PDF’s…they’re everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great format and I love to use it. You can share, you can secure, you don’t have to worry about the recipient editing it (as 80% or more users only have viewers) and most of the time WYSIWYG with a PDF – i.e. the recipient doesn’t need your fancy font collection to view it in the way you meant for them to view it. The main drawback to it – PDF usually is powered by or is synonymous with Adobe. This brings me to my point. Adobe’s install and update process/procedure.
First off, let’s look at Acrobat reader since 9.0. The first installer of 9.0 not only put an icon on my desktop for Acrobat Reader, but also for Acrobat.com. The Acrobat.com icon/shortcut disappeared with the 9.1 release, but the desktop icon still remained. That icon alone is the bug bear of my life and today Adobe, yep, I’m on my soap box.
EVERY other installer in the world (or ok, 99% of them) have a tick box saying “add a desktop shortcut”. Why can’t you give us that option? Then not only to add insult to injury, I install Acrobat Reader and it has to be updated…Interestingly enough, security experts estimate Acrobat is going to be one of the largest attacked pieces of software in 2010 (more so than Microsoft technologies)…Here’s the quote:
Based on the current trends, we expect that in 2010 Adobe product exploitation is likely to surpass that of Microsoft Office applications in the number of desktop PCs being attacked
which means more updates now than ever. Any ways, back to the point. If it is one of the most attacked pieces of software in 2010, that means even more updates than we have already, and with each update, guess what…That bloody desktop icon reappears. WHY!?!? Well, Adobe, your silly little icon antics has driven me away and now I’m using another utility – FoxIt Reader – which happens to do all of the main jobs your software does, is less of bloatware and guess what, they let me choose if I want a desktop icon or not.
You can learn a lot from your competition (by the way, I unticked it before I clicked Next).
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