Bundling with Foxit PDF Reader

Carl asks about Foxit PDF Reader
I love getting you great getting your newsletter. My question is this. I hate Adobe PDF Reader and I’m looking for an alternative. A friend of mine told me about  Foxit PDF Reader. I thought I’d check with you first. What can you tell me about it? Is it safe? Is it real freeware or is there some gimmick? Thanks for all you two do. Carl L.

Our answer
Thanks Carl. Like so many other “free” programs these days, Foxit is a bundle. It comes with the Ask Toolbar and while it gives you the option to “opt out” during installation, the developer knows most people don’t pay attention during installations — they just keep clicking “Next” until the program is installed. We didn’t test the entire installation procedure, we go to the screen touting what a great thing Ask Toolbar is. We ask this: Who uses Ask to search for anything anymore. Over 65% of all searches go through Google, 20% through Bing, and most of the rest through Yahoo. We don’t know anyone who actually uses Ask.com for anything, so who would want a toolbar from Ask.com anyway. After all Ask is brought to you by the same fine folks who bring you the malware/adware/hijacker bundle known as FunWebProducts — AKA “SmileyCentral” et. al.

As you can see from the install dialog above, not only does this author make Ask toolbar seem deliciously desirable (which it is not) he also wants Ask to hijack your browser’s start page too.

If the developer of Foxit doesn’t want to give Foxit away free anymore, that’s fine. He’s obviously spent hours and hours of his time developing it. But to advertise it as freeware, and attempt to earn money by bundling applications and/or services and making changes to a user’s default search provider and start page — that’s going a bit too far. For the fifty-cents per program (or whatever he gets from Ask/FunWebProducts) he’d be better off charging a small fee for Foxit and leaving the junk out of it. It’s either going to be freeware or it isn’t. There’s nothing wrong with charging a small fee for the program, putting Google ads on his highly-trafficked site, or asking for donations. It’s a little worrisome that he seems to be hoping that people will not read the installation dialogs and just keep clicking “Next” until the installation is complete.

While there are several free alternatives to Adobe Reader, none in our opinion are as good as Foxit Reader. Here are two others you can evaluate:

Cool PDF Reader

Sumatra PDF Reader (minimalistic)

As you’ll see if you test them, none of these have the functionality of Foxit.

Be careful when installing Foxit reader. Failure to do so may leave you with several unwanted changes to your computer – including a potentially unwanted search provider, Ask.com.

That being said, if you take your time and read each installation screen, and uncheck the things you don’t want or need, then you can install Foxit Reader and use it, even with the reduced functionality. It’s disappointing that this author continues to walk the fine line between freeware and ad-sponsored (adware) software by bundling unrelated applications with Foxit. And going even further by punishing users who opt-out of the changes and applications he bundles with Foxit, is tacky.

Even considering all that’s wrong with Foxit’s installation routine, Foxit remains the best free alternative to Adobe Reader.