[ale] Adobe stuff, security problems, alternatives

Tue Feb 26 23:42:58 EST 2013

Hi Scott,

I appreciate the info about Chrome.  I'm going to keep that in mind as 
an alternative.  I may also look into Okular.  I think my first 
alternative attempt will be Foxit, as suggested by Calvin H.  FF just 
started including a PDF reader in version 19.  However, I will not be 
using it either in Linux or Windows because it is an extreme CPU hog.  I 
opened that magazine PDF in it and began switching pages at about 2 per 
second.  It drove my CPU (dual core 2 GHz) up to 70% or more.  The CPU 
even stayed there after I closed the PDF tab.  I had to close down FF.  
I don't know why, but I think their reader is still a bit half-baked.  I 
tried the same experiment in my Mint 13 vm and the same thing happened.  
In that case, I have 70% of one CPU core and 1 GB of ram allocated to 
the vm.  In that case, it nearly locked up the vm.  I've tweaked the 
Firefox settings to not use the previewer but to use the document viewer 
in Mint (a version of Evince I think), and Adobe Reader plugin (for now) 
in Windows.  I tried opening the magazine file natively in Adobe Reader 
and cycling pages.  It drives the CPU to about 30%, but it goes back 
down when I stop paging.

Neither the FireFox previewer nor the Mint document viewer can handle 
those map layers.

Sincerely,

Ron

On 2/26/2013 7:36 PM, Scott Plante wrote:
> Both of those seem to open fine in Chrome, although I didn't see how 
> to turn off individual layers on the map. I tend to just open PDFs in 
> Chrome on Windows and Linux. My main complaint with Chrome's PDF 
> handling is sometimes it's not as easy to navigate large PDFs. On some 
> occasions, I'll turn to Okular on Linux for easier navigation. I will 
> very occasionally revert to Acrobat (/usr/bin/acroread) IF the PDF is 
> from a trusted source and I have trouble with one of the others. You 
> can have it on your system, just don't make it the default so when you 
> click on a PDF from some blog or random source it doesn't execute 
> automatically. At least that's what I do.
>
> Scott
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From: *"Ron Frazier (ALE)" <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com>
> *To: *"Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts" <ale at ale.org>
> *Sent: *Tuesday, February 26, 2013 4:37:37 PM
> *Subject: *[ale] Adobe stuff, security problems, alternatives
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm trying to get a handle on my Adobe stuff and want to avoid security
> problems as much as possible.  I have some questions.
>
> Re: Adobe Reader.  I'm considering just replacing it due to the security
> problems.  I need something cross platform so I can run in Windows or
> Linux.  I need something that's stable and powerful.  It needs to be
> able to properly display complex PDF's like those 20 MB PDF's of
> topographic maps that I was mentioning in my thread on barometric
> altimeters.  These particular PDF's have several layers of the map,
> which can be turned on and off.
>
> For example:
>
> http://ims.er.usgs.gov/gda_services/download?item_id=5247561&quad=Abbeville%20North&state=GA&grid=7.5X7.5&series=TNM%20GeoPDF
>
> My replacement program has to also be able to display print more
> conventional complex PDF's properly, such as those with hundreds of
> pages with lots of fonts and graphics and images, like a PDF of a 
> magazine.
>
> For example:
>
> http://www.computerpoweruser.com/DigitalIssues/ComputerPowerUser/CP____1303__/offline/download.pdf
>
> I don't want my PDF reader running any JavaScript or Java or
> multimedia.  I just want it to read documents.  What is the best cross
> platform alternative to Adobe Reader?
>
> Re: Adobe Flash.  I don't think there is any good alternative to Flash,
> and lots of websites need it.  On my Mint 13 VM, it has the Mint Flash
> Plugin 11.0.1.152.  However, the Adobe plugin in the repository is at
> version 11.2.202.270.  So, should I upgrade to the Adobe version and
> uninstall the Mint version?
>
> Any help is greatly appreciated.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
> -- 
>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very 
> quickly.)
>
> Ron Frazier
> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>
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-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com

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