Adobe Reader
What does Adobe Reader do? Displays PDF pages. How does it do it? With as much bloody-minded bureaucracy, delay and needless interaction as possible. Perhaps it's because we humans have been spoiled by books, where the gap between wanting to read something and reading it is as short as the time taken to lift the cover. But Reader's incessant updates (demanding you reset your computer -- why?), thundering great list of modules to load, and hour-glass-provoking pauses for thought have given Portable Document Format a reputation for being as welcome as a flatulent camel in the kitchen.
Which is a shame, because other lightweight PDF readers seem to manage perfectly well.
6%
1%
Do they realize it.
Do they realize that I no longer EVER use Outlook, Real Player, Reader, Itunes, Quicktime (not that it ever works properly anyhow), that I've "tamed the web" so that I can unclick Yahoo Toolbar install with my eyes shut, that no Symantec or Norton software ever gets near my machine, that most software updates are set to manual and the firewall stops any of the big ones "phoning home" without telling me.
Or that I've realised that my free browser, email, virus checker, firewall, image program, media player etc etc actually WORK BETTER than the paid for stuff.
Mabe they don't care, coz most computer users are idiots - well they like me will end up learning soon enough.
Good article, well put!