Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

The Free Software Foundation agrees with this, too. That's why their #1 "High Priority Free Software Project(s)" is GNU PDF: http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/index_html/#g...

The problem isn't with PDF itself, but more PDF viewers/creators are such a super-vast-minority behind a single company's product that it is hard to imagine it as anything other than a bad/doomed technology. But hopefully GNU PDF can change that (and Gnash too).




The problem isn't with PDF itself, but more PDF viewers/creators are such a super-vast-minority behind a single company's product [...] But hopefully GNU PDF can change that

I don't see how. They are behind all the other free software PDF implementations. GhostScript even has a new renderer (mupdf) that is ahead of GNU PDF.


In the same way that Internet Explorer's 98% market share was problematic, and that the web is a better place with competition/awareness of browser choice. As it is now, few consumer know of options other than Reader. (And anybody who's had to use FoxIt for professional-PDF use knows it isn't a working solution for designers.)


FWIW, I think a majority of Mac users don't actually install Adobe Reader, since Preview handles them natively and fantastically for nearly all purposes.


Also evince runs on Windows, now. Works well.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: