After reading the comments about Web Buy, did a little research before upgrading. Web Buy was installed with version 4, so don’t let that stop you from upgrading; chances are you already have it. I looked at files & it appears that no data is sent anywhere unless & until you purchase a file that requires authentication. The form tells you what data is sent and to where before any personal info is sent. You have the option not to purchase that way. I’m not crazy about Acrobat either because the software required to create the .PDF is so expensive. Fortunately the vast majority of users will only need the reader. It took 70 seconds to download and nearly that long to open. Could not see any appreciable differences between this version and the previous, but used it only briefly. No errors.
Firstly, Adobe makes good software. I do dislike that they’re so picky about it though by charging so much money for the software and by not allowing you to save anything on trial versions. However, for those of you who are complaining about privacy issues and sending your computer’s information over the internet, I have a few things to say.... 1) before you start complaining, be sure you know what you’re talking about 2) your information only gets sent when you BUY something...otherwise what you bought won’t work right on your system 3) to the person who mentioned Congress --- get your head out of your behind!! The last thing we need in this country is another law prohibiting freedom. This government is becoming way too controlling these days, and each and every law you try to get passed just hinders the freedoms we are guaranteed by the Constitution. Information is part of the Freedom of Speech...Laws are meant to protect us all from the ’’bad seeds’’ in the world, not to infringe on the freedoms of the’’decent and honest’’ people. Promote any laws controlling the Internet, and you’re asking for a world of trouble and you’ll most certainly end up ruining what little freedom we do have left in this country! 4) PDF files are readable across all operating systems, which makes them the file format of choice for many, many online documents. 5) Web Buy is a method of controlling your access to protected documents -- so you can’t steal publications from their rightful owners without the correct keys and encryptions on your own computer system. It DOES not use its information to SPAM, that I’m aware of...as I have never had any problems with SPAM coming from Adobe or anyone associated with them. If YOU don’t know this, you’re an absolute IDIOT and shouldn’t even be using a computer or the internet anyway until you learn a few things about technology and its purpose. SUre, there are software programs whose sole purpose is to spy on you and your buying habits for marketing data collection---but that is NOT the purpose of Acrobat Reader and Web Buy. Web Buy was created as a service to those who write and publish information products and other sensitive data online...to protect them from fraud and theft...it’s sad that it’s necessary, but there’s too much dishonesty in the world today and this is necessary to ensure the survival of the millions of self-employed people in the world! 6) Those whose livelihood depends upon the research they do and the information they’ve got stashed in their brains, the ability to lock digital documents until purchased is an absolute necessity. If you don’t want to comply with the Web Buy technology, then I guess you just shouldn’t access any documents requiring a PDF reader. You guys can’t expect everybody to starve just because you want to get everything for free. Authors need to make a living just like you do. 7) Personally, I prefer to publish my online documents using Win/MSIE based software with locking capabilities because it looks much more professional.
Adobe has provided a free reader for their software that certainly steps out beyond the minimum most plug-in style programs offer. While loading is relatively slow, the pull down menus are easy to understand and the grab feature offers superior control for manipulating each page view, whether zoomed in close or out real far. This updated version of Adobe Acrobat Reader proves to be the best yet. It is more stable than previous versions and loads slightly faster (although still not very fast).