Most common and uncommon installation method for Acrobat Reader
Hello, I am having an argument with a co-worker about how the Acrobat Reader is commonly installed on Linux Systems and like to have your input on this. Here is my point of view: Acrobat Reader comes on most purchasable Linux distribution installation media and can be installed in this case running the specific administration interface under root where it will be installed on a default file system location. Another common method is downloading from Adobe's Web site. Two options are possible: RPM and .tar.gz Most commonly, one would download the RPM for convenience reasons and then do a rpm -i ... under root unless the browser pops up a default installer dialog. When the .tar.gz version is selected, one would extract the archive and then run under root the ./INSTALL choosing the default selections offered there. As an exception, one would choose a non-default location ( under /opt or /usr/local), maybe to run two versions parallel and then maybe link from /usr/bin/acroread.new to the new install location. Maybe, in a non-standard way, for development purposes, one would install under a user's home directory. My guess is that it's much less than 5 % of all Linux installations of Acrobat Reader possibly doing this. Now, my co-worker proclaims that this (under a user's home directory) is the common method to install Acrobat Reader under Linux and this opinion is percolated up the management hierarchy. I don't even want to start speculating for the underlying reasons here. I appreciate your comments on this. Maybe I am off, who knows? Thank you, Samartha ``
On Monday 18 July 2005 09:05, Samartha wrote:
Hello,
I am having an argument with a co-worker about how the Acrobat Reader is commonly installed on Linux Systems and like to have your input on this.
Here is my point of view:
Acrobat Reader comes on most purchasable Linux distribution installation media and can be installed in this case running the specific administration interface under root where it will be installed on a default file system location.
Another common method is downloading from Adobe's Web site.
Two options are possible: RPM and .tar.gz
Most commonly, one would download the RPM for convenience reasons and then do a rpm -i ... under root unless the browser pops up a default installer dialog.
When the .tar.gz version is selected, one would extract the archive and then run under root the ./INSTALL choosing the default selections offered there.
As an exception, one would choose a non-default location ( under /opt or /usr/local), maybe to run two versions parallel and then maybe link from /usr/bin/acroread.new to the new install location.
Maybe, in a non-standard way, for development purposes, one would install under a user's home directory.
My guess is that it's much less than 5 % of all Linux installations of Acrobat Reader possibly doing this.
Now, my co-worker proclaims that this (under a user's home directory) is the common method to install Acrobat Reader under Linux and this opinion is percolated up the management hierarchy.
I don't even want to start speculating for the underlying reasons here.
I appreciate your comments on this. Maybe I am off, who knows?
Thank you,
Samartha
Hi Samartha, Well, I can't speak for every distro, but generally Acrobat Reader comes bundled with the distro you purchase (or download) as you say. Yes, you can download Acrobat Reader from the Adobe web site, but I would expect that for most people they just use the version that shipped with their Linux distribution of choice. I did download and run the RPM for Acrobat Reader v7.0, and it does place files in my /home directory, but they appear to be primarily configuration data and the like, just things specific to the user. Jesse
On 18/07/05, Samartha <user332suseen@samartha.net> wrote:
Hello,
I am having an argument with a co-worker about how the Acrobat Reader is commonly installed on Linux Systems and like to have your input on this.
Here is my point of view:
Acrobat Reader comes on most purchasable Linux distribution installation media and can be installed in this case running the specific administration interface under root where it will be installed on a default file system location.
Another common method is downloading from Adobe's Web site.
Two options are possible: RPM and .tar.gz
Most commonly, one would download the RPM for convenience reasons and then do a rpm -i ... under root unless the browser pops up a default installer dialog.
When the .tar.gz version is selected, one would extract the archive and then run under root the ./INSTALL choosing the default selections offered there.
As an exception, one would choose a non-default location ( under /opt or /usr/local), maybe to run two versions parallel and then maybe link from /usr/bin/acroread.new to the new install location.
Maybe, in a non-standard way, for development purposes, one would install under a user's home directory.
My guess is that it's much less than 5 % of all Linux installations of Acrobat Reader possibly doing this.
Now, my co-worker proclaims that this (under a user's home directory) is the common method to install Acrobat Reader under Linux and this opinion is percolated up the management hierarchy.
I don't even want to start speculating for the underlying reasons here.
I appreciate your comments on this. Maybe I am off, who knows?
Thank you,
Samartha
Hmmm, difficult one to answer really. The thing is, every Linux distro tends to install into a different place. Whether it's a deb file or an RPM or one of the other ready made packages they'll be put where the distro's developers decided them to go. So, by installing yourself you are in charge. There isn't truly a right or wrong place I don't think. I would imagine that there are silly or awkward places where you would not really want to install to. -- Take care. Kevan Farmer 34 Hill Street Cheslyn Hay Staffordshire WS6 7HR
Kevanf1 wrote:
Hmmm, difficult one to answer really. The thing is, every Linux distro tends to install into a different place. Whether it's a deb file or an RPM or one of the other ready made packages they'll be put where the distro's developers decided them to go. So, by installing yourself you are in charge. There isn't truly a right or wrong place I don't think. I would imagine that there are silly or awkward places where you would not really want to install to.
/dev/null ;-)
On Mon, 2005-07-18 at 07:05 -0600, Samartha wrote:
Hello,
<snip>
Now, my co-worker proclaims that this (under a user's home directory) is the common method to install Acrobat Reader under Linux and this opinion is percolated up the management hierarchy.
I don't even want to start speculating for the underlying reasons here.
I appreciate your comments on this. Maybe I am off, who knows?
The -most- common installation location is where the distribution version puts it, which happens -not- to be a users home directory. On SuSE 9.3 is happens to be installed in /usr/X11R6/lib/Acrobat7. If you download directly from Adobe it will install in /usr/local/Adobe. This is for version 7 of Acrobat Reader. -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998 "The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge
Hello, Normally you put this type of binaries somewhere where everybody can access it, ie run the program. Putting it in a users home directory other users are not able to run the program except if the user sets the permissions like that. Furthermore if every user install it under his own home it takes much more place, in Acrobat's case user # X ~ 100 MB. If there are several users on the same machine it is a lot of space. I would only install it in home if I had not root privileges or wanted to hack. Cheers, IG _______________________________________________________________________ [freemail] extra 1GB-os postafiókkal, Önnek már van? http://freemail.hu
Samartha wrote:
Now, my co-worker proclaims that this (under a user's home directory) is the common method to install Acrobat Reader under Linux and this opinion is percolated up the management hierarchy.
I don't even want to start speculating for the underlying reasons here.
I appreciate your comments on this. Maybe I am off, who knows?
I have never seen it installed in a user's directory. I have worked with various distros and sources.
participants (6)
-
Gabor Istvan -
James Knott -
Jesse L. Purdom -
Ken Schneider -
Kevanf1 -
Samartha