4 ms·

What do you mean "have to"? Why not use one of the plenty ope source PDF viewers for Android?

by izacus 4y ago

AdmiralAsshat 4y ago
Because for a dead simple read-only PDF viewer, I trust Google's security team over random Play Store app to properly sandbox the PDF and not let it do shady shit to my phone upon opening. I'd trust Firefox more if they provided one, but in their absence, Google has the talent and the resources to do it properly.
- johnchristopher 4y ago
  Doesn't it mean the PDF file gets uploaded to Google drive then ?
  - homero 4y ago
    No there's a local viewer
  - joshuaissac 4y ago
    It does not. It is just a name. The file stays on the device and is not uploaded to Google Drive.
- rchaud 4y ago
  Samsung phones open PDFs in their Notes app. Besides that, I think most people just install Adobe Reader because it's what they know.
- camel-cdr 4y ago
  I'd expect googles pdf viewer to be comparable to others using well established libraries, such as poppler and mupdf.
eptcyka 4y ago
The ones on f-droid are each horrible in its own specific way - some don't support scrolling, some don't support pinch-to-zoom, some have UX from 2012, some don't allow you to save the file (how am I supposed to save a bank statement then?).
- orra 4y ago
  I quite like MuPDF. For ages its UI was small but dated; it looks less dated now. That said, I don't remember there being a save button...
_odey 4y ago
Currently, most of the PDF viewers from f-droid report they have a security vulnerability and the f-droid app recommends uninstalling them. For example: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.foobnix.pro.pdf.reader/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.foobnix.pro.pdf.reader/ No explanation on what the vulnerability is.
- ptx 4y ago
  According to the forum discussion [1] you can find the explanations (when they're not included in the app description) in the MaintainerNotes part of the metadata file, which is linked from the page that lists all vulnerable apps [2] and as "Build Metadata" on the page you linked. Not very obvious, but at least the info is available somewhere. [1] https://forum.f-droid.org/t/vulnerability-warnings-in-f-droid-app/20505 https://forum.f-droid.org/t/vulnerability-warnings-in-f-droi... [2] https://monitor.f-droid.org/anti-feature/KnownVuln https://monitor.f-droid.org/anti-feature/KnownVuln
camel-cdr 4y ago
No idea why people are complaining about the pdf readers in f-droid. The MuPDF android versions are great, and KOReader is the best ebook and pdf reader I've ever used. Maybe other people have other use cases, but the above work really well, and don't have known security vulnerabilities (since another commend complained about that).

What do you mean "have to"? Why not use one of the plenty ope source PDF viewers for Android?

by izacus 4y ago

What do you mean "have to"? Why not use one of the plenty ope source PDF viewers for Android?

Because for a dead simple read-only PDF viewer, I trust Google's security team over random Play Store app to properly sandbox the PDF and not let it do shady shit to my phone upon opening. I'd trust Firefox more if they provided one, but in their absence, Google has the talent and the resources to do it properly.

johnchristopher 4y ago
Doesn't it mean the PDF file gets uploaded to Google drive then ?
- homero 4y ago
  No there's a local viewer
- joshuaissac 4y ago
  It does not. It is just a name. The file stays on the device and is not uploaded to Google Drive.
rchaud 4y ago
Samsung phones open PDFs in their Notes app. Besides that, I think most people just install Adobe Reader because it's what they know.
camel-cdr 4y ago
I'd expect googles pdf viewer to be comparable to others using well established libraries, such as poppler and mupdf.

eptcyka 4y ago

The ones on f-droid are each horrible in its own specific way - some don't support scrolling, some don't support pinch-to-zoom, some have UX from 2012, some don't allow you to save the file (how am I supposed to save a bank statement then?).

orra 4y ago
I quite like MuPDF. For ages its UI was small but dated; it looks less dated now. That said, I don't remember there being a save button...

_odey 4y ago

Currently, most of the PDF viewers from f-droid report they have a security vulnerability and the f-droid app recommends uninstalling them. For example: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.foobnix.pro.pdf.reader/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.foobnix.pro.pdf.reader/ No explanation on what the vulnerability is.

ptx 4y ago
According to the forum discussion [1] you can find the explanations (when they're not included in the app description) in the MaintainerNotes part of the metadata file, which is linked from the page that lists all vulnerable apps [2] and as "Build Metadata" on the page you linked. Not very obvious, but at least the info is available somewhere. [1] https://forum.f-droid.org/t/vulnerability-warnings-in-f-droid-app/20505 https://forum.f-droid.org/t/vulnerability-warnings-in-f-droi... [2] https://monitor.f-droid.org/anti-feature/KnownVuln https://monitor.f-droid.org/anti-feature/KnownVuln

camel-cdr 4y ago

No idea why people are complaining about the pdf readers in f-droid. The MuPDF android versions are great, and KOReader is the best ebook and pdf reader I've ever used. Maybe other people have other use cases, but the above work really well, and don't have known security vulnerabilities (since another commend complained about that).