[SunRay-Users] PDF issues on x86

[Alexander Koponen]

On Thu, 15 Nov 2007, Robert Prendergast wrote:

> I know that Adobe seems to refuse to compile an x86 version of Reader,
> but I was wondering if anyone has successfully found any better
> alternatives.
>
> Any help is appreciated.

I know this will sound controversial to some... but - this is one of the 
main reasons we run Sun Ray Linux (inspite it's problems).

However I doubt this will help you today.
(Aren't we all tired of: "Hi, I have problems with this software" - "Run 
something else!" (instead of giving help))

--

You could:

1. Run evince

2. Run BrandZ (or another virtualization software) with Linux and then 
make acroread be an alias for "ssh -X linuxmachine acroread" - This was 
the suggestion by SUN's representative when he came out to look at our 
system.

3. Have a dedicated Linuxbox that does the same as above but without 
virtualization.

We were really near to run with option 3 ourselves (since we bought 
SUN-AMD machines cause the UltraSPARC ones were 4 times as expensive) but 
just a week before deployment SRSS 4.0 early access release came and just 
worked - so we ran with that.

--

Opinion:
(skip this part and you'll be less likely to be bitter like me)

I think some fail to realize how important acroread are to some unix 
users. The real reason why acroread ain't available for solaris x86 still 
eludes me - but if I were in power I would pay anything to get it. (I 
would also pay anything for Adobe Acrobat for Unix/Linux - but I've 
concluded (since I met Adobe last time) that this will never ever happen).


  -- Alexander

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alexander Koponen                                   System Administrator
Institut Mittag-Leffler                           phone: +46 8 622 05 75
Auravagen 17                                        fax: +46 8 622 05 89
SE-182 60 DJURSHOLM                            koponen at mittag-leffler.se
SWEDEN                                     http://www.mittag-leffler.se/