Why doesn't Windows include native PDF reader support?

http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001943.html

by wglb • 16 years ago

36 46 16 years ago

f-secure.com

p858snake2• 16 years ago

Didn't adobe have the rights for PDF till recently when they made it open source?

jws• 16 years ago

PDF became an open standard in 2008, but before that the format was still well specified and openly published.

p858snake2• 16 years ago

It may of been well known, but anyone that tried to use it would of had to abibe by the license owner's wishes. Which according to other comments was Adobe not wanting it included which meant they couldn't without a lawsuit being introduced.

RyanMcGreal3• 16 years ago

Foxit Reader?

bmj• 16 years ago

That's not the point--Mac _natively_ can render a PDF. You have to download a separate reader on a Windows machine.

RyanMcGreal3• 16 years ago

Consider:

"Heck, you don't even need to build it into the OS. Just make it an optional download such as your Save As PDF add-in for Office."

And:

"Your customers are tired of the exploits and the complications that so many of today's PDF readers include."

The authors are asking Microsoft to write an application that reads PDFs and isn't Adobe Reader. My point is that such an application already exists, is free to download and use, and is both faster and more secure than Adobe's reader.

a2tech• 16 years ago

Because Adobe pitches a fit about anything MS does to make working with PDF's free. You may not be aware of this but MS Office 2003 was supposed to have the ability to save to PDF builtin-but Adobe threw a huge hissy fit about MS cutting into their markets so MS took it out (there has been an add-on available as a download since it was released-but Adobe insisted the functionality not be included by default)

blasdel2• 16 years ago

They make an insane amount of money from the way that enterprises spend hundreds of dollars on Acrobat Professional licenses for every single computer. Sometimes they wise up and implement a baroque license management server where they only have to pay for a fraction of the licenses, but it still costs an insane amount of money.

When it gets used, it's almost exclusively for "Print to PDF". Power Users will use it to combine PDFs, and maybe do some shitty doodling. Occasionally the awful PDF forms functionality gets used, but they usually learn their lesson (easy to make one worse than an MS Access app!)

It's the calf to Microsoft's Office cash cow.

alanh2• 16 years ago

Wow. I’m not saying anything here, but it's interesting Print to PDF is such a big draw, when OS X's print dialog has included an option to save to PDF (or preview as PDF, or email as PDF, or import to X where X is Evernote, Yojimbo, etc.) for years

omaranto• 16 years ago

I've been using GNU/Linux for so long, I didn't realize until recently that Windows doesn't come with a virtual PDF printer. After a little searching I told some Windows using friends to install doPDF and they seem happy with it.

TechStuff• 16 years ago

+1 to this comment.

PrimoPDF is another good alternative for enterprise users who just need print to PDF.

nitrogen2• 16 years ago

PDFCreator? Ghostscript? What's wrong with corporations? (I guess that's why startups can be so successful)

brfox• 16 years ago

Here it is for Office 2007: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4d9...

brown• 16 years ago

Background: Microsoft, Adobe squabble over PDF [2006] http://news.cnet.com/2100-1012_3-6079320.html

bradgessler• 16 years ago

To summarize in two words: antitrust threat.

endtime• 16 years ago

Hmm, it seems to be built in to Office 2010.

bmalicoat2• 16 years ago

This is the main thing I dislike about Windows. In OS X I constantly use PDFs: print to PDF, export as PDF, quickly preview PDFs. In Windows those things either require 3rd party software and/or way more time to launch programs.

rbranson• 16 years ago

Not to mention Preview is super fast and light compared to bloatware Acrobat Reader.

DenisM2• 16 years ago

You make "third party software" sound complicated.

Here, free PDF reader with annotations, blazingly fast: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

weaksauce2• 16 years ago

In osx you get print to pdf, reorder pdf's, remove pages from pdf's, add pages to pdf's, etc... for free out of the box. In addition using skim (3rd party) you get an excellent, fast, opensource, notetaking pdf reader.

Not saying that foxit is not good, I use it all the time in windows, but it is not a full featured free pdf utility.

alanh2• 16 years ago

Only hackers and friends of hackers know about or use Foxit. Everyone should have a lightweight PDF reader, which is what makes the case for the OS handling it so strong.

bmalicoat2• 16 years ago

I use Foxit on my Windows partition (and love it) but it isn't quite as fast as highlighting a PDF and hitting spacebar in OS X to bring up Quick Look.

larsberg• 16 years ago

Isn't this the same industry that screamed bloody murder when MSFT decided to produce a free anti-virus for Windows 7?

caf2• 16 years ago

Microsoft produced a free antivirus for MSDOS 6.2, if memory serves.

chaosmachine• 16 years ago

I'd say they're probably trying to avoid another massive fine from the EU.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Microsoft_compet...

dwwoelfel• 16 years ago

Twelve years ago, Microsoft found itself in a courtroom opposite the US Department of Justice for including native internet browsing support. The conclusion of that case was that Microsoft is not allowed to add "products" to their operating system. I think a PDF reader constitutes a product.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft

jrockway• 16 years ago

And since then, they've included anti-virus software, a firewall, video players and codecs, and so on. I don't see how a PDF reader would be any different than Windows Media Player.

sliverstorm• 16 years ago

anti virus and firewalls are much closer to basic OS functionality- it's like self defense, but for software. That is much less objectionable than competing with Netscape was, which was the biggest software war of the time (that I know of)

Or, you can look at it from the POV of firewalls and AV is needed to fight flaws in their product. Should they be prohibited from defending their own product, even if it isn't a direct patch => resolution but a prevention?

caf2• 16 years ago

Or Zip files. Or backup/restore. Or picture viewers. Or...

dsspence• 16 years ago

Pdf technology is a native part of Apple's drawing system Quartz in OS X: http://www.prepressure.com/pdf/basics/osx_quartz .

That might explain its relative ubiquity.

pasbesoin• 16 years ago

The Skim PDF reader/annotator takes advantage of this (as I understand it). Not having a Mac, I haven't tried it, but when I read about it a year or two ago, I became quite envious.

http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/

joubert• 16 years ago

Microsoft has a competing format: XPS

white_eskimo• 16 years ago

Export to PDF functionality is native in Word 2010 Beta

jonsen• 16 years ago

Would it reduce the amount of .docs floating around the Word Wild Web?

barnaby• 16 years ago

Interesting that after all this time MS still haven't fixed this bug. I mean, I realize the patch is probably a business agreement rather than some code, but still.

Why doesn't Windows include native PDF reader support?

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