Hi. I point to pdfreaders.org to friends who uses Windows. One problem that has happened more than once is that the first reader that mentions Windows-support, Evince, had their last release for Windows around 5 years ago. The situation for Okular appears to be similar. I believe this is counter-productive: Windows users will try Evince, will fail to get it to work because the release is too old and not supported anymore, and will go away. When I point them directly towards SumatraPDF they are happy (until they want the "Print-To-PDF" feature). Would you consider dropping the "Windows" links for PDF readers that doesn't have supported Windows downloads? I think this would be an overall improvement to the site.
Thanks, /Simon
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On 13/10/15 08:53, Simon Josefsson wrote:
Hi. I point to pdfreaders.org to friends who uses Windows. One problem that has happened more than once is that the first reader that mentions Windows-support, Evince, had their last release for Windows around 5 years ago. The situation for Okular appears to be similar. I believe this is counter-productive: Windows users will try Evince, will fail to get it to work because the release is too old and not supported anymore, and will go away. When I point them directly towards SumatraPDF they are happy (until they want the "Print-To-PDF" feature). Would you consider dropping the "Windows" links for PDF readers that doesn't have supported Windows downloads? I think this would be an overall improvement to the site.
It can also be troublesome if a user does get evince running and they open a PDF and see instructions telling them to use another PDF reader:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=623130
Somebody needs to find a way to detect such documents and display a more appropriate message.
* Simon Josefsson simon@josefsson.org [2015-10-13 08:53:18 +0200]:
When I point them directly towards SumatraPDF they are happy (until they want the "Print-To-PDF" feature). Would you consider dropping the "Windows" links for PDF readers that doesn't have supported Windows downloads? I think this would be an overall improvement to the site.
Thanks Simon. I contacted our web team and asked them to have a look at the statistics. When there are a lot of of people from Windows, we could hightlight SumatraPDF more.
Have others here tested Okular and Evince on Windows lately?
Regards, Matthias
El 15 de octubre de 2015 13:29:03 GMT+01:00, Matthias Kirschner mk@fsfe.org escribió:
- Simon Josefsson simon@josefsson.org [2015-10-13 08:53:18 +0200]:
When I point them directly towards SumatraPDF they are happy (until they want the "Print-To-PDF" feature). Would you consider dropping the "Windows" links for PDF readers that doesn't have supported Windows downloads? I think this would be an overall improvement to the site.
Thanks Simon. I contacted our web team and asked them to have a look at the statistics. When there are a lot of of people from Windows, we could hightlight SumatraPDF more.
Have others here tested Okular and Evince on Windows lately?
Not lately, 1-2 years ago 0kular had to be installed with a full suite of other kde packages. Evince worked fine for me. But once Sumatra fixed their zip non free bug I never looked back. It is quicker and has tabbed browsing.
On 10/15/2015 12:29 PM, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
Have others here tested Okular and Evince on Windows lately?
I am using Evince in my VirtualBox installation of Windows 7 when I need to use some specialist software. I am very happy with Evince.
Repentinus repentinus-VaTbYqLCNhc@public.gmane.org writes:
On 10/15/2015 12:29 PM, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
Have others here tested Okular and Evince on Windows lately?
I am using Evince in my VirtualBox installation of Windows 7 when I need to use some specialist software. I am very happy with Evince.
Are you using the 2.32 release from 2011?
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/evince/2.32/evince-2.32.0.145.msi
I recall having problems getting that installed on more than one system, but it might have to do with those systems. Also, there have been some security issues in Evince since then, although I'm not confident they affect the Windows build although it seems prudent to assume so without any other information.
/Simon
Hi all,
Am 15.10.2015 um 14:29 schrieb Matthias Kirschner:
- Simon Josefsson simon@josefsson.org [2015-10-13 08:53:18 +0200]:
When I point them directly towards SumatraPDF they are happy (until they want the "Print-To-PDF" feature). Would you consider dropping the "Windows" links for PDF readers that doesn't have supported Windows downloads? I think this would be an overall improvement to the site.
I second this. It's one of the first programs I install on Windows environments. Small and does what it's expected to do.
I tried evince once but that was long ago and I wouldn't recommend a software which hasn't been updated for more than four years.
About "print to pdf": Most people I know use PDFCreator for that. Just be sure not to install any malware with it. "I LOVE Windows"™.
Best wishes Michael
* Michael Kesper mkesper@schokokeks.org [2015-10-19 17:49:07 +0200]:
About "print to pdf": Most people I know use PDFCreator for that. Just be sure not to install any malware with it. "I LOVE Windows"™.
I recently heard PDFCreator's new versions are meanwhile non-free. Has anyone checked? And does anyone know why this change happened?
Regards, Matthias
Hi all
El 20/10/15 a las 09:39, Matthias Kirschner escribió:
- Michael Kesper mkesper@schokokeks.org [2015-10-19 17:49:07 +0200]:
About "print to pdf": Most people I know use PDFCreator for that. Just be sure not to install any malware with it. "I LOVE Windows"™.
I recently heard PDFCreator's new versions are meanwhile non-free. Has anyone checked? And does anyone know why this change happened?
