Reader 2020 End of Life and its replacement

[Evan286353845ms4]

I read this thread earlier today (Solved: Re: Adobe Reader 2024 classic track? - Adobe Community - 14880375) and I'm still a bit confused on what enterprise admins are expected to switch to once Acrobat Reader 2020 reaches end of life in November according to Products and technical support periods (it was June 2025, but appears to have been extended to November). There is no documentation that I've found on installing Acrobat Pro unified installer in this mysterious "reader mode" mentioned by your employees.

Currently, we deploy the 2020 class track using the standalone Reader installer found here - Acrobat 2020 Release (Classic Track base release) — Acrobat-Acrobat Reader Release Notes

Notice at the link above that there are separate MUI installers for both Acrobat and Reader...

There now appears to be a 2024 version of the classic track available. However, it seems you've dropped the year from the branding and now it's just called "Acrobat Classic", rather than the expected standard of "2024 Classic". Are these the same product? When I go to the "base" download page for this new version, there is no installer for Reader like on the 2020 downloads page. There is only an Acrobat installer. (Acrobat Classic Release (Classic base release) — Acrobat-Acrobat Reader Release Notes)

So, what are admins expected to do when replacing the soon to be end of life 2020 Classic Track of READER ONLY? We don't want Acrobat. We just want Reader. Are we expected to install Acrobat Pro anyway, but use a transform to disable all the sign-ins and cloud services and whatnot? Is there ever going to be a separate Reader installer under "Acrobat Classic" in the future? Is there going to be a totally new "2024 Classic Track" Reader installer release later as we get closer to November?

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

@Evan286353845ms4 

Adobe Acrobat Reader is free and available for volume distribution. A Distribution License Agreement is required for:

https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/pdf-reader/volume-distribution.html

You don't need to use a 5-year old version.

Jane

[jeffrey_3393]

This doesn't answer the question at all.  The classic track is meant to be the long-term support track, i.e., slower feature changes and more stability for enterprises.  The DC installer is not a suitable replacement, nor is it a "5-year-old version" like you claim, just because the branding included the year.

What is the actual, equivalent replacement?