Understanding Reader Updates

[Doe Johns]

As I understand, there are 3 "versions" of Acrobat Reader:

• Reader DC (cont. track, started in 2015),
• Reader 2015 (classic track)
• and Reader 2017 (classic track).

Tabbed UI was added in Reader DC (cont. track) version 15.009.20069, which was released Oct. 13 2015:

• ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/AcrobatDC/1500920069/ - to download
• Release Notes | Adobe Acrobat, Reader - to check the date

However if I download Reader 2015 (classic track) and manually update it to version 15.009.20069 (this update was released at the same date - Oct. 13 2015) - I will not see tabbed UI:

• ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/Acrobat2015/1500630033/ - to download Adobe Reader 2015 itself
• ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/Acrobat2015/1500630094/ - to download update
• If you want to check the date - see the link above

Why?

Does it mean that despite updates for 2015 classic track and releases of cont. track were released at the same dates (Apr. 6 2015, then July 14 2015, then Oct. 13 2015 and so on), these updates gives different changes?

[Test Screen Name · Accepted solution]

What you are describing is correct and exactly as designed and advertised. The Classic products work like old fashioned versions: all the new features come with the initial release. Businesses test, plan, train and deploy. Bugs are fixed, the product features, UI and usage don’t change.

Meanwhile, the Continuous track gets a constant diet of new features and UI changes which may not suit Enterprise users who have tested, trained etc.

So if if you want new features sooner, go Continuous. Tabs turned up in Classic 2017 so this is now largely irrelevant.

[Doe Johns]

Thank you very much, I marked your post as answer. However I should note that neither initial release of cont. track nor initial release of classic track (2015) doesn't have "Open tools pane for each document" feature, but this feature was added to both products with July 14 update. This is probably because the lack of this checkbox was treated by Adobe as a bug. So, this feature was actually a bugfix, and that's why it was added to both products.

(It could be find under Tools > Preferences > Documents, and was renamed to "Remember current state of tools pane" in later versions.)