It's a real disaster that Adobe Reader sucks so much. PDF is a wonderful document format - other readers open it in seconds and it works on everything (including Linux, OS X and most phones). But thanks to Adobe if you ever send a PDF file to a windows user you get a five minute rant about how much PDF sucks and can you send it as a wonderful, efficient docx instead :/
I should point out that the article is incorrect. Namely, PDF is a complete superset of PS. Furthermore, it is capable of supporting non-printer specific properties like digital signatures and even external files and animation, none of which are supported by PS. (And before you say that animation is useless, imagine using PDF for presentations). Try reading the PDF 1.6 standard sometime (its dry like all standards but it gives a demonstration of what PDF is capable of).
I'm not familiar with the new stuff in PDF/PS but I'd say it probably depends on the specific versions. At the very least anything that adheres to EPS has always been part of PDF.
Are there any linux tools to mark-up/comment-on PDFs? I'm often forced to use the windows version of Acrobat to make and view edits on a document, because I haven't found any linux tools that will even display comments (let alone edit them).
There is a lot of support for niche features (3D, etc) pushed into the base reader because it provides a significant business advantage to Adobe.
For example, they stand to benefit tremendously if a government agency decides to go with PDF as their document review format over Autodesk's DWF. The fact that the average consumer already has everything they need to use these solutions is a big bullet point in their favor.
They don't stand to lose much if some picky internet folk (not criticizing - I'm one too) decide to use a free alternative because Acrobat's too heavy.
What cracks me up is the ReadMe.html that is being installed next to the application. Do they have so little faith in their own PDF format that they decided to use an HTML file?
Do you know the whole story? PDF has not been created by users, but by a company.
Only now we have seen it changing into an ISO standard.
(Originally, Adobe only wanted to see it universally used to sell their PDF writers: please read for free, and please please pay for writing it.
Only that it didn't happen this way.)
