Google Makes Latest Chrome Build Open PDFs By Default 202
An anonymous reader writes "Google is changing the way its browser handles PDF files, starting with the Chrome Canary channel. Citing security concerns, the company wants Chrome to open PDF files by default, bypassing any third-party programs such as Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader."
Great (Score:5, Insightful)
Great. Another configuration change to manage on all our workstations.
The Chrome PDF viewer is shit. So is the Firefox one. They're fine for viewing most basic PDFs, but anything more involved (forms, interactive PDFs, portfolios, etc.) and they both just shit the bed.
How so very secure! (Score:4, Insightful)
And another example of some tools wanting to be the do-all where they weren't asked and don't belong.
Of course! (Score:1, Insightful)
Google don't want you to have options and they want to skim your PDFs for their data gathering business...
So much for Google Chrome.
"third-party programs"? (Score:5, Insightful)
bypassing any third-party programs such as Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader
Technically, Adobe Reader is the first-party program and Chrome is the third-party program for reading PDFs.
Re:Great (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Great (Score:0, Insightful)
Maybe PDFs are shit
When I set a default (Score:5, Insightful)
When I set a default for a file extension in the OS, I expect the browser to respect that setting. Both Firefox and Chrome are now "bad apples" in the desktop configuration arena. Shame on them both. I see no reason why their implementation would be any more secure than the applications I've already chosen.
Security Issues with Foxit? (Score:4, Insightful)
Obligatory Zawinski's Law (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Great (Score:3, Insightful)
Just give me a prompt to save/open/cancel any day. I miss the good old days.
Re:How so very secure! (Score:5, Insightful)
Back in reality, this will stop a large number of infections from occurring.
Re:How so very secure! (Score:3, Insightful)
However ISO 32000-1 is a standard.
Because a bunch of companies paid a fuckton to have it become a standard, yeah. Google up the history on that... a lot of money was handed out to get an ISO working group and get it stamped as a standard. It was bought and paid for by Adobe. So there's that.
There's also the fact that PDFs don't belong in a browser anyway. It's an outgrowth of PCL, a language for printing documents out of the 90s. It's not multimedia, and every attempt to make it web-friendly is a bandaid that opens large numbers of vulnerabilities up.
Don't put it in the browser. For the love of god don't put it in. Standard or no standard it's a shit technology.
Re:Great (Score:5, Insightful)
If a new feature is added by way of an update, it should prompt for its settings the first time it becomes relevant. So on the first click on a PDF the browser should prompt: "you can now view PDFs within the browser, enable / disbale this feature / let me try once and prompt me again." It shouldn't silently enable the feature and let the hapless user hunt in the settings for a way to disable it, that's just rude.
Re:Security Issues with Foxit? (Score:2, Insightful)
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/version_history.php [foxitsoftware.com]
Re:When I set a default (Score:5, Insightful)