Participant

Question

WHY DOES ADOBE NEED SO MANY UPDATES?!!!!!

Forum|Forum|16 years ago
January 18, 2010
34 replies
174760 views

Why the heck does adobe reader need to many frigging updates every frigging week!!!

I swear, as a student i have enough active programs already, i don't need more porgrams to frigging restart my computer everyday just because your stable platform of adobe sucks. The worst part about adobe's updates, are the following:

1) it is huge UPDATES (30mbs+), if I were to download the adobe reader from your site right now, it is less than the update package. Hows does that even make sense.

2) It feels the need to be important and restart your computer every time it updates.

3) Why does Adobe Reader even need so many updates, if there is constant client problems, than I think you should release a stable client all at once.

I will not use this PDF reader ever again. There is better PDF readers out there, that don't waste people's time on updates.

p.s. mounting a complain on this site also sucks. Has anyone tried to click on the product feedback page? it is like they don't want you to complain about their products.

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T

Tranquil_Beekeeper15A8Author

Participant

See, I am still not the only one that feels like adobe dishes way too many updates.

Each update requires a successful restart of my computer as well. That is not what I want when I log into my computer in the morning.

Why does a PDF reader require updates is questionable to begin with. You don't see microsoft word asking for updates to patch itself.

However after reading this article:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/19/adobe-dominates-kaspersky-labs-top-ten-pc-vulnerabilites-list/

I can understand why adobe needs to updated so much. It takes over 50% of the list!!!

That must mean the product itself has a lot of defects to begin with.

If this keeps up, I personally will rather switch to other pdf alernatives, then this junk.

edit: I would also like to add, that almost all the adobe updates carrys a lot of bloatware for no reason. Seriously I'm updating, which is annoying to begin with, and now your trying to shove random installations down my throat, after wasting my time.

J

JustinCase_ftw

Participant

Because Adobe is using their Adobe Download Manager...

...as an advertisement platform. If you've watched it download then you'll notice that they're trying to get you to also download their "partner" products. In other words, Adobe makes money when you download something from one of these other providers. It's the same as that checkbox for the Google Toolbar on their download page. Presumably Google pays people, say, $1 if you install the toolbar for them.

So if a million people install the Google Toolbar from their routine of downloading/upgrading an Adobe product then that's a million dollars for them. And so the more versions they make in a year...

370H55V

Inspiring

JustinCase.ftw wrote:
Because Adobe is using their Adobe Download Manager...
...as an advertisement platform. If you've watched it download then you'll notice that they're trying to get you to also download their "partner" products. In other words, Adobe makes money when you download something from one of these other providers. It's the same as that checkbox for the Google Toolbar on their download page. Presumably Google pays people, say, $1 if you install the toolbar for them.
So if a million people install the Google Toolbar from their routine of downloading/upgrading an Adobe product then that's a million dollars for them. And so the more versions they make in a year...

Someone flunked Business 101.

Adobe DOESN'T make money when you download something from one of their partners, and Google/Yahoo/McAfee/Symantec are not Adobe Partners.

In case you're brand new to the world of computing and business... Server space and bandwidth COST MONEY. With billions of people worldwide using Reader and Flash Player *because nobody else makes anything better) Adobe has tens of thousands of downloads every hour for these two alone. Since they're FREE, that server space and all that traffic are costing plenty. In exchange for allowing an optional download of some other product, Adobe gets the cost reimbursed by the vendor to maintain the servers and update the updates, as well as pay for the traffic.

I know that doesn't say anything about why there are so many updates, but Adobe isn't the Lone Ranger on this. Every Wednesday, without fail, since April of last year when I installed Windows 7, I have had to download between 4mb and 180 mb of updates. There have been nearly twice the size in updates as Windows 7 Ultimate is in a DVD-DL. Not to mention the friggin' madatory restart nearly every single time. And it takes fifteen minutes to shut down as it "prepares" the updates, then another fifteen to "optimize" them on the reboot. It's a good time to go and make breakfast, read the paper, and take a shower.

I'll take a reader update that doesn't suck up an hour of my day... any day.

A

Anonymous

Okay, without realizing it you just validated several points this forum was making. Every week without fail microsoft has updates...does not help your cause. They are losing market share for this very reason and people are scrambling to other formats. My I-software (Apple) updates about once a month or less. Comparing a reader and a flash player to an operating system in terms of updates is insane..it is like saying I have to service my car once a week (usally for different components out of the hundreds the OS covers) so what is the big deal if I also have to service the radio EVERY SINGLE WEEK, as well?

Meanwhile, Microsoft is facing way more competition that it has seen since 1995 in terms of OS and application choices and you would be nuts to say that does not have anything to do with their attitude they own your pc just like adobe does and push updates every other week. Even Apple hypocritically has an issue with the way Adobe hi jacks their pc, grabbing gobs of process, memory, and priority as if Adobe was the reason you got a tablet. Since this is an Adobe forum I will not get started on what Quicktime does...

