Re: [Fsfe-uk] New FSFE Free PDF Readers Campaign

[Jon Grant]

On 16 September 2010 11:17, Ralph Corderoy <address@hidden> wrote:
[.]
> For filing of certain types of accounts online, and you have to do it
> online, www.hmrc.gov.uk recently provided a PDF that was a series of
> forms, with it doing calculations for you, and then it securely uploaded
> the results to HMRC using your login details when complete.  A real pain
> compared to the web interface it replaced since I had to install Adobe
> Reader, AdbeRdr9.3.2-1_i486linux_enu.bin;  are any of the free PDF
> readers at the level where they can substitute for this type of use?

I doubt it. This is the central problem with supporting someone else's
evolving standard. FSF has made all the same problems/mistakes
supporting Adobe Flash format with their Gnash. Shame they didn't give
HTML5, video, audio tags and Ogg Theora such importance. This is why
Flash and also Silverlight has done so well. FSF needs to take the
lead with vendor neutral standards rather than trying to reverse
engineer other companies formats.

Gnash still stop priority: http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/

Obviously Reversible GDB debugging is top priority, not.  Sorry for
being cynical, at least FSFE is more relevant.

I'm certain 10 years from now FSF focus will still be on things like
BIOS and Adobe's latest proprietary format, missing the web
completely, the biggest area of software they have no priorities
within, oops! Is there anyone more in tune with modern software who
could take over leadership of FSF?  ..Just to add, I am not entirely
serious with this question, but I do see the direction isn't very
successful since I have followed FSF (10yrs or so)

Cheers, Jon