Things are about to get tricky for anyone needing to use Adobe’s own PDF reader application on Linux, as the company has pulled the software from download.
As flagged by a Reddit user who visited the Adobe site to grab the app, Linux builds are no longer listed alongside other ‘supported’ operating systems.
It’s not know when, much less why, the Linux build was removed but reports first began to surface online in August.
Not that this is too surprising. The official Linux version had not been updated since May 2013, and even then continued to lag behind on version 9.5.x while Windows and Mac builds sped on to v11.x.
Who Cares, Right? Well…
Is this a great loss? You might think not. After all, Adobe Reader is an app with a tarnished reputation. Slow, resource intensive and bloated. Native PDF reading apps like Evince and Okular provide first-class experience without the overhead.
Snark aside, the decision will impact some. Some government websites still provide official documents and applications that can only be completed or submitted using the official Adobe app.
Adobe is no stranger to giving penguins the brush off. The company stopped releasing official builds of Flash for Linux in 2012 (leaving it to Google to tend to), and excluded Tux-loving users from its cross-platform application runtime “Air” the year before.
All is not lost. While the links are no longer offered through the website the Debian installer remains accessible from the Adobe FTP server. Plan on using the old release? You do so at your own risk and without support from Adobe. Also note that these builds are likely contain unfixed vulnerabilities.