So the defenders of these updates say they are not due to:

Advertisement potential

Lucrative partner installations

Security concerns

Poor design

So what are they due to? If it is a money losing proposition then they should come up with a less frequent and less obtrusive way of updating it that does not involve having to opt out of partner installations and allow the downloads to take place at non peak times during the night when bandwidth is plentiful..then allow the installations to take place during idle time without impacting the end user, Right?

The problem is the bean counters will push for these right up until they start to lose market share and then it will be too late. I worked at a semiconductor company that put off a technology rollover in order to make more profit on the current chip because they enjoyed the lions share of business. As an engineer I stood up in front of over 400 people and told them what would happen since I was a tech transfer guy- they said since we are the leader in the business everyone would still be catching up in a year. One year later they were out of business...sure the stupid people kept buying the chips for a while until it became clear the cool smart people knew what was better. Adobe is going to get rolled the same way AOL was where you had to opt out of ads just to find out what the weather was going to be like for the day every time you logged on. Already, I see glimmers of 'uncoolness' settling around their 'sell out' ways. Soon they will enjoy less share for these components and before long these will be spun off or shut down while the bean counters move on to shut down another innovation.

I will bet you money there are apps people right now telling the accountants to hold off on the flamboyant updates because they are plugged in and hear the noise, but all the accountants see are the $$ signs and the $ signs can't be wrong right? Greedy idiots and their golden parachutes only thinking about the profits for the next dividend.

pwillener

Legend

There were three Reader updates this year:

2011-04-21: Adobe Reader 9.4.4
2011-03-21: Adobe Reader 9.4.3
2011-02-08: Adobe Reader 9.4.2

I really don't think that's too many...

L

LUIZ_DASILVA

Participant

The list you have there is somewhat less than complete. Though the published DOT releases are as you say, there are numerous updates that occur in between them. I routinely deletel the *.log files from my %temp% directory so I have lost information prior to 24 March, but since then my AdobeARM.log file shows updates on:

2011-03-24 22:01:45
2011-03-27 12:04:30
2011-04-01 19:33:54
2011-04-14 07:48:04
2011-04-17 10:46:42
2011-04-19 05:51:40
2011-04-21 14:27:00
2011-04-25 08:16:50
2011-04-28 18:03:12
2011-05-12 08:27:10

and, since the topic is Adobe updates, I'd include a comment about the numerous Flash updates as well. It almost seems I get prompted to update flash every time I boot up.

L

Leroy-514

Participant

I too am having problems with updates, once or twice each week. Definitely more than the three listed by the previous poster. As well I am caught in the spin cycle of web sites telling me to call 1-800 numbers, and then you phone only to be told to visit the web site. Neither the phone menu or the web site have any clear path to a resolution. Customer service with most companies is a misnomer, there is no such thing as service.

Anyway, does anyone have any idea how to stop this? One page on the Adobe site said I can go to "preferences" and stop updates, but I can't even figure out where to find Preferences. I'm not even savy enough to know if I can get by without Adobe, or what to replace it with.

A

Anonymous

I noticed the same issues...I could not find how to contact Adobe to ask why so many updates are required. I know that in addition to the frequent updates I experience that any infrequent Firefox update will also require an Adobe update. I also have a ton of licensed software that allow me to manipulate adobe products that rarely require any updates of any kind. Lately it has reached a peak and I wish they would tell me why I need to update. I feel like the minor program I sometimes use has taken the place of the OS and Browser in hijacking the time it needs with manipulating the space put aside for it on my hard drive. Do the adobe folks celebrate every update they put out with a kegger as incentive to put out even more or is the software so flawed the users need to update it weekly in order for it to function? Really getting sick of this...to put this into perspective. I am the kind of guy who can drive down the road from Florida to California with a car full of kids blowing kazoos when they arent complaining about the kid next to them saying or doing something to them every 3 minutes and it doesnt annoy me, I can spend 6 hours in the DMV and be sent home to get more documents 2 times in a row and it does not annoy me, I can sit through titanic with a row full of middle school girls crying in the row in front of me - no problem, I am the kind of guy who has never written a complaint about any piece of software in his entire life because he has never gotten to the point of wasting his time pounding out a description of the issue...Adobe's constant updates are starting to annoy me- and I am that guy! So I am pretty sure it is annoying others.

A

Anderson5FC9

Participant

Same problem 10 years later

Joanna Weidemann

Participant

I arrived here in search of why Adobe programs are updated so frequently. When I had the full suite it was a nightmare. Now even with three applications I feel like there's always an update around.

Are there dramatic new features or bug fixes being implemented that I'm somehow not noticing?

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