This isn’t exactly the article I had planned to write for this week’s Web 2.0 Weekly, but this is a very timely subject.  If you haven’t heard already, Adobe has announced another vulnerability with its Reader/Acrobat and Flash player products that can lead to crashes or exploits.  It looks like all platforms are affected by one or the other of the vulnerabilities (Acrobat and/or Flash), including Android-based systems.  Adobe further announced that they are aware of exploits in the wild attacking this Reader/Acrobat vulnerability.

Computer security is a big issue for any organization, but especially for a school because of the larger number of users and computers, and the need to protect students online.  Maintaining a high level of security means having a solid plan in place to make sure all computers are receiving the latest operating system and application updates in a timely fashion, which can be a never-ending chore (or seem like it).

I’ve actually lost track of the number of Adobe vulnerabilities that have have been uncovered this year, but it has been quite a few.  And Adobe has been taking a while to patch these issues, too.  Now, I’m not making any claims against Adobe, but, it has gotten to the point where I’m uncomfortable opening PDF files using Adobe Reader.  Which brings us to the subject of this article: alternatives to Adobe Reader.

The first question you might ask yourself is, “Why do I need any PDF reader on my computer?”  If you’re like me, you can easily answer this because you find yourself downloading and opening numerous PDFs throughout the day as you read articles, journals, lesson plans, and other documents.  Because the PDF format  creates document files that can be protected from alteration and displayed identically on almost any platform, it has become one of the de facto Web standard formats for exchanging documents, particularly those intend for print.

If you’re using an Apple OS X computer, you already have a great alternative to Adobe Reader/Acrobat on your computer.  Apple’s “Preview” application is located in the “Applications” folder and has a host of features beyond simply reading a PDF file.  It can open many common image files and provides useful tools to annotate PDFs as well.  I’ve found this especially helpful as I read documents for my graduate classes.  I can highlight text and make margin notes right in the PDF document.  Some of these features are limited based on how the PDF document was created and how (or if) it is protected.

On the Windows side of things, Foxit Software makes its Foxit Reader program freely available for use.  There are numerous free (and paid) add-ons to Foxit Reader that extend its functionality.  I’ve started using Foxit Reader on my Windows computers (and in virtual machines on my Macs) because it has a much smaller resource footprint than Adobe Reader, is faster to launch, and has, in my opinion, better security.

Foxit Reader can make annotations to a PDF file, similarly to Apple’s Preview.  It also allows you to fill out and save PDF-format forms electronically.  Foxit Reader runs on 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, and 7 (and the corresponding server versions) and needs a 1.3 GHz or faster processor, 128 MB of memory, and 52 MB of available hard drive space.  By way of comparison, the latest version of Adobe Reader for Windows requires a similar processor, but recommends 256 MB of memory and 335 MB of available hard drive space.

Foxit Reader is also available for desktop Linux computers.