This is my check:
* http://download.pdfforge.org/download/pdfcreator has the download builds and zips with the source code. The source code of latest version (2.1.2) does not include a LICENSE file.
* I have installed PDFCreator 2.1.2 in the computers of my institution. If I go to the Help > License, I find the text attached.
* So: almost free, but bundled with a non-free library: pdfcmon.dll: pdfforge Freeware License
* In addition to this, the installer of PDFCreator shows ads (and the installer is detected as malicious by our BitDefender Antivirus because of that), plus it tries to install "PDF Architect" along with PDF Creator (and PDF Architect is not free), so the "good install" is difficult for the average user (you have to tell them to select the "compact install", not the typical one nor the full installation...).
This situation has made me write in my TODO list to try to find an alternative to PDFCreator for the windows users in my institution (and all the windows users that ask me for that). But I don't know how will I find time to research about alternatives.
Ideally, most of the people should use LibreOffice here and then, save as PDF directly, but I still have lot of work until we get there, plus that PDF Creator is used by many people to save as PDF not only from office suite, but from any program.
If/when I find something better I will report to this list.
Best
# Laura Arjona Reina [22.10.2015 @ 14:36]:
El 20/10/15 a las 09:39, Matthias Kirschner escribió:
- Michael Kesper mkesper@schokokeks.org [2015-10-19 17:49:07 +0200]:
About "print to pdf": Most people I know use PDFCreator for that. Just be sure not to install any malware with it. "I LOVE Windows"™.
I recently heard PDFCreator's new versions are meanwhile non-free. Has anyone checked? And does anyone know why this change happened?
If/when I find something better I will report to this list.
I noted down "RedMon" and "CC Free PDF" as Free Software alternatives (links below). Unfortunately my virtual machines running a Windows OS are broken. Maybe someone else can test both applications and report if they are something we can recommend.
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/ http://www.cogniview.com/cc-free-pdf-converter
Best, Max
Il giorno gio 22 ott 2015 alle 20:11, Max Mehl max.mehl@fsfe.org ha scritto:
I noted down "RedMon" and "CC Free PDF" as Free Software alternatives (links below). Unfortunately my virtual machines running a Windows OS are broken. Maybe someone else can test both applications and report if they are something we can recommend.
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/ http://www.cogniview.com/cc-free-pdf-converter
I tried redmon but couldn't make it work (just a quick test) on my win7 VM.
This article is interesting: http://www.howtogeek.com/150891/how-to-print-to-pdf-in-windows-4-tips-and-tr...
It says that win10 has finally introduced a (general, not "application-specific") print to PDF feature.
CC free PDF is available only as source code, as far as I know. Unfortunately, I have no time or motivation to try a build in Windows.
On Friday 23. October 2015 10.43.36 bruni@fsfe.org wrote:
CC free PDF is available only as source code, as far as I know. Unfortunately, I have no time or motivation to try a build in Windows.
Perhaps drifting away from the specific topic slightly here, and with regard to the Free Software applications that most people use on Free Software operating systems, I did have some success using MXE to cross-build some work- related, Qt-based things a year or so ago:
However, I imagine that the challenge is slimming down the stack of dependencies. In particular, KDE-based software is notorious even in GNU/Linux distributions for wanting to bring in tens of other packages and libraries, maybe even wanting desktop integration.
Paul
Dear Laura,
thank you very much for your research.
Best Regards, Matthias
Hi all,
Just noticed this thread in my mailbox and I can attest to this situation, having spent about half an hour failing to get a foss pdf-reader working on Mac OS X.
I guess Vindaloo as listed has been merged with Apple preview (as it can display pdf files as well). I tried getting the options to work as listed, and using the options via AlternativeTo https://alternativeto.net/software/evince/?license=opensource&platform=m...
I got the best experience with Skim, which I could just install via homebrew (like apt-get to avoid using the App Store).
I'm not sure how to go about this: - Skim is BSD licensed, not listed, but from my experience the easiest (the only one) to install. - The other readers have seemed to have been abandoned, making it difficult to install (if anyone can succeed at all).
Is the webpage intended as a list of all options, as a list of the
most free tools, or as the easiest to get going, or even something else?
I'd be happy to add a listing for Skim if that is desirable, and even testdrive any Mac OS X software options.
Kind regards, Nico (NL)
* Nico Rikken nico.rikken@fsfe.org [2015-10-22 23:10:10 +0200]:
- Skim is BSD licensed, not listed, but from my experience the easiest
(the only one) to install.
Unfortunately that particular reader is non-free. While the UI is Free Software, last time we checked the renderer is a proprietary library and thus we decided not to list it on pdfreaders.org.
Regards, Matthias
Thanks for the clarification. Then I guess the easiest way to get a free pdf reader on Mac OS X is to install a free OS :P
Regards, Nico
On vr, 2015-10-23 at 08:49 +0200, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
- Nico Rikken nico.rikken@fsfe.org [2015-10-22 23:10:10 +0200]:
- Skim is BSD licensed, not listed, but from my experience the easiest
(the only one) to install.
Unfortunately that particular reader is non-free. While the UI is Free Software, last time we checked the renderer is a proprietary library and thus we decided not to list it on pdfreaders.org.
Regards, Matthias