling
Have you tried both installing and uninstalling Adobe Reader ? Its a complicated software that stores many registry values and takes a long time for installing and uninstalling. This can become a big headache, especially while updating.
5. Slower System Start
By default Adobe Reader starts its start-up app so that it loads part of the software when the system starts. This ensures that when you open Adobe Reader it will start up faster. But this ultimately slows down system start up time.
Most important reason
Adobe Reader is only a free PDF viewer. Its not a PDF editor. This means that you cannot edit any PDF files, neither make new ones. This I would say is the most horrible part. All these bad things in one PDF viewer.
Best Alternative to Adobe Reader
If you want a free PDF viewer as an alternative to Adobe Reader then use Foxit Reader which is a free PDF viewer now fully compatible with Windows 7. It also has its mobile version available now.
If you need to edit a few PDF files, instead of downloading and installing a software you could use PDF Escape which is a free online PDF editing solution.
For professional business I would suggest Nitro PDF which is a paid PDF program as a good alternative for Adobe Acrobat.
Solution to Adobe Systems
- Reduce the size of Adobe Reader
- Use an alternative installer which downloads from web only. This will indirectly reduce the download size
- Make Adobe Reader simpler
- Adobe Reader should not occupy too much space on the disk
- Upgrade the framework and simplify the design even more
Basically Adobe Reader has been getting ‘bigger’ and ‘better’. I like the ‘better’ part, but not the ‘bigger’ part. It has become a bit too big and heavy compared to the new features it added. If Adobe can limit the size but at the same time provide quality software it’ll be #1 in the market. But of course, Adobe is known for quality, not the size. Applications like Photoshop and Flash are known for their quality, but they occupy a lot of space on the disk.
Are there any more features about Adobe Reader which you hate ? Are there any more suggestions you could give to Adobe to improve this PDF reader ? Leave your comments….