Adobe Acrobat 8 super bloatware @ 1.3G

[blueroomelectronics]

After rebuilding my laptop I installed the trial of version of Adobe Acrobat 8, what a monster at 1.3Gig installed ! It's supposed to be a PDF creator and viewer but what's in there that needs 1.3Gig of software? Microsoft streets and trips is only 1.2Gigs and that's a street map of North America!
Anyway I'm trying out Acrobat 8 reader (30Meg) and PDF Factory, for my manuals. I'll have to see what the quality looks like compared to Acrobat.

 

[ericgibbs]

hi Bill,

Have a peek at 'Foxit Reader'

**broken link removed**

 

[picasm]

For creating PDF files, you can use Open Office (free).

The good thing about it is that you just create your document text, include any photos, add drawing items etc then export it as a PDF.

It can automatically create PDF bookmarks using the document headings text and you can choose how much compression to apply to the photos in the document.

 

[mneary]

PrimoPDF can be installed as a virtual printer.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I have no problem with the Adobe 8 reader and the price is right (free)
It's the creator I'm not crazy about. Now I've used PDF factory and the files it creates are not up to par with Adobe (schematics are downsampled and blurry). I'll take a look at PrimoPDF thanks.

 

[Krumlink]

Word 2003 Has a PDF creator option, that I have never used (schools).

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Word 2003 Has a PDF creator option, that I have never used (schools).

Not in my version of Word 2003. If you install Adobe Acrobat it does.

 

[bienafv]

CutePDF

You could also try CutePDF Writer

https://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

 

[ThermalRunaway]

Bloatware is all the rage these days. Have you tried Windows Vista? It's basically Windows XP (which was itself very bloated) with about a 100 ton of extra bloat shoved on top.

And they call it an Operating System. Pah!

Brian

 

[denikar]

hi Bill,

Have a peek at 'Foxit Reader'

**broken link removed**

I second the vote for Foxit. Simple, effective, small.

 

[TekNoir]

For creating PDF files on a Windows computer, might I suggest PDFForge.org's PDFCreator? It is free, open source, has a small install footprint, and works with nearly any program.

I tend to like it better than CutePDF.

https://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator

 

[Torben]

Bloatware is all the rage these days. Have you tried Windows Vista? It's basically Windows XP (which was itself very bloated) with about a 100 ton of extra bloat shoved on top.

And they call it an Operating System. Pah!

Brian

It's basically Windows XP except it is slower and BSODs a lot more, at least for me (and this is with only 3 weeks use so far). Also the Ctrl-space keybinding has been stolen by the hard-to-disable language bar, which keeps intermittently reactivating itself even though I've cleared the keybinding and removed the Chinese language it was bound to. It keeps deciding that I should be typing in Chinese anyway (even with the language ostensibly removed) instead of selecting text in emacs.

Oh yeah. Copying large files over a network is also slow (not just slowish, but brutally, unbelievably, mind-buggeringly slow) and can crash explorer completely. Quick question for MS: what's the first thing many users want to do with a new machine? Maybe transfer photos/videos/music to the new box? Hmmmm?

I am about 2 days from going and blowing another couple of hundred on a new XP disc and wiping this Vista partition.


Torben

 

[Overclocked]

It's basically Windows XP except it is slower and BSODs a lot more, at least for me (and this is with only 3 weeks use so far). Also the Ctrl-space keybinding has been stolen by the hard-to-disable language bar, which keeps intermittently reactivating itself even though I've cleared the keybinding and removed the Chinese language it was bound to. It keeps deciding that I should be typing in Chinese anyway (even with the language ostensibly removed) instead of selecting text in emacs.

Oh yeah. Copying large files over a network is also slow (not just slowish, but brutally, unbelievably, mind-buggeringly slow) and can crash explorer completely. Quick question for MS: what's the first thing many users want to do with a new machine? Maybe transfer photos/videos/music to the new box? Hmmmm?

I am about 2 days from going and blowing another couple of hundred on a new XP disc and wiping this Vista partition.


Torben

FYI, its not called the BSOD anyway, its a Red Screen of Death.

2nd Vote for Open Office

1st Vote for you to move to Linux. Kubuntu is Calling you (eagle works on linux!)

 

[Torben]

FYI, its not called the BSOD anyway, its a Red Screen of Death.

Um, no. Why on earth would you call it red when it is quite clearly very blue? Perhaps you're referring to the red error screen in some early betas of Vista?

And I should note that it's not truly fair for me to fault Vista for the BSODs when they're more likely due to immature drivers, but drivers are still required for the OS to work, so I complain anyway.

2nd Vote for Open Office

For the rare instances when I need office software that's what I use.

1st Vote for you to move to Linux. Kubuntu is Calling you (eagle works on linux!)

Thanks for the vote but you're about 13 years late. Vista just came with the laptop. I've been revelling in how wonderful Gutsy is for a while now. Even with everything turned on it's smoother and more stable than Vista. And the Windows filesharing works properly, unlike on Vista. If forced to use Windows for something, it's XP all the way.

Don't really like KDE though, so no Kubuntu for me.


Torben

 

[Ambient]

foxit reader is much better, especially for laptops. You can load fixit 8 times before adobe even starts to load.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

If I could get MPLAB, the Junebug (PK2) working on Linux I'd buy an ASUS EEE to run it on.
**broken link removed**
Err this
**broken link removed**
...
**broken link removed**

 

[Hero999]

OpenOffice is good as it can read most MS Office documents with no trouble.

There are PDF print drivers around but you don't need them. All you need is any print driver that can print to post script files and GNU Ghost script. Set up the print driver in Windows with the ouput set to a file, then use GNU Ghost script to convert it to a PDF.

 

[Torben]

OpenOffice is good as it can read most MS Office documents with no trouble.

There are PDF print drivers around but you don't need them. All you need is any print driver that can print to post script files and GNU Ghost script. Set up the print driver in Windows with the ouput set to a file, then use GNU Ghost script to convert it to a PDF.

OpenOffice suggestion seconded--I've been creating nice PDFs for years just using OO's "Export as PDF" function. Free and good results.

I didn't have to mess around with ghostscript or anything like that though? OO just seems to come with this as a standard feature.


Torben

 

[Hero999]

That's true but Ghostscript us useful for other programs that don't supporty pdf export, for example it's useful for emailing people coppies of web pages and including all the graphical content.

 

[Torben]

That's true but Ghostscript us useful for other programs that don't supporty pdf export, for example it's useful for emailing people coppies of web pages and including all the graphical content.

True. In my situations though a link or a screenshot usually does the trick for that specific application.


Torben