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

[Tom Chance]

Sam,

On 16 September 2010 11:37, Sam Tuke <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Thursday 16 September 2010 12:17:38 Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> > are any of the free PDF
> > readers at the level where they can substitute for this type of use?
>
> I don't have an answer yet for this particular case, but I think that its
> important not to compare all Free Software PDF readers to Acrobat Reader
> and
> turn it into a yardstick.
>
> Acrobat Reader has many problems of its own, including incompatibility with
> government forms which meet ISO standards in cases where FS readers
> succeed,
> in some cases. It also has a history of serious security vulnerabilities.
>
>
That may be the case, but if you are trying to fill in your tax forms the
lack of proper forms functionality matters more to you than ISO
compatibility and past security vulnerabilities, and most probably you will
never have heard of the latter anyway.

If you wanted to stimulate debate in the free software-friendly parts of the
IT industry about PDF standards and readers, you could take this line.

If your aim is to persuade government IT bods to change their web sites, you
need to be sure the web site you want them to point to serves their
citizens' basic needs.

Best wishes,
Tom


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