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Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app

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Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app

#51
post #2

I have been using SumatraPDF on Windows for a long time. After opening a PDF file with it for the first time, I never went back to Adobe Reader. SumatraPDF is much faster, cleaner and less memory hungry.

Same experience here. It's one the first programs I install on every new system and have recommended it to friends for years. If any of the programmers involved read here: Thank you very much for all the hard work. It was worth it.

I use the PDF viewer built into Firefox and Edge. Am I missing out on something?

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry this may be an obvious thing but I am genuinely curious (and I don't live in the US): why would one be afraid of sharing those? It's not like they're your credit card details or something. What am I missing?

Because the same two numbers (routing and account) are used to deposit money AND debit money. So if you post your account numbers I can pull all your money out. Now you'll likely get it back if you file a fraud claim, but that's an extra Hassel, and your out finds until they give you a provisional credit.

well its the same in europe but its not that this is happening. the information (IBAN) you need to wire money via SEPA transfer can also be used to fake an automated SEPA debit system for subscriptions.

E V E R Y german company has their SEPA information on almost every piece of writing that leaves the company (in the footer) and thus far i think widespread misuse/fraud is not really a thing.

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app

#54
post #2

I have been using SumatraPDF on Windows for a long time. After opening a PDF file with it for the first time, I never went back to Adobe Reader. SumatraPDF is much faster, cleaner and less memory hungry.

tried it for some time, but quickly moved away since it had problems with rendering, comments and I need to highlight and annotate PDFs, also ocasionally I sign there documents with my transparent GIF signature, I don't think sumatra can do any of these

but I am adobe hater, didn't use their software for decades, now I am using for years Foxit reader

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app

#56

Sumatra 7mb Adobe Acrobat DC 2.4gb

In fairness, acrobat is a full fledged editor of a hacked file format. My Acrobat Reader DC install is sitting st 384 MB and Sumatra is at 18.7 MB; only a factor of 20 larger. :)

personally I use Foxit, I believe is smaller than AR while still very powerful

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry this may be an obvious thing but I am genuinely curious (and I don't live in the US): why would one be afraid of sharing those? It's not like they're your credit card details or something. What am I missing?

Because the same two numbers (routing and account) are used to deposit money AND debit money. So if you post your account numbers I can pull all your money out. Now you'll likely get it back if you file a fraud claim, but that's an extra Hassel, and your out finds until they give you a provisional credit.

You can pull from an account you don't own? This sounds completely insane.

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app

#58
post #27

Sumatra, alongside maybe Everything and IrfanView, is my favorite piece of software on windows. Incredible speed, great customizability and awesome compatibility. I really missed it when I made the switch to Linux, but not enough to consider installing WINE. Still, absolutely wonderful project deserving of the highest praise.

What's wrong with WINE?

Nothing wrong with it, I just think it's too much stuff to have on my system for a single program. And it introduces new kinds of vulnerabilities that I don't care for.

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same experience here. It's one the first programs I install on every new system and have recommended it to friends for years. If any of the programmers involved read here: Thank you very much for all the hard work. It was worth it.

I use the PDF viewer built into Firefox and Edge. Am I missing out on something?

It's very noticeably slower and computationally intensive compared to Sumatra (or Okular) with larger files like 1000-page long reference manuals as well as massive textbooks, both of which I frequently use. On web browsers, it generally takes a whole few seconds to load if you scroll quickly past a few pages.

I guess if you don't need to jump around in big pdfs, Firefox viewer is perfectly fine.

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app

#60

Sumatra, alongside maybe Everything and IrfanView, is my favorite piece of software on windows. Incredible speed, great customizability and awesome compatibility. I really missed it when I made the switch to Linux, but not enough to consider installing WINE. Still, absolutely wonderful project deserving of the highest praise.

There is a new open source PDF viewer called sioyek that has many of the features of sumatra and has experimental linux builds. https://sioyek.info/ (Disclaimer: I am the developer of sioyek)

What is the origin of the name? Sounds pretty hard to remember
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