If you are looking for a fast, reliable, trouble-free, lightweight PDF viewer, and you stumble upon xPDF in your distro’s app listings — keep stumbling. Chances are it will not run on your Linux configuration. In theory, xPDF is a promising alternative to PDF viewers available for the Linux desktop such as Adobe PDF Viewer, Okular and Evince. It is a fast and light application that does not exhibit sluggish performance in handling bulky PDF files. Another nice attraction is its cross-platform roots.
I have used xpdf as my preferred PDF viewer for more than 10 years on Mandrake/Mandriva systems.
It does have problems on my new Mint system, however. I suspect that it's a problem with Mint (or, more likely Ubuntu on which Mint is based).
xPDF is a well established PDF reader that I've used for years. Did you happen to check the repo for your distribution and install from there? That would have taken care of the issues you had.
xPDF was around long before GNOME and KDE even existed. It uses a lot of X libraries that have been replaced by desktop specific libraries. Also distros don't necessarily put files in the same locations so it isn't actually a good ideal to download a binary for an application that wasn't built for your specific distro. The exception would be if the application contained the specific libraries included in some manner.
For those looking to try xPDF find a compiled version for your distro and you'll save yourself some hassle. If not be prepared to compile from the source package. Either way its worth the effort.
Why are you writing about xPDF as if it is something brand new? It's been around for well over 15 years.
newbie hint #1: "freeware" is an objectionable term to many in the Free Software and/or Open Source communities. Especially when used to describe incorrectly Free Software under the GPL.
newbie hint #2: the leading "x" on a project name is usually a telltale sign that it was first developed for X11/posiX/uniX/LinuX and is *not* a port from windows
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When It Comes to Installation, xPDF Has a Hex on It
Posted by: Jack M. Germain April 24, 2013 05:00 AMIf you are looking for a fast, reliable, trouble-free, lightweight PDF viewer, and you stumble upon xPDF in your distro’s app listings — keep stumbling. Chances are it will not run on your Linux configuration. In theory, xPDF is a promising alternative to PDF viewers available for the Linux desktop such as Adobe PDF Viewer, Okular and Evince. It is a fast and light application that does not exhibit sluggish performance in handling bulky PDF files. Another nice attraction is its cross-platform roots.
It does have problems on my new Mint system, however. I suspect that it's a problem with Mint (or, more likely Ubuntu on which Mint is based).
xPDF was around long before GNOME and KDE even existed. It uses a lot of X libraries that have been replaced by desktop specific libraries. Also distros don't necessarily put files in the same locations so it isn't actually a good ideal to download a binary for an application that wasn't built for your specific distro. The exception would be if the application contained the specific libraries included in some manner.
For those looking to try xPDF find a compiled version for your distro and you'll save yourself some hassle. If not be prepared to compile from the source package. Either way its worth the effort.
newbie hint #1: "freeware" is an objectionable term to many in the Free Software and/or Open Source communities. Especially when used to describe incorrectly Free Software under the GPL.
newbie hint #2: the leading "x" on a project name is usually a telltale sign that it was first developed for X11/posiX/uniX/LinuX and is *not* a port from windows